The number of higher education institutions in Thailand has grown strongly over the past decades to 156 officially. The two top-ranking universities in Thailand are Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University. Thai universities research output still relatively low, even though the country's journal publications increased by 20% between 2011 and 2016. Recent initiatives, such as the ''National Research University'' and ''Graduate research intensive university: VISTEC'', designed to strengthen Thailand's national research universities, however, appear to be gaining traction.