Among the highlights of the latest QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings are a further decline of British universities while those in Malaysia continue to make remarkable progress.

The methodology is heavily biased to surveys, with a weighting of 40% going to a survey of academic opinion and 10% to a survey of employers. The surveys are distributed through several channels including lists of potential respondents submitted by universities themselves. Another 20% is assigned to faculty student ratio, 20% to citations per faculty and 10% to international students and faculty.

This year saw a decline in the ranks of British universities. Among the institutions that have fallen a few places are the London School of Economics, University of Durham, and Loughborough University while the London School of Oriental and African Studies has fallen by over thirty places.

In contrast Malaysian universities have continued to rise steadily. Universiti Malaya is now 59^th and another four are in the top 200. A major factor here seems to be Malaysian participation in the two surveys.

The top five universities worldwide are:

1. Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT)
2. Stanford University
3. Harvard University
4. University of Oxford
5. California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

The top universities in various regions are:

Africa; University of Cape Town

Asia; National University of Singapore

Europe; University of Oxford

Latin America; Universidad de Buenos Aires

North America; MIT

Oceania; Australian National University.

Source:

QS TOPUNIVERSITIES