The University of Hong Kong is the third most international university in the world this year, according to a report by Times Higher Education (THE). The University of Macau also scored highly, ranking sixth on the list.

The 2016 world’s most international universities ranking, released on Thursday, was calculated based on “each institution’s proportion of international staff, proportion of international students and proportion of research papers published with at least one co-author from another country”,  said THE’s website.

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The logo of HKU. Photo: StandNews.

Qatar University tops the list with the highest score on “international outlook”, although in terms of overall university ranking it was placed between No. 600 to No. 800 by THE.

The fourth Asian university in the top ten is the National University of Singapore, which is ninth.

Three other universities in Hong Kong are also in the top 200 – City University is 106th, Chinese University of Hong Kong is 108th and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is 112th. No mainland universities are on the list.

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Qatar University. Photo: Wikicommons.

Last year, HKU fell in several rankings made by international organisations, sparking concerns about possible decline in its performance.

In the 2015-2016 THE World University Rankings released in October, HKU was squeezed out of its place as No.3 in Asia by Peking University. Its place in the QS World University Rankings also dropped.

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Vivienne Zeng

Vivienne Zeng is a journalist from China with three years' experience covering Hong Kong and mainland affairs. She has an MA in journalism from the University of Hong Kong. Her work has been featured on outlets such as Al Jazeera+ and MSNBC.