The number of universities from the Chinese mainland that appeared on the world's top 100 increased from six last year to seven, said a world university ranking released on Wednesday.

Among them, Tsinghua University and Peking University were ranked 16th and 17th respectively while the other five were Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, University of Science and Technology of China and Nanjing University, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2023.

Although Western universities still dominate the top rankings, East Asia and the Middle East are gaining ground, THE's chief knowledge officer Phil Baty was cited by the Evening Standard newspaper as saying.

"I thinks this shift -- a global levelling up -- is good news for the world. A rising tide is lifting all boats," Baty said. "Access to top quality education is opening up globally and helping to diminish the brain drain from developing countries."

The THE World University Rankings 2023 included 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions, making it one of the largest and most diverse university rankings.

It evaluated five core aspects of a university's performance: teaching, research, citations, international outlook, and industry income.

This year's world top two are Oxford University and Harvard University in order, with University of Cambridge and Stanford University tied at third.