KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 — Three local universities broke into the top 100 of the Times Higher Education (THE) BRICS and Emerging Economies University Rankings 2017, signalling further progress since seven such institutions placed in the World University Rankings 2016.
According to the new survey, Universiti Putra Malaysia was 89th, a 14-place from climb from its previous ranking, in the assessment involving 300 universities from 50 countries from developing countries as well as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that from the BRICS.
Other Malaysian universities that made the top 100 are Universiti Teknologi Petronas (91) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (100).
Universiti Sains Malaysia was 114th and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia was 136th while Universiti Utara Malaysia made it within the 201-250 band and Universiti Teknologi MARA, the 251-300 band.
UTP, UUM and UiTM are maiden entrants to the list.
“It is great news that seven Malaysian universities make this prestigious list, up from four last year. We only rank the very best institutions in the THE 2017 BRICS and Emerging Economies Rankings so we congratulate all universities who have made this year’s top 300 list.” THE World University Rankings editor Phil Baty said in a statement.
Baty said 13 performance indicators were used to rank universities in the study.
“Institutions must demonstrate high standards of performance across teaching, research, international outlook and knowledge transfer and compete with other leading research universities across emerging economy countries,” he pointed.
As for Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Baty said it fell 44 places due to weak research influence.
“Universiti Putra Malaysia is the new leading institution after climbing 14 places due to improved performances around its research environment, research influence and attraction of international talent,” he added.
Universiti Malaya, long considered the country’s premier institution of higher learning, was not included.
In this latest ranking, China dominated the list with 52 positions in the top 300 list, while six Chinese universities made to the elite top 10.
“This is the most competitive BRICS and emerging economies rankings to date with universities across 50 countries assessed; Malaysian institutions will have to run faster just to stand still in this list in future years,” Baty said.
In September, results from the World University Rankings 2016 that took into consideration of some top 980 best varsities, showed Singapore universities dominating the South-east Asia rankings while University of Oxford, California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were listed as the top five universities.
