PETALING JAYA: Universiti Malaya (UM) has made a giant leap up the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2020.

Malaysia’s oldest university now ranks 70 in the latest edition of the international university rankings.

It made an impressive 17 spot climb up from 87 last year.

This is the highest position the university has been at since the rankings began in 2004.

UM vice-chancellor Datuk Abdul Rahim Hashim said the university’s continuous improvement is due to it adhering with its strategic plan.

“UM has sustained its upward trajectory in the face of fiscal challenges, and emphasises the value of financial support from the government to achieve excellence in teaching, research and innovation,” he said.

Abdul Rahim added that an increase in investment will enable them to intensify international collaborations, enhance strategic research and industry partnerships, and improve graduate employability.

“UM also has plans to widen its talent pool with excellent local and international staff as well as retain the services of its internationally-recognised retired academics,” he said.

QS research director Ben Sowter said the main reason for UM’s success is its score for Academic Reputation – 40% of overall score – that rose from 62/100 to 68.2/100 since 2016.

It now ranks 91st in the Academic Reputation indicator which measures the opinions of over 94,000 faculty across the world, he added.

He also said that UM’s Employer Reputation score has risen from 56.8/100 to 72/100 in the same timeframe.

Malaysia’s other four research universities are also continuing to climb up the international university rankings (see table).

UPM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Aini Ideris said making it to the top 200 universities is proof that they “have successfully accomplished our Putra Global 200 (PG200), one of the important aspirations we set in UPM’s Strategic Plan 2014-2020.”

UKM vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor said the university is “very humbled by this improvement and will continue to work hard to strengthen our quality output.”

Meanwhile, UCSI University is ranked the nation’s best private university for the second year in a row.

UCSI vice-chancellor and president Senior Prof Datuk Dr Khalid Yusoff said the latest milestone was a result of a consistent university-wide push for excellence and performance.

Taylor’s University vice-chancellor and president Prof Michael Driscoll said they are proud to again be Malaysia’s number one private university among employers globally.

For more info, visit https://www.topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings.