PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's oldest varsity continues to hold its spot as the nation’s top-ranked higher education institution in global rankings.
Universiti Malaya (UM) is ranked first among nine Malaysian institutions featured in the 2025 edition of the Global 2000 list by the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR).
However, on the global stage, UM dropped 12 spots from last year to the 411th position - due to declines in employability and research indicators.
Only a third of the Malaysian universities in this year’s Global 2000 list improved their positions from last year.
The universities that improved are Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, which climbed 10 spots to 810th; Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, which rose 13 spots to 1,738th; and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, which entered the list at 1,913th place.
The primary reason for the overall decline in rankings is weaker research performance, amid intensifying global competition from well-funded institutions.
The other five Malaysian universities in the Global 2000 are Universiti Sains Malaysia (785th), Universiti Putra Malaysia (845th), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (853rd), Universiti Teknologi Mara (1,581st), and the International Islamic University Malaysia (1,675th).
CWUR president Dr Nadim Mahassen said without stronger funding and strategic planning, Malaysia risks falling further behind in the rapidly evolving global academic landscape.
"While Malaysia has nine representatives among the world’s top universities, what is alarming is the slide of the nation’s academic institutions due to weakening research performance and limited financial backing from the government.
"At a time when several countries are placing the development of education and science high on their agenda, Malaysia is struggling to keep pace," he said.
CWUR's Global 2000 list is the only university performance table that measures the quality of education, employability, faculty quality, and research without relying on surveys and university data submissions.
For this year's edition, CWUR analysed 74 million outcome-based data points to rank universities worldwide.
Out of 21,462 universities evaluated, the top performers were included in the Global 2000 list - representing institutions from 94 countries.
For the 14th year in a row, Harvard University ranks first globally, followed by two other private institutions in the United States - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University.
The University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom - ranked fourth and fifth, respectively - are the world's highest-ranking public universities.
Asia’s top five universities this year are the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Seoul National University, Tsinghua University and Peking University.
Based in the United Arab Emirates, the CWUR is a consulting organisation providing policy advice, strategic insights and consulting services to governments and universities to improve educational and research outcomes.
The full rankings, released on Monday (June 2), can be found at https://cwur.org/2025.php.
