University rankings 2025: How universities in Southeast Asia fare

The National University of Singapore ranks as the top university in the region, coming in 17th worldwide.

The National University of Singapore has reached what is said to be its highest ranking yet in the Times Higher Education's World University Rankings 2025, at 17^th place globally. This also makes it the top university in Southeast Asia and ASEAN, and third in Asia.

Within Asia, China edges closer to the top 10, with Tsinghua University in 12^th place as the highest ranked Asian university. 

Globally, the University of Oxford has once again maintained its top spot, making it the number one university globally for the ninth year in a row. In second place, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is now the US’ highest-ranked university having overtaken Stanford, which dropped to sixth. Just making it into the top three, Harvard University has moved risen the ranks from fourth place the previous year.

The full top 10 universities globally are as follows.  

For further details, here are the top two-three universities in individual selected Southeast Asian markets:

Singapore

• National University of Singapore — 17^th place globally.
• Nanyang Technological University — 30^th place globally.

Malaysia

• Universiti Teknologi Petronas — 201^st to 250^th place globally.
• University of Malaya — 251^st to 300^th place globally.
• Sunway University — 401^st to 500^th place globally.

Thailand

• Chulalongkorn University — 601^st to 800^th place globally.
• Mahidol University — 601^st to 800^th place globally.
• King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi — 801^st to 1,000^th place globally.

Vietnam

• UEH University — 501st to 600th place globally.
• Duy Tan University — 601st to 800th place globally.
• Ton Duc Thang University — 601st to 800th place globally.

Indonesia

• University of Indonesia — 801^st to 1,000^th place globally.
• Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) — 1,201^st to 1,500^th place globally.
• BINUS University — 1,201^st to 1,500^th place globally.

Philippines

• Ateneo de Manila University — 1,001^st to 1,200^th place globally.
• University of the Philippines — 1,201^st to 1,500^th place globally.
• De La Salle University — 1,501^st+ place globally.

Finally, let's have a look at the top three universities over in Hong Kong:

• University of Hong Kong — 35^th place globally.
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong — 4^4th place globally.
• The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology — 66^th place globally.

Full rankings here. 

Methodology

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings judge research-intensive universities across all their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

It uses 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators that aim to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons, trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments. One of the metrics (study abroad) currently has zero weight but will be counted in the future.

The performance indicators are grouped into five areas: Teaching (the learning environment); Research environment (volume, income and reputation); Research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence and research influence); International outlook (staff, students and research), and Industry (income and patents). 

Head over here for details on these areas, alongside the full methodology.

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