UM fails to make the Asia-Pacific list due to technicalities

PETALING JAYA: Universiti Malaya (UM) has failed to make it to the inaugural Times Higher Education (THE) Best Asia-Pacific universities that was released yesterday due to technicalities.
THE's Asia-Pacific University Ranking 2017 analysed universities across 38 nations in East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania.
UM's exclusion is a surprise as it placed 59th in THE's ranking of top Asian universities this year.
The oldest university in Malaysia was placed 114th in the QS World University rankings this year, an improvement from the 2016 ranking of 133.
Phil Baty, editorial director, global ranking at THE, said UM is missing from the ranking purely on technical grounds, The Malaysian Insight reported today.
He said because of the data collection cycle, the 2017 ranking was drawn from its existing database of universities built for the September 2016 World University Rankings.
"UM was invited to take part in the data collection process at a later date, enabling it to join our Asia university rankings 2017," he said, adding that UM will appear in future rankings.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) ranked 130 on the list, followed by Universiti Teknologi Petronas (138), Universiti Sains Malaysia (149) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (154).
Universiti Teknologi MARA(UiTM) and Universiti Utara Malaysia(UUM) is listed in the 200 and above band.
The National University of Singapore topped the list. The others in the top five, in order of ranking, are China's Peking University, Australia's University of Melbourne and China's Tsinghua University.