Hà Nội University of Science and Technology has been named in the world's top 1,000 Universities by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. — Photo hust.edu

HÀ NỘI — Two Vietnamese universities are among the top 1,000 universities in the world, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Việt Nam National University (VNU), Hà Nội, Hà Nội University of Science and Technology and Việt Nam National University (VNU), HCM City are in the list for the first time, joining nearly 1,400 other universities in the rankings this year.

The rankings was published on Wednesday following an examination of data from 1,820 universities in 92 countries and territories

VNU, Hà Nội and Hà Nội University of Science and Technology are in the group of universities ranked 801st to 1,000th, while VNU, HCM City is in the 1,001th group.

The University of Oxford maintained their top stop in this year’s list of the best universities in the world, followed California Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge and University of Stanford.

Tsinghua University is now the top university in Asia, after rising eight places to 22nd, becoming the first Chinese institution to lead the continent under the current methodology (since 2011). It was followed by Beijing University and National University of Singapore which ranked 24th and 25th place, respectively.

Japan has overtaken the UK as the second most-represented nation in the world, with 103 institutions (the UK has 98).

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings evaluates universities according to their core missions in five criteria including teaching, research, citation, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

Earlier this year, two of the nation’s universities, VNU, Hà Nội and VNU, HCM City were named among the top 1,000 universities in the world, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.

Hoàng Minh Sơn, Rector of Hà Nội University of Science and Technology, told dantri.vn online newspaper he was happy because more and more universities in Việt Nam were in the rankings.

It proved that the goal of having four universities in the world’s top 1000 under the project on improving the quality of higher education in the 2019-25 period has been achieved six years early than planned.

"Most of the rankings attach great importance to the research achievement evaluation index, but pay little attention to the training quality and social impact.”

“The issue that we should consider when setting up development strategies for universities that was focusing on all their core missions -- training, researching and serving the community,” he said.

Sơn said in the future, it was necessary for domestic universities to cooperate more closely, comprehensively and effectively, instead of just focusing on international cooperation. — VNS