Seven local varsities make world rankings list

PETALING JAYA: Seven Malaysian institutions have been included in the top 980 of the Times Higher Education 13th edition World University Rankings.

Two entries, Universiti Teknologi Petronas and Universiti Utara Malaysia made the list for the first time.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Univeristi Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Mara are the other local institutions on the list.

The top place in this year’s rankings was awarded to University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, which relegated five-time leader, the California Institute of Technology, to second place.

“Malaysia invests a huge amount in higher education and has marketed itself as a knowledge economy and innovation hub in recent years,” said Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

“However, the nation’s public universities have been hit by a 15% budget cut this year, after the economy came under pressure from lower oil and commodity prices. Universiti Teknologi Mara, for example, faces a cut of over 23%,” he added.

The other top places were taken by Stanford University in the United States (third), University of Cambridge, UK (fourth), Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US (fifth), Harvard University in the US (sixth), Princeton University in the US (seventh), Imperial College London in the UK (eighth), ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in Switzerland (ninth) and University of California, Berkeley and University of Chicago (both in the US) tied for 10th place.

The National University of Singapore was the highest-ranked Asian university, in 24th place.