KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 ― The University of Malaya (UM) has emerged as the only Malaysian university to break into the top-30 of the QS University Rankings: Asia 2015, as two Singaporean institutions maintained leading positions in the annual rankings' top-10 list.

UM achieved an overall score of 84.8, bumping up the university to 29th place and three positions better than its 32nd place finish last year.

The country's oldest university was 20 spots ahead of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), which registered an overall score of 69.4 to enter the rankings at 49th place, up from 57th place a year earlier.

USM managed to break into the top-50 through improvements in a wide range of areas that include academic reputation, faculty/student ratio, research productivity and its international faculty.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) stayed in 56th place, while Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) rose five places to 61st and Universiti Putra Malaysia leapt 10 spots to finish in 66th.

QS head of research Ben Sowter said in a statement that Malaysia's focus on education and innovation is reflected in the improvements in ranking among the country's top universities.

Sowter said there is still “great room” to improve, but stressed that “progress is happening”, especially in growing the varsities' reputation internationally.

The National University of Singapore, meanwhile, maintained its position as the number one institution in Asia while the Nanyang Technological University added another feather to the island nation's hat by rising three spots to fourth this year.

The University of Hong Kong ranked second overall, followed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in third place.

Other universities that made the top-10 in descending order are the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Peking University, Seoul National University, City University of Hong Kong and Pohang University of Science and Technology.