On October 6, 2011, the Times Higher Education Supplement (THE) published its 2011—2012 World Universities Rankings with 402 universities included. Wuhan University (WHU) is rated as one of the top 400 for the fist time. There are 10 Mainland Chinese universities included in the list.

California Institute of Technology of the USA tops the list this year. Harvard University loses its NO. 1 position for the first time, and takes the second place together with Stanford University. On the list, Beijing University and Tsinghua University of China respectively take the 49th and 71st places, and China University of Science & Technology ranks 192nd. There are a total of 4 Hong Kong universities ranked in the top 200 list, thus making Hong Kong the region with the biggest number of elite institutions in the world, while the University of Hong Kong ranked 34th.

The THE rankings were initiated in 2004, and the results have become an eye catcher in the world higher education sector. The rankings have been overhauled since 2010, with the old methodology replaced by a new, more rigorous approach and all data supplied by Thomson Reuters. Among the changes was a 30 percent weighting for a new “teaching and learning environment” measure, including the first teaching reputation score in the global ranking field.