16 August 2006

NUS amongst top three global universities in Asia and Australasia

The National University of Singapore (NUS) emerged as one of the top three global universities in Asia and Australasia in a ranking of global league universities by international magazine Newsweek. NUS was ranked 31st in the world.

The Japanese universities emerged tops in Asia with Tokyo University in the first place (14th in the world ranking), followed by Kyoto University (25th in the world ranking). In the world ranking, Harvard University was in the top position, followed by Stanford and Yale universities.

According to Newsweek, universities have become more global in response to the same forces which have propelled the world economy toward global integration. They seek students from around the world and send their own students abroad to prepare them for global careers; offer courses which address challenges of an inter-connected world; and conduct collaborative research programmes. Capturing these developments, the ranking of global universities was based on openness and diversity as well as distinction in research.

The universities were also evaluated on some measures used in the rankings by Shanghai Jiaotong University such as number of highly-cited researchers and number of articles published in Nature and Science; and the Times of London Higher Education Supplement survey which includes percentage of international faculty, percentage of international students and ratio of faculty to students.

NUS President Professor Shih Choon Fong said that the latest ranking was in recognition of the University’s 'pursuit of global excellence in education and research, which is attributed to our culture of imagination, openness and courage.' "This is a call to further raise Singapore's reputation and visibility in the global education landscape," he added.

Click here for the Top 50 ranking