QS University Rankings has released its list of this year's top institutions for higher education in Asia with surprising results.

The surprise is that a Hong Kong university is not the top Asian institution of higher education for this year, after five years of dominating the list, the latest QS University Rankings data showed.

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For 2014, the National University of Singapore has been named as the best university in Asia, followed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

China's Peking University dropped three places from last year's 5th to this year's 8th spot. 

Last year, the National University of Singapore was ranked second while Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology was in sixth spot.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which topped the list for three consecutive years - 2011, 2012 and 2013 - fell four notches to fifth spot this year. The University of Hong Kong, which was second in 2013, dropped to the third spot this year.

Analysts said Singapore and South Korea's massive investment in higher education have paid off.

The researchers who compiled the rankings said universities in Singapore and South Korea have invested strong in research and technological development, which contributed to the fast development of institutions of higher learnings in the said countries.

The compilers said Hong Kong universities dropped a few notches from the top due to their teacher-student ratio, which QS University Rankings described as weak.

Singapore invested around 2.1% of its gross domestic product to research and development while South Korea spent 3.7% of its GDP. Hong Kong, meanwhile, spent only 0.73% of its GDP, experts said. The QS University Rankings: Asia was launched in 2009 to rank universities in Asia independently. The Asia ranking uses the same criteria as the world rankings, only differing in weights. 

TagsQS University Rankings Asia, Top Universities in Asia, Top Asia Universities 2014, Top Schools in Asia