Three local universities, the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) had a stellar performance in an annual ranking of Asian universities, released by education and career consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) this morning, The Straits Times reported.
NUS re-clinched the top honours at 1st place for the third year running, while NTU moved up one place to 3rd, and SMU entered the rankings at 60th place.
The rankings included Asia’s 350 best universities and this is 50 more than the previous annual ranking.
The QS ranking uses 10 key performance indicators in its judging – academic reputation (30%), employer reputation (20%), faculty-student ratio (15%), citations per paper (10%), papers per faculty (10%), proportion of international faculty (2.5%) and students (2.5%), and proportion of in (2.5%) and outbound (2.5%) exchange students. This year, the number of staff with a PhD (5%), was also included as another metric of judgement.
NUS, NTU Achieved Perfect Scores
QS gave NUS and NTU perfect scores for four metrics each – academic reputation; employer reputation; citations per paper, and international faculty for the former, and employer reputation; citations per paper; international faculty; and the proportion of outbound exchange students for the latter.
NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan cited strong government support as the key to local universities’ success, and states that NUS’ priorities are preparing “future-ready graduates”.
NTU president Bertil Andersson prides the university’s good performance in being the No. 1 in Asia for citations per papers, which measures the impact NTU-based research has on the world of academia.
SMU’s 60th Placing A “Great Achievement”
As a relatively young university (16 years old, compared to 25 year old NTU and 36 year old NUS) with much fewer degrees on offer (7 vs. over 50 for the other two), QS has called its 60th placing a “great achievement.
SMU provost Lily Kong has also stated said the university “is highly committed to delivering high-quality teaching and research, for which ranking is only one possible – if imperfect – indicator”.
Singapore, An Attractive Education Hub
With such good performance, it is not wonder that there is an influx in foreign students coming to local universities.
Local parents also find the importance of university education, with a recent report stating that they spend an average of around S$21,000 a year, more than twice the global average.
By the way local universities are growing from strength to strength, one can only predict that education standards in Singapore will soar even higher, and so will the stress levels.
The question is: Are we ready?
The full ranking of Asian universities this year can be seen here.
