Its program dropped one place from last year in education consultancy firm Quacquarelli Symonds' ranking after being overtaken by last year's fifth-ranked school - Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

Nanyang had a score of 73.5 - just barely higher than CUHK's 73.4.

Nanyang beat CUHK in the categories of employer reputation and thought leadership but CUHK took the lead with regard to diversity, executive profile and career outcomes.

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business remained at the top with an overall score of 87.7, followed by Institut Europeen d'Administration des Affaires with a score of 86 and the National University of Singapore with 81.8.

While Hong Kong is home to three of the region's top 10 programs, two of the three are offered by international universities. As such, CUHK is the only local institution earning a place on the top-31 list.

Singapore made a strong showing in the top 10, with three of its universities represented. In addition to Nanyang and NUS, Singapore Management University also made it in at the 10th spot.

Shanghai-based China Europe International Business School was also recognized with an 11th-place ranking, albeit four places down from last year.

QS said in a statement: "Mainland China is the most dominant player in the regional table, [contributing] 10 out of 31 programs."

On the global list, Spain's IESE Business School under the University of Navarra was ranked first after moving two places up from last year due to particularly high scores in two categories: quality of student base and reputation among international employers.