Singapore’s NUS ranked Asia’s top university for third consecutive year

14 Jun 2016

The National University of Singapore (NUS) continues to reign supreme among higher education giants in Asia, clinching the top spot in the QS Asia University Rankings for the third consecutive year.

NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan told the Straits Times that strong government support has encouraged local universities to push for excellence.

“At NUS, our priority is in preparing future-ready graduates and developing top talent, driving innovation and forging strategic collaborations with academic and industry partners, and delivering impact from world-class research,” he said.

QS University Rankings: Asia 2016. Image via topuniversities.com.

The 2016 ranking, which was released on Tuesday, also saw another Singaporean university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), take third place, moving one spot up from the previous year.

In the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, NUS and NTU are ranked at #12 and #13, respectively.

NUS attained a perfect score in four metrics: academic reputation; employer reputation; citations per paper; and international faculty.

NTU also got a perfect score in four metrics: employer reputation; citations per paper; international faculty; and the proportion of outbound exchange students.

However, Hong Kong universities dominate the top 10, with four institutions listed among Asia’s academic cream of the crop – the University of Hong Kong (#2); the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (#4); City University of Hong Kong (#7); and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (#8).

We’re 1st in Asia in the QS @worlduniranking! https://t.co/cS6dormBwP #NUSGlobal #NUSBeyond #QSWUR pic.twitter.com/scu4DSi0Uk

— NUS (@NUSingapore) June 14, 2016

London-based education and career consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has this year expanded the top Asian universities list to include the region’s 350 best universities – 50 more than last year.

In order to measure excellence among Asian universities, QS uses 10 key performance indicators to compare institutions, including academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, papers per faculty, the proportion of international faculty and students, and proportion of inbound and outbound exchange students.

For 2016, QS included a new metric – staff with a PhD – in order to add another dimension to its analyses of teaching quality.

Alongside the Asian rankings, QS released the top university lists for the Latin America, Arab, and Emerging Europe & Central Asia (EECA) regions.

Out now! QS University Rankings: by Region 2016! Get the four regional rankings: https://t.co/nka7zq9Ft1 #QSWUR pic.twitter.com/BFFxrbpPEl

— QS (@QS_pressoffice) June 13, 2016

The Universidade de São Paulo claims the top spot for the Latin American region – an institution that also claimed the title in the recent rankings for the most prestigious universities in Latin Ameria, published by Times Higher Education (THE). The Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) was placed second in the QS regional table, one up from the position awarded by THE. In third place is the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC), followed by the U niversidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. These same institutions were placed in eighth, second and fifth place, respectively, in THE‘s comparative regional list.

QS University Rankings: Latin America 2016. Image via topuniversities.com.

For the second cosecutive year, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals was named the leading university in the Arab region, achieving an impressive five star ranking in QS’ most recent rankings. The American University of Beirut (AUB) in the Lebanon came in second, also unmoved from last year’s position.
King Saud University in Saudi Arabia was ranked third for 2016, followed by Saudi’s King Abdulaziz University (KAU), and The American University in Cairo, ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

QS University Rankings: Arab 2016. Image via topuniversities.com.

In this year’s QS university rankings for Emerging Europe and Central Asia (EECA), Russia is the dominant nation, with Lomonosov Moscow State University claiming the top position, followed by Novosibirsk State University in second, and Saint-Petersburg State University in third. Finishing off the top five for this region is Prague’s Charles University and the University of Tartu in fourth and fifth, respectively.