Two universities in mainland China have been included in the list of the world's best universities this year based on the World Reputation Rankings 2014 published by Times Higher Education.

In Asia, only China, Hong Kong, and Japan have made it to the list, which is still dominated by Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

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From 35th place last year, Tsinghua University moved down to 36th place while Peking University climbed four places to 41st in this year's list.

Tsinghua University, a research university located in Beijing, has an overall reputation of 8.4 and a teaching and research reputation of 9 and 8.1, respectively.

Meanwhile, Peking University, a major Chinese research university located in Beijing, has an overall reputation of 7 and a teaching and research reputation of 7.2 and 6.9, respectively.

The University of Hong Kong, a public research university and the oldest tertiary institution in the city located in Pokfulam, Hong Kong, also landed on the 43rd place. The university has an overall reputation of 6.2 and a teaching and research reputation of 6.1 and 6.3, respectively.

Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings, said Chinese mainland has institutions among the very best.

Japan has, for this year, five universities included in the list. This year's list is still dominated by Harvard University, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and  University of Cambridge.

The United States continues to have the most number of institutions in the Top 100 of the list with 46, followed by the United Kingdom with 10 and Germany with 6.

Compiled by Thomson Reuters, the World Reputation Rankings 2014 are based on responses from about 10,500 leading peer-reviewed academics in 133 countries, who were asked to nominate up to 15 of the best institutions in their field of expertise.