Times Higher Education (THE), the magazine behind the world’s most influential university rankings, has released their World University Rankings (WUR) 2019. Kompas.com reported that the University of Indonesia (UI) was the only Indonesian university to enter the rankings.

UI is now ranked in the range of 601-800 in the world, an improvement on its 2018 ranking, when it was in the 801-1000 bracket. The ranking includes 1258 universities in 86 countries.

This is the third year an Indonesian university has been entered into the ranking, in which each university is scored on their core missions, namely teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

In order to provide the most comprehensive, balanced and trustworthy comparisons for the universities, THE uses carefully calibrated performance indicators that are grouped into five areas.

The first area is teaching, which includes learning environment. Next is research, comprising its volume, income and reputation. The third area is citations, which takes into account research influence. Fourth is international outlook, which covers staff, students and research. And finally, the fifth area is industry income, in which knowledge transfer is evaluated.

UI rector Muhammad Anis was quoted by the university’s website as saying, “UI’s performance has been improving, according to THE scoring. We are now focusing on upgrading the capacity and quality of research, innovation and public service. Meanwhile, we are also expanding our network with campuses in Asia, Europe and other continents.”

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Anis went on to say that while competing to become a better university, UI also needs to look up to a role model in the same region. He mentions the National University of Singapore, for instance, which made it into the world’s top 25.

“Hopefully what our neighboring country has achieved shall inspire us to join the rank of Southeast Asia’s top university,” said Anis.

The achievement made by UI should also be considered the nation’s accomplishment in higher education. UI is well on its way to becoming a university that contributes more to improving the nation’s growth and competence in the global competition.

Moreover, UI expects to further promote innovation, entrepreneurship and overcome social challenges. (mut)