UTAR's Excellence Recognised on a Global Scale Once Again

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) has joined the ranks of two public universities as the country’s top young universities, having entered the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2017 for the first time. It was ranked in the 101st to 150th band, along with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

UTAR president Prof Datuk Dr Chuah Hean Teik said the university would not rest on its laurels but work harder, going on to add that how UTAR can learn about the best practices from other universities, before thanking their benefactors and those who believed in them.

UTAR was set up by MCA in 2002, and already, it ranked in the same band as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Univerisiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). Their vice-chancellor, Prof Datin Paruka Dr Aini Ideris elaborated on how UTAR is committed to becoming a world’s top 200 university by 2020, also adding that the rankings were instrumental in enabling the university to overcome any shortcomings and adopting strategic ways to improve its overall performance.

Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings covered the world’s 200 best universities that are 50 years old or younger, across 48 countries. THE editor, Phil Baty said it was great news that six Malaysian universities made the list of the world’s best young universities, even singling out UTAR, as they were newcomers to the prestigious band of universities ranked 101 to 150.

The ranking, which includes 200 institutions for the first time (up from 150 last year), is topped by Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne followed by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.