NUS ranked as top university in Asia

 

The university, which was inaugurated in 1991, said that its rise in the rankings in recent years reaffirms its “standing as the fastest rising Asian university in the world’s Top 50”.

Today Online 

SINGAPORE — The National University of Singapore (NUS) has been ranked as the top university in Asia in the latest global rankings from higher education information provider Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) continuing its steady ascent up the standings.

This is the first time that NUS topped all Asian universities in the QS World University Rankings, which was introduced in 2009 after QS ended its five-year collaboration with Times Higher Education.

Globally, NUS was placed 24th this year, moving up a spot from last year when it was second to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) as Asia’s highest-ranking university.

NTU climbed six positions to 41 — rising a total of 33 places over the last three years. Its latest ranking puts it ahead of American tertiary institutions such as Brown University and New York University.

The QS World University Rankings evaluates over 800 universities in the world based on academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty, faculty student ratio, and proportions of international students and international faculty.

QS was scheduled to publish the full rankings this morning. NUS said in a press release that it was placed ninth in the world for academic reputation, and 16th for employer reputation. It added that it improved “significantly” in the number of research papers published and citations generated.

NUS President Tan Chorh Chuan said the university’s performance was “a reflection of our country’s strong support for higher education and the ethos of continually seeking excellence”. He added that the university has strived to differentiate itself “through educational innovation, multidisciplinary research and strategic partnerships”.

He said: “We will continue to keep a sharp focus on nurturing and recruiting talented academics, staff and students, while providing a conducive environment for this thriving community to pioneer advances in education and research and its application that will have a strong positive impact on Singapore and society.”

NTU President Bertil Andersson said it was “remarkable” that Singapore, being a “small city-state”, has two universities among “the world’s top 41”. Adding that the latest ranking was “a boost for us and will help us attract even more top students”, Professor Andersson said that NTU “stands out as the ‘new kid on the block’ when compared to the likes of Harvard, Cambridge and even NUS, which has more than 100 years of history”.

The university, which was inaugurated in 1991, said that its rise in the rankings in recent years reaffirms its “standing as the fastest rising Asian university in the world’s Top 50”.

Among the various performance indicators, NTU’s standing with international employers improved the most, by five positions to 42.

QS Head of Research Ben Sowter noted that NTU’s rise as a Top 50 university globally was achieved “in less than 25 years”. It is among “the most dynamic of world universities and going from strength to strength”, he said.

Mr Sowter reiterated that rankings in general “cannot consider all aspects of university activity, but they capture the headline trends”.

On NUS’ achievement, he noted that “despite operating in increasingly competitive territory, NUS continues to progress”. In fact, a place among the global Top 20 beckons for NUS, he said. “Our results suggest that (this) is only a matter of time,” he added.