For the first time, a Chinese university has cracked the top 20 in the prestigious World University Rankings from Times Higher Education.

The British publication released its annual rankings Wednesday, with Oxford University retaining the top spot from last year and Tsinghua University in Beijing rising to come in at joint 20th.

Peking University, China’s other elite school, was ranked 23rd, while five more institutions on the Chinese mainland — Fudan University in Shanghai; the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei; Zhejiang University in Hangzhou; and Shanghai Jiao Tong University — cracked the top 100.

All except the University of Science and Technology of China improved from their rankings the previous year.

Amid growing diplomatic tensions — China has been at odds with Australia, Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. on and off for the past couple of years — and the coronavirus pandemic, which have made going abroad for school less appealing if not impossible, Chinese authorities have been looking inward to improve the country’s standard of education, investing heavily in institutions of higher learning in accordance with the country’s 13th Five-Year Plan for Education.

In June, another respected university ranking index by British research firm Quacquarelli Symonds included the same six universities from the Chinese mainland among its top 100, with all but one improving from the previous year.

Editor: David Paulk.

(Header image: A structure on the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing, 2019. 500px/People Visual)