Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) has made its debut in the inaugural Times Higher Education (THE) Asia-Pacific University Ranking (APUR) 2017, ranked at the 131-140 band.

In Malaysia, UTP is ranked third after Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. This ranking has also positioned UTP higher than Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.  Other universities that made the rankings were Universiti Teknologi MARA and Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Vice Chancellor Datuk Ir (Dr) Abdul Rahim Hashim said UTP is proud of this achievement and it will continue to strive up the rankings.

"This recent achievement bears testimony of our hard work and diligence in support of the university's journey towards achieving global prominence," he said.

THE APUR 2017 analysed universities across 38 nations in East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania. It has ranked and featured the best 243 universities in the Asia-Pacific region this year.

The ranking is assessed based on 13 performance indicators that are grouped into five main areas - teaching (the learning environment), research (volume, income and reputation), citations (research influence), international outlook (staff, students and research) and industry income (knowledge transfer).

In APUR, there is less weightage on the subjective aspect of perception based reputation in the assessment, which is relatively fair in reflecting the generally younger profile of the institutions within the region. APUR puts more weightage on other abilities and performance indicators amongst which include the learning environment in the university, research capability and international outlook.

Apart from THE Asia-Pacific University Rankings 2017, UTP also made it to the THE World University Rankings (601-800 band) and ranked 91st in THE BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2017.  It is the first and only private university in Malaysia to appear in the rankings.