LONDON - A total of 11 Chinese academic institutions have been included in the global top 100 of the fifteenth edition of the QS World University Rankings, which was recently released by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analyst firm.

Globally, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is named the world's leading university for a record-breaking seventh consecutive year in the rankings, while Asia's top university is the National University of Singapore (11th).

Tsinghua University is China's highest-ranked university in the list, rising from last year's 25th to 17th. Peking University rose by eight places to 30th globally.

"The rise of Chinese universities are mainly due to consistent commitment to establish 'Double Top University Plan', which is increasingly reflected in bigger research impact globally. The gap between top Chinese universities and that of western countries are getting smaller," said Christina Yan Zhang, China Director of QS Quacquarelli Symonds.

QS Quacquarelli Symonds has been compiling university rankings since 2004, when they published their inaugural QS World University Rankings.