As the British schools sector looks to China for how to improve its students’ performance in maths, a new set of university rankings has highlighted the country’s emerging strength in higher education too.

Chinese universities have retained the top two slots in a league table of institutions in countries with newly advanced or emerging economies. Peking University holds in the top slot, with Tsinghua University in second place.

According to The Times Higher Education BRICS and Emerging Economies Rankings 2015, 27 of the country’s institutions are now in the top 100, up from 23 last year.

Elsewhere, Taiwan has more representatives (19) than any other country except China, but it is losing ground as two institutions dropped out of the list this year.

India increased its representation with 11 of the top-100 places, up from 10 last year while Russia saw a dramatic improvement in its performance, with seven of its institutions gaining top-100 positions.

Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings, which are published by TES publisher TES Global, said: “Strong universities can be fundamental to a country’s economic growth, and with China’s outstanding performance, the BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings provide a clear case study of what can be achieved with a comprehensive, coherent policy to develop world-class universities.

“The rankings also provide a stark warning of how much distance some developing economies must still travel before their universities can compete on the world stage - and how much they risk if they fall too far behind.”

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