Photo: Says.com
The ranking of institutes of higher education is a competitive one, with many institutions competing to improve and secure a higher placing. Now in its 16th year, the ranking includes over 1,300 universities from 92 countries, making it the largest higher education analysis to date. Two of our new Malaysian universities have joined the list in time for the 2020 edition of the prestigious Times Higher Education global rankings.
Performance overall is pretty consistent, with one Malaysian university moving into a new band, which is an improvement. Institutions in the United States dominate the top 200, but Asia’s performance has also improved, with an additional two universities joining the global top 200 ranks. While University of Oxford comes top for the fourth year consecutively, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) falls behind at second place.
Photo: TVET Malaysia
Last year, only 11 Malaysian universities made it into the ranking, but two more made it this year, claiming 13 places in total. The best Malaysian university is, again, University of Malaya, in the 301-350 band, while Universiti Malaysia Perlis makes it debut in the 601-800 band. Almost all of the local institutions retain the same placing as last year, with the only move being Universiti Putra Malaysia, which climbed into the 601-800 band from 801-1,000 last year.
Our local universities received rather high scores for international outlook, and come out slightly ahead of the Asean region when scored for teaching environment and citation impact. The areas in which our institutions scored the lowest, however, is research environment.
In regards to Malaysia’s performance, Phil Baty, THE chief knowledge officer, said, “It is an encouraging sign that Malaysian institutions have been able to expand their representation in this year’s rankings, but for Malaysia to move higher up the table the country must focus on developing its research environment. Investment is also a key ingredient to attracting the best international students and academics to Malaysian institutions.”
The top two spots in Asia are held by Mainland China, while Japan claimed 110 spots, sealing its place as the second-most represented nation. A large portion of the ranking is taken up by the United States, with 172 institutions on the list and 60 in the top 200. The continent with the highest representation falls to Europe, which has not only been able to claim more spots on the list, but is also the continent providing most of the top 200 universities.
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