KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — Malaysia’s oldest university Universiti Malaya (UM) has retained its spot among the top 350 universities in a global ranking for the fourth consecutive year, the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2022 has shown.

The latest edition of THE World University Rankings had looked at a record number of 1,662 universities from 99 countries and regions, which is 136 more universities than the 1,526 universities in the 2021 rankings.

There is also a record number of 18 Malaysian universities being ranked in the 2022 edition, which is up from the 15 Malaysian universities ranked in 2021 and the 13 ranked in 2020.

In the 2022 rankings released today, UM was the highest-ranked Malaysian university as it was listed as being in the top 301 to 350 universities globally for the fourth straight year.

This year’s second-highest ranked Malaysian university, Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), moves into the top 600 universities bracket in this ranking for the first time.

This marks an improvement as UTP was previously ranked in the top 601 to 800 universities category in 2021, but has now been categorised as being among the top 501 to 600 universities globally in the 2022 rankings.

Five other local universities stayed in the same 601-800 bracket that they were placed in last year, namely Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), and Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).

Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) also retained its last year’s ranking as being in the 801-1,000 category and was this year joined by a newly-included university Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) in the same category.

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar), which was the second-highest ranked local university in last year’s rankings, slipped from the 501-600 band in the 2021 rankings to the 1,001-1,200 band in the 2022 rankings.

Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) which was ranked as being in the 1,001+ band last year, was this year also ranked in the 1,001-1,200 band.

Two local universities which were included in the rankings for the first time, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), both debuted in the 1,201+band.

The five remaining universities were placed in the 1,001+ band last year and are this year placed in the 1,201+ band, namely Multimedia University (MMU), Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM).