PENANG, August 2017 – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was ranked in the top 500 in the recently released 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) together with Universiti Malaya (UM).

Malaysia has 5 universities ranked in the ARWU 2017.  USM and UM are in the 401-500 band, while the other 3 Research Universities, namely Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) are in the 501-800 band. 

Both USM and UM are tied for the Top position in the National Rank (ranked 1-2). 

In addition, USM made great strides from 2016 (Score: 10.12) to 2017 (Score: 11.73). 

As before, USM's Engineering subject field maintained in the band 101-150.

In total, more than 1,300 universities were ranked and the best 500 were published. This year, those universities ranked between 501 and 800 are also published as ARWU World Top 500 Candidates.

Since 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world Top 500 universities annually based on transparent methodology and third-party data. ARWU has been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and the most trustworthy league table.

ARWU adopts six objective indicators to rank world universities, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the number of Highly Cited Researchers, the number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science, the number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and per capita academic performance.

For more information, please visit http://www.shanghairanking.com/index.html

Text: Tan Ewe Hoe