Times Higher Education: Fast rising NTU Singapore a good case study for Asian universities and the world

SINGAPORE, Oct. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- NTU Singapore, a young, research-intensive Asian university, is one of the biggest risers in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings released today.

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Established less than 25 years ago, NTU Singapore has leapt 15 notches in this year's rankings to 61^st position, and with its upward trajectory in the last three years, looks set to break into the top 50 soon.

Phil Baty, the editor of THE World University Rankings, said, "NTU Singapore is the outstanding success story of the THE World University Rankings – it has moved up the prestigious league table an extraordinary 108 places in the last three years, making it the best performer in the top 200 in recent times. NTU is an exceptional achievement that stands as a case study for the rest of the region and the rest of the world."

For the second consecutive year, NTU scored full marks and maintained its No. 1 global position for industry income and innovation. This measures a university's knowledge transfer by looking at how much research income an institution earns from industry, scaled against the number of its academic staff. It is a testament to NTU's significant contribution to the Singapore economy and industrial employment.

NTU President, Professor Bertil Andersson, said, "The latest Times Higher ranking marks another milestone for our young university, which has also been on an upward trend in other global leagues. Our success formula – attract the best students, engage the best professors who are leading lights in their fields of research, and collaborate with the best industry and academic partners."

Professor Andersson, a Swedish biochemist with high international repute, has been instrumental in ramping up research at NTU Singapore as it transformed from a teaching university to a research-intensive university. An award-winning scientist himself, he has a longstanding association with the Nobel Foundation and was formerly the Chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Chemistry.

Amongst its international industry partners are Rolls Royce, BMW, Lockheed Martin and Johnson Mattey. Amongst its academic partners is Imperial College London, which established a joint medical school with NTU Singapore two years ago in its first overseas foray.

NTU Singapore's growing international reputation and its continued solid performance in terms of citations, teaching environment and research were behind its steep upward trend. It scored well in international outlook, as reflected in the diversity of its students and faculty on campus and the extent that its academics collaborate with their international counterparts on research projects.

On the importance of global collaboration and exposure, Prof Andersson said, "International partnerships are essential in research today, as many fundamental problems the world is facing require solutions that come from different perspectives and specialties.

"NTU Singapore itself is a microcosm of the world with students, professors and staff representing 100 nationalities. By interacting with people of different backgrounds and cultures on campus and overseas, our students, faculty and researchers benefit immensely from being exposed to different approaches and world views."

The latest ranking builds on NTU Singapore's impressive performance across other higher education league tables. Last week, the university took pole position in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Top 50 Under 50 rankings, a league of young universities 50 years old or younger.

In last month's QS World University Rankings, NTU Singapore made its best showing ever at 39th place. Its standing with international employers rose by 7 places to No. 35, its highest ever. More significantly, the University rose to 9th place for Engineering and Technology worldwide. This mirrors its results in the recent Shanghai Jiaotong Academic Ranking of World Universities, where NTU Singapore was placed 12th for Engineering globally and No. 1 in Asia.

Prof Andersson added that NTU offers students a vibrant campus life and global opportunities. The university's main campus was named one of the 15 Most Beautiful Campuses in the World by Travel & Leisure as well as one of the 10 Uniquely Stunning College Campuses From Around The World on Buzzfeed.

For more information on the Times Higher Education rankings, visit: www.timeshighereducation.co.uk.   

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Feisal Abdul Rahman
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Corporate Communications Office
Nanyang Technological University
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About NTU Singapore

NTU Singapore is a young, research-intensive university on a rapid global rise. Its eco-friendly campus, named one of the World's 15 Most Beautiful Campuses, is home to 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. In partnership with Imperial College London, NTU Singapore has a new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

Helmed by Professor Bertil Andersson, winner of the Wilhelm Exner Medal, an honour bestowed on the world's best scientists, the University is a melting pot of international award-winning scientists, young talents and eminent global partners such as BMW, Rolls-Royce and Lockheed Martin.

NTU Singapore has several world-class national institutes – the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute, Energy Research Institute @ NTU and the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight. 

A cosmopolitan university with more than 100 nationalities, NTU has three campuses - its main Yunnan Garden campus, a satellite campus in Singapore's science and tech hub, one-north, and a third campus in Novena, Singapore's medical district.

For more information, visit www.ntu.edu.sg. For a quick tour of the campus, watch this video.

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SOURCE NTU Singapore