Vietnamese universities boost their Asian profile

On Tuesday, Britain’s QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global higher education company best known for its university ranking systems, announced 505 best top universities in Asia for 2019 (QS Asia 2019).

Seven Vietnamese universities mentioned in the list are: Vietnam National University, Hanoi branch (ranked No.124); the Vietnam National University, HCMC branch (144); the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (261-270); the Ton Duc Thang University (HCMC) (291-300); the Can Tho University (351-400); Hue University and Da Nang University (451-500).

Compared to 2018, Vietnam National University-Hanoi has jumped 15 ranks, and maintained its position as the nation’s best. The Ton Duc Thang University is making its debut in the QS rankings, while the Hanoi University of Science and Technology has advanced 30 ranks. These are the best rankings that these universities have recorded.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City fell two ranks compared to last year, while Can Tho University dropped from the 301-350 group to 351-400. Hue University and Da Nang University have also slipped in their rankings.

Ton Duc Thang University is one of 92 new schools debuting on this year's QS Asia rankings, making it to the 291-300 group.

The methodology used to create the Asia ranking and the QS World University Rankings is similar, but additional indicators and adapted weightings have been taken into the equation.

The QS Asia 2019 rankings are based on 11 criteria: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, international research network, citations per paper and papers per faculty, staff with PhD degrees, proportion of international faculty and proportion of international students.

The last two criteria are not applied to QS World University Rankings. They are used to indicate how international activities at Asian universities are, and to look at each institution’s inbound and outbound student exchange programs, QS has explained.

In June, QS announced its world rankings for 2019 (QS World), covering 1,011 schools. Two Vietnamese universities made their first appearance in global education world. For the first time, Vietnam has two universities, the Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City (701-750) and the Vietnam National University- Hanoi (801-1000), included in the list.