The first is the international aspect.

At Harvard, 20 percent of students are international, and at Oxford the figure is 38 percent. This not only shows the schools' global appeal, but indicates a good mix-up of cultures and ideologies, letting the students learn from each other as much as from professors.

The Times Higher Education ranking explained, "The ability of a university to attract the very best staff from across the world is key to global success."

They ranked Tsinghua poorly in this area.

Tsinghua has 12 percent international students, but even that's misleading. Unlike at Harvard and Oxford, domestic and international students at Tsinghua aren't allowed to live in the same dormitories, and dozens of degree programs remain closed to even those foreign students fluent in Chinese. So while much of the student body is foreign, locals don't have the same opportunities for meaningful interaction with them that they would at the world's elite schools.

Tsinghua and the Chinese government give many scholarships in an attempt to boost the quantity and quality of foreign students; but again, money can only go so far.

One thing keeping them away could be Tsinghua's second big failure on the lists: academic citations.

Rankings use these because their number gives a pretty good picture of the value and originality of an institution's research. Tsinghua's relatively low number of cites suggests low innovation.

Guessing why is difficult, but many of the usual suspects in China for stifling the independent critical thinking needed to innovate are present at Tsinghua. In spite of some recent reforms, most Chinese students still get in with only written tests that require more memorization than innovative thinking.

Then upon entrance, the pace for freshmen is set with three weeks of mandatory military training. One student described it saying, "We weren't supposed to value individualism but obey orders. Basically, we're supposed to be more tamed and obedient after the training."

When class begins, there are then impediments to meaningful research. The World is Flat author Thomas Friedman explains, "Today's knowledge industries are all being built on social networks that enable open collaboration, the free sharing of ideas and the formation of productive relationships." All this is being made harder, not easier, in the present climate.

To attract and properly educate leading scholars, Tsinghua and its regulators need to tear down these collaborative barriers and offer an open intellectual environment where innovation can blossom.

Tsinghua needn't be a slave to international rankings, but if it ever hopes to be considered a premier international school, it and its official backers should recognize that academic shortcomings can't all be solved with cash.

The author is a master's candidate of Global Business Journalism at Tsinghua University. His blog: sinostand.com. ericfish85@gmail.com.