KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — Malaysia’s oldest and most successful university, Universiti Malaya (UM), reached its highest position ever in the latest annual ranking of universities in Asia by global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds.

In the 14th edition of the QS World University Rankings: Asia 2022 released today — which features 687 universities in 18 locations across Asia — UM now occupies the eighth spot on the list, rising from the previous year’s ninth place.

QS shared that this is the highest spot that the university has achieved since the inception of its rankings, adding that 24 other Malaysian universities also improved on their positions from last year’s rankings.

"This year’s results reiterate the intensely competitive, intensely dynamic nature of Asian higher education. China’s best universities continue to progress, Japanese higher education is stagnating — and Malaysia remains on the rise,” said Ben Sowter, Director of Research at QS.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) held the top spot again this year, while Peking University in China ranked second — the highest position the university has reached on the rankings.

The University of Hong Kong and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore share the third spot on the list, with Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University, both from China, holding fourth and fifth place respectively.

"The most-represented location is Mainland China (126 ranked universities), followed by India (118), Japan (108), South Korea (88), Pakistan (47), Taiwan (46), Malaysia (36), Indonesia (33), Thailand (23), Philippines (15), Vietnam (11), Hong Kong S.AR. (9), Sri Lanka (6) Singapore (3), Brunei (2), Macau SAR (2), and Mongolia (1).

"Japan has more universities in the top 50 of the ranking (11) than any other location, while South Korea’s top institution is Korea University (13th),” QS said.