For the first time, Vietnamese university is ranked among the top 10 best research universities in Southeast Asia (ASEAN).
According to the Web of Science database or WoS (Clarivate, USA), in 2019 (until December 31, 2019), ASEAN countries have published a total number of 63,445 works in ISI journals (world-famous scientific journals). Among the top 10 universities in ASEAN region, there is only one representative from Vietnam – Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU), ranked 7/10.
Two universities from Singapore topped the list – National University of Singapore ranked as number one and Nanyang Technological University as number two.
It is interesting to note that the next 4 universities are very strong universities from Malaysia, in descending order: University of Malaya, University Putra Malaysia, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, University Sains Malaysia. The only representative from Vietnam is ranked 7th. Next are the top 2 universities in Thailand (Mahidol University and Chulalongkorn University). The 10th position is another representative from Malaysia, Malaysia University of Technology.
Thus, in total, Singapore has 2 universities, Malaysia has 5, Vietnam has 1 and Thailand has 2 universities in this TOP 10. Malaysia has had an overwhelming number of universities in the TOP 10 of ASEAN for strong research universities (accounting for 50%).
However, the total number of works in the ISI journals of these 5 universities in 2019 is 11,684, less than the total published works of 2 Singapore universities (12,995 works). This proves that Singapore's universities have reached a very high level in the region and the world.
As the only representative from Vietnam, TDTU was ranked among the top 25 research institutions in the ASEAN region in 2016-2018. In 2019, TDTU made a tremendous progress and a spectacular breakthrough to join the region's top 10 universities.
In the same year, TDTU was ranked 960 in the world, according to 2019 URAP Top 1000 and is the no.1 university in Vietnam according to ARWU. TDTU was also placed in top 200 best universities in the world for sustainable development according to THE 2019.
In the previous 3 years (2016, 2017, 2018), TDTU published 2372 ISI works, lower than Chulalongkorn University (6857), Mahidol University (7391) of Thailand; and much lower than Nanyang Technological University (20,049); and National University of Singapore (24,074). During that period, TDTU was only ranked 20th among the universities and 23rd in the TOP 25 of ASEAN's most outstanding scientific and technological research institutions and universities.
But just in 2019, TDTU researchers published 2130 ISI works, nearly the total number of works of 3 previous years surpassing the number of ISI works of Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University. The distance between TDTU and NUS is now significantly smaller -only 3.4 times and between TDTU and NYTU it is only 2.67 times instead of 10.14 times and 8.45 times respectively as in 3 years before 2019.
There is currently an exponential rate in TDTU's science-technology growth and the university aims to catch up with NUS in the next 7 to 10 years (including NUS's continued growth) if the two foundations for the university's sustainable development over the years are maintained: comprehensive university autonomy and effective university governance.
NGHIÊM HUÊ
