NTU has climbed seven spots to reach 10th position in the latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking of Asian universities, released this morning. This is its highest position since the rankings were first published in 2009. The exercise by London-based education and career consultancy QS lists Asia's top 300 universities based on criteria such as academic reputation, number of papers per faculty and ratio of students to faculty. NUS maintained second place, with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in top spot. SMU was not included in the ranking because it is considered a "specialist institution" focusing on social science and management, according to a QS spokesman.