BEIJING, Feb 7 (INP): China upgrades its overall learning system to provide best possible education to students from Pakistan and other regional countries. In the ranking of more than 350 Asian universities, China claims almost one fifth of the entries. This is result of the continuous efforts of the Chinese government bringing its educational level at par with international standard, it was officially stated here on Wednesday. With almost 20,000 students from Pakistan studying in China last year, the South Asian country has risen from the ninth-largest source of China's international students to the fourth. According to statistics released by the Chinese Ministry of Education, more than 200,000 students from 64 countries along the Belt and Road Initiative were studying in China last year, up 13.6 per cent from 2015. For the first time in the list's six-year history, Tsinghua University is China's top-ranked institution, following across-the-board improvements on its teaching, research, citation impact, international outlook and knowledge transfer. It comes second in the overall rankings, behind the National University of Singapore. Peking University drops one place to third. The number of students studying in China from countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road has increased greatly under a series of preferential policies, education officials said. "The growth rate exceeds that of China's international students as a whole," said Xu Tao, director of the ministry's Department of International Cooperation and Exchange, "as more than 440,000 students from 205 countries and regions were studying in China last year, a year-on-year rise of 11.4 percent. Phil Baty, editorial director of global rankings at Times Higher Education, said "China's performance in the Times Higher Education rankings consistently improves year-on-year and 2018 is no exception. The results show that more than two decades of focused investment in excellence is paying off." Of the top 10 universities in Asia, five come from China, three of which are from Hong Kong, including University of Hong Kong (4th), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (joint 5th), and Chinese University of Hong Kong (7th). Nanjing University has climbed eight places to 17th, Tongji University has jumped eight places to 53rd, and Harbin Institute of Technology has risen 15 places to 62nd. The report said overall, universities from the Chinese mainland have received a large boost in their citation impact score and can boast high levels of industry income. However, many Asian nations are feeling the competition. While India, Pakistan and Turkey have all increased their overall representation, several of their universities have fallen down the list. INP/J/AH/LK