--FILE--Pedestrians pose for photos in front of a gate of Peking University in Beijing, China, 17 August 2013. Academic performance in key subjects at Chinese universities continues to be strong, according to newly released rankings. Quacquarelli Symonds, a British company specializing in education and studies abroad, published its latest Worldwide University Rankings by Subject on its website recently. The rankings showed that seven universities in China this year offer subjects listed among the Top 50 around the world. Among them, Peking University had 22 subjects, including linguistics, chemistry and law, in the global Top 50. Tsinghua University was next, with 15 subjects in the list, including civil engineering, architecture, materials science and mechanical engineering. The rankings were compiled from the professional opinions of 85, 062 scholars and 41, 910 university officials, as well as 17.3 million academic publications and more than 100 million bits of data analysis, according to a statement provided by Quacquarelli Symonds. "Such good rankings show that China has been rewarded after investing in higher education over the past 20 years, " said Ben Sowter, chief inspector of research at QS. "The success of Chinese universities also represents a global power transfer. Asian colleges have become strong competitors to those in the UK and the United States, especially in the sciences, technology, math and engineering." The annual global university ranking by subject is a comprehensive guide to the world's top universities in a range of popular subject areas.
