Singapore, Malaysia universities take top spots in first Southeast Asia ranking

By Minh Nga   March 15, 2026 | 10:00 am GMT+7

Students gather for group activities at the Student Village of the National University of Singapore, March 2025. Photo from the university's Facebook page

Singapore and Malaysia dominate a pilot Southeast Asia university ranking by Times Higher Education (THE), with Singapore taking the top two spots and Malaysian institutions occupying most positions in the top 10.

The National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University rank first and second respectively in the table, which evaluates 195 universities across Southeast Asia using the same methodology as the THE World University Rankings.

Seven Malaysian universities appear in the top 10, led by Universiti Teknologi Petronas in third place. Universiti Brunei Darussalam of Brunei is the only institution outside Singapore and Malaysia in the top tier, ranking seventh.

Thailand and Vietnam narrowly miss the top 10 but still place institutions in the top 15, including Chulalongkorn University, UEH University in Vietnam and Mahidol University.

Elsewhere in the region, the University of Indonesia, the country's leading institution, ranks 22nd, while the Philippines' Ateneo de Manila University is placed 28th.

Malaysia has the strongest presence among the top 50 institutions, with 18 universities in the group.

However, Indonesia has the largest number of ranked institutions overall, with 35 universities included.

A recent report by THE's consultancy arm suggests Indonesia could surpass the United States and Brazil within a decade to become the world's third-largest higher education system by student numbers.

Universities in the ASEAN region were evaluated using 18 indicators across five categories: teaching (learning environment), which accounts for 30%; research (environment, volume and reputation), 35%; citations (research impact), 33%; international outlook (staff and students); and industry income (innovation).

Singapore’s two flagship universities, already among the world’s top institutions, outperform regional peers across most ranking indicators.

The president of Nanyang Technological University has said the institution prioritizes collaboration rather than competition with the National University of Singapore to attract global research talent and improve student outcomes, according to a THE report on Jan. 2.

In the ranking’s international outlook indicator, which measures the share of international staff, students and research collaborations, Malaysia’s Lincoln University College ranks first in Southeast Asia. The institution is placed in the 61-70 band overall.

Malaysia is also seeking to strengthen its position as a regional education hub, aiming to enroll 250,000 international students by the end of the decade under its Education Development Plan.

THE's pilot Southeast Asia ranking includes universities from eight countries in the 11-member ASEAN bloc: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Institutions must have at least 1,000 scientific publications over the past five years to qualify. The organization said it plans to lower this threshold in future editions to allow more universities to participate.

By narrowing the focus to Southeast Asia, the ranking assigns more precise positions to regional universities, particularly those lower down the global list, offering new insights into the region’s higher education landscape, according to THE.

Phil Baty, THE's chief global affairs officer, said: "With such a huge and young population, and impressive economic growth, Southeast Asia is one of the most dynamic and most closely watched regions of the world – and THE's data shows very clearly that it is becoming an increasingly important global hub for higher education, research and innovation, with its universities making exciting strides up the world rankings.

"But the global focus of the rankings, and indeed, even an Asian focus, can obscure the exceptional pace of change specifically across the ASEAN bloc, and the success of key, individual universities. So we are really excited to focus our data, and the trusted world rankings performance metrics, to offer a closer, direct spotlight on the region."

He added that although the pilot list is a simple filter of the World University Rankings, "we are planning a richer, deeper and more inclusive analysis in future iterations, and urge all ambitious, research-active universities in the region to get involved and share data with us."