Mahidol leads Thai universities in survey

Visitors take notes during their visit to Sirindhorn Dental Museum at Mahidol University on Aug 6, 2015. The university was ranked best in Thailand by the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings this year. (Photo by Thiti Wannamontha)

Mahidol has overtaken King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) as the best university in Thailand in world rankings this year but it was still ways behind its peers in Singapore and Malaysia.

Mahidol University was ranked 90th in the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2016, moving up one spot from the survey last year.

KMUTT saw its ranking sharply dropped to 98th this year from 55th last year.

Chiang Mai University was third in the group of 141-150, followed by Chulalongkorn University (151-160), Suranaree University of Technology (161-170), Khon Kaen University and Prince of Songkhla University (181-190).

The Times Higher Education did not give specific positions for universities ranked below 100 and instead put them in groups.

A good sign for Thai universities was that seven were ranked this year compared with only two -- Mahidol and KMUTT -- last year.

The bad news is their rankings this year lagged far behind other universities in Singapore and Malaysia.

The National University of Singapore was rated the best in Asia and Nanyang Technological University also in Singapore shared the second best with Peking University.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor Baru was ranked 70th, while the University of Indonesia was the only one representing the country in the group of 181-190.

Gerard Postiglione, chair professor in higher education at the University of Hong Kong, praised the Singapore government for making its universities competitive in global education through its firm policy and financial support for research, according to its website.

The Times Higher Education used 13 indicators including teaching, research and citations to calculate the performances of the universities in the survey.

The recent QS Asian University Rankings put Chulalongkorn first in Thailand and 45th in Asia, followed by Mahidol, Thammasat, Chiang Mai, Kasetsart Univeristy and KMUTT.