7 Vietnamese schools among world's most influential universities

The fourth edition of THE’s Impact Rankings, which include 1,406 universities from 106 countries and territories, marks the highest number of Vietnamese schools breaking into the list.

Duy Tan University in Da Nang, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, National Economics University in Hanoi, Ton Duc Thang University in Ho Chi Minh City, and Vietnam National University Hanoi are in the 601-800 group while Hanoi’s Phenikaa and FPT University in Hanoi are in the 801-1000 section.

The ranking assesses universities against 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace, justice and strong institutions, and partnerships for the goals.

Universities can submit data on as many of these SDGs as they are able. Each SDG has a series of metrics that are used to evaluate the performance of the university on that SDG.

Except for FPT University, all six Vietnamese schools scored above average (50 out of 100) for the SDG of decent work and economic growth, which measures universities' economics research, their employment practices and the share of students taking work placements.

FPT together with Ton Duc Thang scored highest (53.4) among seven schools for the SDG of sustainable cities and communities, which measures universities’ research on sustainability, their role as custodians of arts and heritage and their internal approaches to sustainability.

The National Economics University and Duy Tan stand out in the SDG of peace, justice and strong institutions, which measures universities’ research on peace and justice, participation as advisers for government and policies on academic freedom, scoring 71.3 and 64 respectively.

The Western Sydney University of Australia leads the overall THE Impact Rankings 2022, followed by Arizona State University in the U.S. and Western University in Canada.

In Southeast Asia, Thailand has 51 schools ranked, followed by Indonesia with 28, Malaysia 23, the Philippines 15, Vietnam seven and Cambodia one.

Times Higher Education became known for publishing the annual Times Higher Education – Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, which first appeared in November 2004.

In 2009, it broke with QS, the world's largest international higher education network, and signed an agreement with Thomson Reuters to provide the data instead.