PUBLISHED : 30 Sep 2023 at 04:00
Higher Education Science Research and Innovation (MHESI) Minister Supamas Isarabhakdi has praised 19 Thai universities for being listed in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2024.
This year’s ranking included 1,904 universities from 108 countries and regions. As part of that, THE analysed more than 134 million citations across 16.5 million research publications, including survey responses from 68,402 scholars.
Each university is judged in five categories: teaching (the learning environment); research environment (volume, income and reputation); research quality (citation impact, research strength, excellence and influence); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry (income and patents).
The University of Oxford topped the ranking for the eighth year in a row, while Stanford University moved up to second place, pushing Harvard University down to fourth. Ms Supamas said yesterday that among the 19 Thai universities, four universities had a better ranking than last year.
Chulalongkorn and Mahidol are Thailand’s top universities, ranked in the 601-800 world range. The ranking was an improvement on the 801-1,000 range last year. Chiang Mai University placed in the 801-1,000 range, improving from the 1,001-1,200 range. Lastly, Walailak University ranked in the 1,201-1,500 range from the previous rank of 1,501+. The University of Phayao was newly listed in the ranking and was placed in the 1,501+ bracket.
Ms Supamas said on Friday that the rankings pointed to Thai universities’ potential and academic excellence, which resulted from MHESI boosting the quality of universities and personnel, management, research and foreign cooperation.
“The ministry aims to see Thai universities reach the top 400 in the world,” she said.