Local universities climb QS rankings in latest tables

The University of Macau has ranked 387th in the newly released QS World University Rankings, 56 places higher compared to its ranking last year.

As one of two Macau institutions to make the ranking, the public university scored 28.7 points out of 100 overall, while its academic reputation scored 11.2 points.

The university’s ranking in the QS World University Rankings has improved compared to 2015, when it ranked 701. It was only last year that UM made it to 443rd position after it had been in the top 501-550 for two consecutive years.

Meanwhile, Macau’s Institute for Tourism Studies, ranked 14th worldwide and 2nd in Asia among higher education institutions in hospitality and leisure management, according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020.

The institution – which ranked first in Macau – said that it was the highest rank the institute had achieved since the ratings service began covering the subject in 2017. 

Last year, the institute was 33rd in the same subject ranking.

In the QS Asia University rankings, the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and the University of Hong Kong were the top 3 respectively.

Tsinghua University, Peking University and Zhejiang University followed, retaining their rankings as China’s top three universities.

Meanwhile, the top universities in Hong Kong saw a drop in their rankings, which reflected the decline in the competitiveness of research in the neighboring SAR.

According to a report issued by the South China Morning Post, QS director of research Ben Sowter said that the anti-government protest did not have an impact upon this year’s university rankings. The anti-government protests began in June.

Sowter said that the data was collected between January and April 2019, and that analysis was only conducted in October to December.

“What happened in 2019 is yet to be manifested in the results; we will see that over the next three years,” Sowter said.

The subjects of politics and international studies suffered the sharpest declines, slipping to 31st from 16th last year.

However, HKU remained the world’s fourth-best institution for dentistry.

In an alternative ranking, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 published in September last year, the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) was the top-rated university in the region.

According to the guide, the current top university in the city was placed in the top “251 to 300” range for all higher education institutions worldwide.

The University of Macau followed, placing in the “301 to 350” range, similar to its previous rankings. The two universities are the only ones in the Special Administrative Region to make it onto the list. MUST had an overall score of 46.9 to 50.1 out of 100, according to the ranking, while UM scored 44.5 to 46.8.