Seoul National University jumped from 59th to 44th in the Times Higher Education’s 2013 world university ranking, joining the top 50 for the first time.

Four South Korean universities were among the 200 best institutes according to the annual report released on Tuesday. They were KAIST, which climbed 13 places to 56th, POSTECH at 60th, and Yonsei University at 190th.

The California Institute of Technology retained its top position for the third consecutive year. Harvard University remained in second place for the fourth year, sharing the spot with the University of Oxford of the U.K., while Stanford University dropped from joint second to fourth, the report showed.

East Asian universities made big strides in the prestigious league. The University of Tokyo took Asia’s No. 1 position and moved up four places to 23rd in the world. Five Japanese schools were listed among the top 200.

China had two colleges in the top 50, with Peking University at 45th and Tsinghua University at 50th.

“More Asian institutions are nipping at the heels of the best in the West, increasingly occupying world top 50 places and showing no signs of letting up,” Times Higher Education editor Phil Baty said.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings uses 13 separate performance indicators to examine a university’s strengths, including teaching, research and international outlook. The rankings are based on data from Thomson Reuters.

By Lee Hyun-jeong  (rene@heraldcorp.com)