London, Feb. 18 (CNA) Taipei-based National Taiwan University (NTU) ranked eighth in the 2020 Emerging Economies University Rankings released Tuesday, up two spots from last year.

The ranking, compiled by the London-based Times Higher Education (THE) magazine, this year listed 533 universities in 47 countries.

Besides Taiwan, the only countries with schools in the top 10 are China, which bagged seven of the 10 places, Russia and South Africa.

China's Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Zhejiang University retained the top three spots in this year's rankings.

The number of Taiwan schools in the 2020 rankings, meanwhile, increased from 32 last year to 36, with five listed in the top 50, namely National Taiwan University, Taipei Medical University (28th), National Tsing Hua University (29th), National Chiao Tung University (42nd), and National Cheng Kung University (45th).

According to THE, schools were ranked based on their scores in four categories -- their learning environment, volume and quality of published research, level of internationalization, and relationship with the business sector.

Only universities in countries classified by the London Stock Exchange's FTSE Group as "advanced emerging", "secondary emerging" or "frontier" were considered for the rankings, THE said, adding that institutions which did not meet a certain threshold of research output were excluded.

Globally, China dominated the rankings, with 81 institutions on the list, followed by India (56), Brazil (46), Russia (39), and Taiwan (36).