The National University of Singapore (NUS) has topped the inaugural Asia-Pacific University Rankings released on Wednesday (July 5) by the Times Higher Education magazine, followed by Nanyang Technological University in fifth place.

Peking University was placed second, the University of Melbourne third and Tsinghua University, fourth.

Mr Phil Baty, rankings editor of the magazine, noted that NUS is particularly strong when it comes to its research and teaching environments and international outlook, while NTU excels in research impact – it ranks in third place when judged on this indicator alone.

“Singapore’s strong performance across the five pillars underlying the ranking suggests that the country will continue to soar in the table in the years to come,” he said.

The five pillars refer to teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.

NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan said he was delighted that NUS has been recognised as Asia-Pacific’s top university.

“This accolade…strongly affirms our vision and long term strategy of building broad-based excellence across a comprehensive range of disciplines,” he said.

“Higher education and research in the Asia-Pacific region is thriving and universities in this part of the world, including NUS, will play an increasingly important role in driving the transformation of this dynamic region and in addressing both the challenges and opportunities along the way,” he added.

NTU President Prof Bertil Andersson said Singaporeans should be proud that there are two top universities in Singapore.

He added: “At NTU, we have created a conducive environment for world class education and research excellence. We will continue to build on our strengths in education, research and industry collaborations that will create value for Singapore and the world.”

This new league table from Times Higher Education ranks 243 universities in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand.

It uses the same 13 performance indicators as the closely-watched World University Rankings, but with special modifications to better reflect the characteristics of universities in the region.

Article & Photo from Straits Times