In a ranking exercise by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) released on 13th July 2017, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) achieved another first. It is now ranked as the 37th university in the world for universities founded less than 50 years ago.

The QS Top 50 Under 50 is published annually, based on the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings, which assesses universities' performance across six indicators including academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per faculty member, faculty/student ratio, proportion of international students, and proportion of international faculty members.

First published in 2012, the QS Top 50 Under 50 allows some of the world's fastest rising young universities to shine, rewarding those which have established themselves in research and teaching excellence in a short space of time.

Only three countries in ASEAN, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and Malaysia, have universities which have managed to break into the QS Top 50 Under 50. According to the QS Top 50 Under 50, UBD is 6th in ASEAN and 16th in Asia of universities under the age of 50 years old in the world.