By Khairul Anuar Muhamad Noh
SERDANG, 19 June 2019 – Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) made the highest leap of all other universities in the country by making a 43 jump in the QS World University Rankings 2020.
Universiti Malaya was ranked first in the country at the 70th spot (up 17 places), followed by Universiti Putra Malaysia at the 159th spot (up 43 places), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia ranked 160th (up 24 places), Universiti Sains Malaysia ranked 165th (up 42 places) dan Universiti Teknologi Malaysia ranked 217th (up 11 places).
UPM Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datin Paduka Dato’ Dr. Aini Ideris, said the jump has moved UPM to the 159th spot of the world’s best universities and become the second best university in the country.
According to her, UPM also recorded the highest International Student indicator in the country after being placed at the 135th spot in the indicator. This was followed by UCSI University (142) and Taylor’s University (162).
“Overall, this is UPM’s best achievement since its first participation in the ranking after recording an improvement for six consecutive years,” she said.
She added that UPM has met its target to be among the top 200 world best universities in the QS through the Putra® Global 200 (PG200) initiative which is a key aspiration in the UPM Strategic Plan 2014-2020.
“This outstanding achievement has allowed UPM to set new goals in its transformation plan, in line with the role of the university and the fundamentals of education,” she said.
"Although UPM’s International Student indicator is the highest in the country this year, UPM highest jump is actually the Employer Reputation indicator. This indicates that our students, research and extension activities are recognised by the industry,” she added.
According to Prof. Aini, UPM's continuous commitment in establishing a strong international network has enabled it to attract students, researchers and academic staff of international standards.
"All these improvements are due to the joint efforts of all UPM staff and the strong support from employees of various levels who provide strong organisational values to excellence, diversity, sustainability and integrity in UPM,” she said.
"We thank all staff and students, alumni, stakeholders and industry partners for their support throughout our challenging years," Prof. Aini said.
According to her, UPM will continue to work on tackling its weaknesses, increasing strengths and taking strategic approaches to improve its overall performance. We will continue to implement structured efforts to benchmark our practices and performances with the world's best universities.
QS World University Rankings 2020 assessed 1,620 major world universities based on six indicators, namely Academic Reputation (40%), Employer Reputation (10%), Student to Faculty Ratio (20%), Citations per Faculty (20%), International Faculty (5%) and International Students (5%).
