Jiao Tong University says it ranks in world's top 200

Shanghai Jiao Tong University is the first higher education institution in the city to enter the world's 200 best, according to a ranking to be released today by the university.

Chinese universities have taken 42 spots in the top 500 in the 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities, compared with 35 last year. Among the 42 universities, 28 are based on the Chinese mainland, five more than last year. Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Zhejiang University rank among the world's top 200.

China overtakes the United Kingdom, which has 38 universities in the Top 500, and becomes second in the world in terms of the number of universities joining the list. However, no Chinese university is ranked among the top 100 yet.

Chinese universities have performed well in categories such as the number of articles published in international journals, but still lags in terms of internationally recognized scholars and articles of world influence.

US universities are still the best in the world as the country has 53 in the top 100 list. The ranking puts Harvard University on the top of the list for the 10th time. It's followed by Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Cambridge, Caltech, Princeton, Columbia, Chicago and Oxford. UK has two universities in the top 10.

The annual ranking has been released by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University since 2003.