KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 16): University of Malaya (UM) is the best performing university in Malaysia, according to the recent release of Times Higher Education Emerging Economies University Rankings (THE-EEUR).

In UM's statement today, the university has been positioned at no. 18 in the ranking system, which placed it among the top 20 emerging economies universities.

The THE-EEUR system, which is now in its sixth year, includes a special group of 300 plus universities across 40 over countries classified by the British's Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) as advanced emerging, secondary emerging or frontier economies. Malaysia is classified as advanced emerging by the FTSE classification.

UM said it will continue to focus on strengthening its fundamentals through the many phases of its strategic plan.

"Through the UM Eco-Campus Blueprint (UMECB), UM has expanded its research focus on environment and sustainability matters linked to the United Nations Sustainability Goals (SDGs). Many initiatives outlined in the UMECB is promulgating UM's research orientation towards closer partnership in various industries and community," it said.

UM's vice-chancellor Datuk Ir (Dr) Abdul Rahim Hashim said the university's participation in the ranking system is to further improve its value proposition and to benchmark UM against other institutions of higher learning.

"UM aims to improve its linkages and collaboration with strategic industries and international partnerships in order to better prepare UM graduates to handle new technologies as the economy moves towards Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0. The challenge is how universities can handle these fast evolving smart technologies in this IR 4.0 era," he said.

He thanked the university community especially the staff and students for their commitment and contributions towards the achievement of the University's performance, and expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Education (MOE) for its unwavering support.

"I hope that the ministry will continue to provide stronger support so that UM could rise further in university rankings in the coming years," he added.