KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 — Malaysia’s oldest and leading university Universiti Malaya fell to the 65th spot in the latest annual university rankings by global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds, but at the same time held firm to its status as one of the top 100 universities in the world.
Others which similarly recorded a drop in rankings include Universiti Putra Malaysia or UPM , Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia or UKM , Universiti Sains Malaysia or USM , Universiti Teknologi Malaysia . “Though Malaysian higher education is unable to improve on last year’s record-breaking performance, QS continues to commend Malaysian universities on the extraordinary progress that they have made over the last five years,” he said in a statement.
“With positive reputational trends and a highly supportive government, we expect that future years will see Malaysian higher education reach new heights once more,” he added.
“The most significant determinant of its drop is its research performance: it has fallen 44 places in the Citations per Faculty indicator, dropping out of the top 250 when universities are measured by research impact,” QS said. For Academic Reputation, QS highlighted that USM had achieved its best score at 123rd spot, while UKM was at the 130th spot with its best ever score, and UPM ranked 143rd globally for this score. QS said all three were trending towards the global top 100 for this indicator, which it said is likely to lead to future rises in their rankings.