UTP surpasses UM as Malaysia’s top university in latest global university rankings

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS (UTP) has outperformed Universiti Malaya (UM) in the latest global university rankings issued by Times Higher Education.

In the 2025 World University Rankings, UTP has advanced to the top 250 ahead of UM, currently placed in the 251-300 bracket.

In 2024, UTP was placed in the 301-350 bracket, hence marking a significant leap while UM’s ranking remained the same, according to the World University Rankings’ 2025 edition.

The study’s methodology for its 2025 edition include 2,092 ranked universities with 185 new entries from 115 countries and territories.

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According to the 2025 World University Rankings, UTP recorded an improvement in several aspects listed in the study which include teaching, research environment, research quality, industry and international outlook.

In terms of teaching, UTP has recorded a two percent increase from 33.8% in 2024 to 36.8% 2025 while the university’s research environment also saw an increase from 37.8% in 2024 to 39.1% in 2025.

Furthermore, the university’s research quality leapt from 77.7% to 82.2%. However, the industry aspect of UTP recorded a significant leap from 67.9% in 2024 to 80.2% in 2025, recording a 12.3% improvement.

UTP’s international outlook, on the other hand, also improved by one percent from 77.8% in 2024 to 78% in 2025.

Besides that, Sunway University was recorded as the highest ranked private university in Malaysia, ranked in the top 500 globally while Management and Science University made its debut in the rankings placed at the 801-1,000 band.

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The top three universities in the study are University of Oxford ranked first, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in second place and Harvard University in third place.

Key insights of this research find that Oxford University has clinched the top spot for nine consecutive years while MIT rose to second place, overtaking Stanford, currently dropped to sixth place.

On the other hand, universities from three new countries, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have joined the top 200 rankings.