SEMARANG – Universitas Diponegoro (UNDIP) again made an excellent achievement. According to THE World University Rankings of 2021 (WUR 2021) that is just been released, Undip is in an honourable position as the 6th best university in Indonesia.

Around 4.500 universities in Indonesia, there are only 9 that can enter the assessment of THE WUR 2021. This year assessment is carried out on more than 1.500 universities from 93 countries and regions. The large number and origin of universities make the rankings by this institution becomes the largest and the most diverse assessment that is ever held.

UNDIP’s Rector, Prof Dr Yos Johan Utama SH Mhum, conveyed his gratitude for the achievements attained. He said that UNDIP had obtained quite high quality on Research aspect, Citations, Industry Income, and International Outlook. It means that the research activities by the Undip’s academicians are recognized for their quality by the academicians and both domestic and foreign industrial circles.

The top best universities in Indoesia are Universitas Indonesia (UI), Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), Universitas Gajah Mada (UGM), Insitut Pertanian Bogor, and Universitas Diponegoro (Undip). The basis of the rankings are using 13 performance indicators that are carefully calibrated with five basic areas namely teaching, research, citation (research impact), knowledge transfer and international outlook. The rankings results are based on the analysis of more than 80 million citations, around 13 million research publications, along with the survey responses on 22.000 students all around the world.

Top 9 Indonesian Universities by THE World University Rankings of 2021

Source: Analysis dan Data Processing from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2021/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/locations/ID/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/scores

In the world ranking, Oxford University is managed to stay on the top position for five years in a row, while Tsinghua University is managed to be the first Asian University that can be in the top 20 best universities in the world this year. 8 by 10 best universities in the world come from the United States of America namely, Stanford University, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, the “new entry” mostly come from India.

The rankings are given by putting weight on each criterion that is being analyzed. The teaching aspect (the learning environment) is weighted by 30% which consists of the staff to student ratio, the comparison between the number of doctoral students and the bachelor students, the number of teachers with a doctorate qualification, available infrastructure and facilities for the staff and students.

Meanwhile, the research aspect is seen from the number and reputation that is rated 30%. The main indicator for this category is based on the annual survey of the assessment of research results by the experts in each field (Academic Reputation Survey). The productivity is rated from the number of Elsevier Scopus indexed academic journals per graduate that is compared to the normalized university’s size by subject. It gives an overview of the university’s capability to publish quality peer-reviewed journals.

As a note, since last year the WUR has designed a method to give awards on a scientific article with a subject where the university declares it does not have staff in that field.

The citation aspect or the research influence also gets a weight of 30%. This indicator sees the role of the university aspect in broadening the knowledge and new ideas. The assessment on this aspect is carried out by testing more than 86 million citations over 13,6 journal articles, review articles, proceedings and books published within the last five years. The number of data includes 24.000 indexed Elsevier Scopus academic journals during the 2015 – 2020 period. The citation aspect gives an overview of how each university gives their contribution towards the development of science which among them is through the dissemination of research results to the world academic community.

The international outlook aspect is assessed through the number of international students either from bachelor or master program, and the article writing collaboration with the international academician. Whereas, the industry income aspect is rated through the university’s capability in helping the industrial world with innovation, invention and consultation. So that, the industrial world can get the benefit of the science development.

As a note, WUR can remove one university from the assessment list if it has no students in bachelor degrees or the research result does not reach 1.000 publications per five years (minimum of 150 each year). A university can also be removed from the list if 80 per cent or more of the research results only apply to one subject category.

Source: undip.ac.id