The highest ranked Malaysian programme is Taylor’s University’s Hospitality and Leisure Management course, which rose one spot to 17th in the world. It is the only university in Southeast Asia to crack the top-20 in the category.
This is closely followed by Universiti Teknologi Petronas for its Petroleum Engineering programme, ranked joint 23rd with Russia’s National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is ranked 41st for the same course.
Universiti Malaya’s Library and Information Management course improved six places to 32nd, and the International Islamic University Malaysia’s Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies programme rose four notches to 33rd.
In a statement, QS said the rankings showed Malaysia’s rising global standing in the higher education sector.
“This is two more than last year, with Universiti Malaya also entering the top 100 for Environmental Sciences (No 89) and Pharmacy and Pharmacology (No 97).”
Additionally, QS said, the number of top 200 Malaysian educational programmes has risen from 90 to 95 year-on-year.
Universiti Malaya is the best performing Malaysian institution, ranked across 36 subjects and achieving top 100 spots in 15.
QS noted that Malaysian universities fare best in Business and Management courses, with 13 institutions making the list. This is followed by Electrical Engineering (12) and Computer Science and Information Systems (11).
There are 16 new entrants from Malaysian universities, including USCI University’s Hospitality and Leisure Management programme and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Mineral and Mining Engineering course.
QS spokesman Jack Moran said Malaysia’s international visibility in higher education and cross-border collaborations has risen in the last five years, and the country is now the second-largest host country for international students from the UK.
“Such international collaborations are doing much to help provide high quality, accredited tertiary education programmes to Malaysian students, but they are also helping Malaysian institutions to cultivate stronger international recognition.
“However, to continue improving further in our rankings and sustain their improving global reputation, it is imperative to ensure that high quality Malaysian research is submitted to reputable journals, which will have much stronger, enduring positive effect on the sector’s outcomes.”
For the 2021 edition of the rankings, QS compared the performance of 14,435 programmes from 1,452 universities as well as 51 academic disciplines across five faculty areas.