HÀ NỘI – Two Vietnamese universities have secured places on a list of the top 150 universities in Asia, compiled by London-based education consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

Việt Nam National University-Hà Nội maintained its ranking of 139^th while VNU-HCM City climbed five ranks to 142. Hà Nội University of Science and Technology moved from 301th-350^th to the group 291th-300^th.  Cần Thơ University had their ranking downgraded from group of 251th-300^th to group of 301th-350^th. Huế University also saw their ranking downgraded from group of 301th-350^th to 351th-400^th.

The rankings were expanded this year to include 400 universities, up from 350 institutions last year.

This year, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) topped the list, followed by the National University of Singapore in second and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in third.

According to Prof. Nguyễn Hữu Đức, Deputy Rector of VNU-Hanoi, Việt Nam’s top universities have made progress in many areas, helping them near the ranked universities’ numeric average for categories like students per lecture and citations. For example, the average number of students per lecture at VNU-Hà Nội is 14.2, while the average rate for the ranked universities is 12.5.  The citation ratio of VNU-Hà Nội is 5.8 compared with 5.2 for Asian universities as a whole.

Regarding reputation among employers, which was evaluated by scientists and domestic and international employers, Việt Nam’s national universities in Hà Nội and HCM City clocked in at the regional average.

To measure excellence among Asian universities, QS uses several key indicators to compare institutions, including academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, proportion of international students and research quality indicators. — VNS