Jakarta – The University of Indonesia (UI) is still the country's best institution of higher education, according to results of a world university survey released on Tuesday, but overall, Indonesian universities continued their decline on the list.
The QS World University Rankings 2014/15 put UI in 310th place, one down from last year. In 2009, Indonesia's No. 1 university still ranked 201st. Another well-known local university, the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), has seen a similar decline, being ranked 315 in 2008, and in the 461-470 range now. Last year, ITB also was placed in the 461-470 range.
Gadjah Mada University (UGM) dropped even more significantly: the university was placed in the 250th spot just five years ago and is currently ranked in the 551-600 range. Last year, QS put UGM in the 501-550 range.
As is usually the case with surveys like these, the top 10 consists of only US and UK universities. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is the world's best university according to QS, followed by the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, who are tied for second place. Harvard University takes fourth place and Oxford University is ranked fifth.
Besides the three Indonesian universities mentioned, the QS rankings also include Airlangga University, the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), Diponegoro University, the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) and the University of Brawijaya. These are all ranked 701+.
The best university in Asia is the National University of Singapore, which is the 22nd-best university worldwide according to the survey, up two spots from last year. The Australian National University also did well, climbing two spots to take 25th place worldwide.
According to its website, the QS World University Rankings are based on six indicators, each of which is given a different percentage weighting. Academic reputation is by far the most important indicator (based on a global survey of academics), followed by employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international student ratio and international staff ratio.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesian-universities-continue-drop-qs-world-ranking/