KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) managed to be among the top 50 Asian universities while University of Malaya (UM) has once again made the country proud of its achievement by attaining the rank of 27, up two positions from last year.
According to the latest QS World University Rankings which was released last Tuesday, UPM now ranks 49th best university in Asia, moving up 17 places from its previous position and achieving the biggest leap in terms of ranking improvement among Malaysian universities.
In addition, UPM also succeeded in placing itself as Malaysia’s second-best university, thus recording an impressive improvement in rankings for three consecutive years since 2014.
In addition, UPM also succeeded in placing itself as Malaysia’s second-best university, thus recording an impressive improvement in rankings for three consecutive years since 2014.
UPM vice-chancellor Professor Datin Paduka Dr Aini Ideris said UPM’s achievements so far this year have surpassed its initial target of reaching 60th position among Asia’s best universities.
“The 17-step jump from its 66th position last year will definitely bolster the spirit of the university community to further enhance the quality of teaching, learning and research in UPM,” she said.
UM vice-chancellor Tan Sri Professor Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin said the results put UM top in the nation, a position that the university has sustained since the introduction of this ranking for universities in Asia.
“After breaking into the league of the top 30 universities in Asia last year, the new milestone achieved by the university this year is a result of better scores for the research output and impact indicators of the ranking measure,” he said.
Mohd Amin added that the university’s focus on strengthening fundamentals through the many phases of its strategic plan has helped to cushion some of the immediate impact of certain challenges.
“Several methodological changes were made by QS that included not only re-scaling of weights assigned to ranking indicators, but also the introduction of a new criterion that measures the quality of training of academic staff in terms of percentage of staff with PhD qualification,” he said.
“Publications and citations were also weighted equally according to five areas of specialisation, which were not taken into account in the ranking system before.”
Based on the Rankings by Subject, four Malaysian public universities have been ranked among the world’s top 100 universities for Architecture/Built Environment while the three subjects of Development Studies, Chemical Engineering and Electrical & Electronic Engineering made it among the top 50.
UM emerged as Malaysia’s top-ranking university, ranking in the top five among local public universities for 26 subjects.
Its highest-ranking subjects are Development Studies (30th) and Electrical & Electronic Engineering (37th).
Both Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) were each ranked in the top five for 22 subjects. USM placed 46th in the world for Chemical Engineering.
For full report, read the print edition of the New Sunday Times on June 19.