PENANG, 7 June 2018 – Going uphill is never an easy task, but the outcome can be truly rewarding. Reaching higher up the latest Quacquarelli Symonds World University Ranking (QS-WUR) for Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) makes it a point for the university to rejoice further.

Aptly acknowledged as the nation’s only university with the APEX status, USM has gone up 57 places to position 207 in the recently released QS-WUR 2019, compared to 264 in the year before.

This also means that USM is among the Top 21% of 1,011 institutions ranked by QS from 1,233 institutions evaluated worldwide in 2019.

Within the past six years, USM has moved up 148 places from 355 in year 2013/14 to 207 in year 2018/19.

Professor Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail, the Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia recognises the fact that the people in USM, who have been driven by a culture of excellence, play a pivotal role in the betterment of the University.

"We have been rising steadily since 2014 by concentrating on the fundamentals and I think we have improved further because the people in this University realises the importance of providing the best possible learning experience for the global community.

“We are very happy we have the highest jump this year. It’s our best performance in the last 5 years. We achieved that by focusing on becoming the Preferred University to our clients, to the industry, the government, the Rakyat and students.

"We realised that Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Faculty Student (measuring the ratio between the number of academics and students), International Faculty and International Students are among the five thrusts that USM has always been strong in. In particular, our Faculty Student ratio has improved significantly over the past 3 years, in spite of trying economic times. And we will keep on doing the best at providing quality education while maintaining the interest of the country," she said while congratulating the Ministry of Education and the other Malaysian Universities that have made the country proud.

USM's Academic Reputation was ranked among the Top 200 in the world while Employer Reputation and Faculty Student ratio were within the Top 250 in the world.

"I think USM has always been in the position to view ranking as one of the gauging parameters, rather than to be obsessed with it. We are happy with our overall performance, we know that we are on the right track and we know that we have good strategies in place to ensure that USM remains as the preferred university to its stakeholders.”

"I am certain that the newly-appointed Education Minister and the Ministry would continue to provide all the necessary support for another steady rise of Malaysian Universities of which their success and prestige have often being overlooked by many," she concluded.

The rankings were established through the final outcome of six different indicators, and how high each university has performed in each respective indicator. The universities were ranked based on Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Citations Per Faculty, Faculty Student, International Faculty and International Students.