USM climbs 149 places in Academic Ranking of World Universities, now Malaysia’s top university

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has risen to become Malaysia’s top-ranked university in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2026, climbing 149 places to rank 581st globally. — Picture via Facebook/Universiti Sains Malaysia

First Published: Sunday, 16 Aug 2026 7:59 PM MYT

GEORGE TOWN, Aug 16 — Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has risen to become Malaysia’s top-ranked university in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2026, climbing 149 places to rank 581st globally.

In a statement today, USM said the achievement marked an improvement from its 730th position last year and saw it move from third place nationally in 2025 to first place this year.

USM said the achievement was significant as ARWU, also known as ShanghaiRanking, evaluates universities based on academic and research performance rather than reputation or perception alone.

The ranking assesses factors including Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winners among alumni and staff, highly cited researchers (HiCi) recognised by Clarivate, publications in Nature and Science journals, publications indexed in the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), as well as academic performance per capita.

“Thirty per cent of the overall ARWU assessment is related to Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winners, while another 20 per cent is allocated to HiCi, meaning half of the evaluation is directly linked to world-class academic achievements and researchers with highly influential citations,” it said.

USM said more than 2,500 universities worldwide are assessed by ARWU annually, with only the top 1,000 included in the ranking, making its 149-place rise within a year a significant achievement.

In ARWU 2026, USM recorded strong performance in the Publication (PUB) indicator, ranking 424th globally, while its HiCi indicator improved to 503rd worldwide.

USM said the improvement in HiCi reflected that research produced by its academics was increasingly being cited, utilised and contributing to global knowledge development.

It said ARWU differs from rankings that focus solely on the number of publications as it also evaluates the influence of researchers and research outputs at the international level.

USM, an APEX university, said the rise from 730th to 581st globally and from third to first place in Malaysia reflected the strengthening of its overall research ecosystem. — Bernama