CANBERRA, Oct.4 (Xinhua) -- Australian universities appeared to enhance in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings released in London on Thursday.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings powered by Thomson Reuters are the global university performance tables to judge world class universities across all of their core missions -- teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The University of Melbourne, Australia rose to the 28th. Although Caltech (California Institute of Technology) remained the highest position, and the European and American universities continued to occupy the top 10 position in the overall ranking, the ranking of Asian universities showed an overall improvement.

Compared to seven listings in the top-200 rankings in 2011, Australia boasted eight in 2012: the University of Melbourne (28), ANU (37), University of Sydney (62), University of Queensland (65), University of NSW (85), Monash University (99), University of Adelaide (176), and the University of Western Australian (190).