London, June 1 (CNA) Six universities in Taiwan have been ranked among the 100 best universities in Asia, with National Taiwan University (NTU) placing in the 21st, the U.K.-based Times Higher Education (THE) announced on Wednesday.

Other top-ranked local universities included Taipei Medical University (29th), China Medical University (35th), Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (44th), Tsing Hua University (59th), and Asia University (78th).

Compared with last year's rankings, NTU dropped one spot, while the number of Taiwanese universities in the top 100 decreased from eight to six.

The top ten universities in Asia as ranked by the report were China's Tsinghua University, Peking University in China, the National University of Singapore, the University of Hong Kong, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Rounding out the top 20 were the University of Tokyo in Japan, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Seoul National University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

According to the report, the rankings covered 616 tertiary education institutions across 31 countries or regions in Asia, an increase of 12 percent from last year. A total of 40 universities in Taiwan were reviewed in this year's ranking.