Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta has topped the rankings of Indonesia’s best universities according to a survey by university index agency Webometrics in January. Globally, the university is ranked 845^th. 

The agency’s website named four indicators that were used for the calculation, namely presence, impact, transparency or openness and excellence or scholarship. According to UGM’s official website, presence measures the number of web domains, including sub-domains, of an institution and impact counts the amount of backlinks from other websites.

Read also: UGM ranks top in RI, ninth in SE Asia: Webometrics

Openness is based on files that can be accessed and are connected to a university's website, while excellence calculates the number of scientific publications from a university's members indexed in reputable international journals.

UGM received 150 points for presence, 435 for impact, 733 for openness and 1853 for excellence. It surpassed other prominent universities in Indonesia, including the University of Indonesia (UI) and the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

Iva Ariani, the university’s public relations and protocol head, said it was an achievement for the university, especially in spreading knowledge, information and the work from the university’s members. “This can also be a challenge for us to increase the quality and quantity of our publications [and hopefully] our website can be a source of information for people,” Iva said.

Webometrics is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab research group from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). (wir/wng)