THE (Times Higher Education) is one of the three most influential university ranking organizations in the world, alongside two other ranking systems, QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) and ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities). In addition to the World University Rankings, THE also develops regional-specific rankings such as the Asia University Rankings, the Asia University Rankings, the Young University Rankings, the Latin America University Rankings, etc. In particular, the Emerging Economies University Rankings has attracted the attention of countries whose education is shaping and developing, including Vietnam.

This ranking focuses on higher education institutions in countries and territories of emerging economies according to the FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) ranking. These countries are classified as “Advanced emerging”, “Secondary emerging” and “Frontier”. In THE's 2022 ranking, the countries and territories of emerging economies include:

• “Advanced emerging” group include: Brazil, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey.
• “Secondary emerging” group include: Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.
• “Frontier” group include: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Bulgaria, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Ghana, Iceland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Oman, Palestine, Peru, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Tunisia, Vietnam.

The total number of higher education institutions in this group eligible for ranking in 2022 is 698 institutions in 50 countries.

The ranking methodology is based on 13 calibrated performance indicators which are grouped into five areas: Teaching, Research, Citations, International outlook, and Industry income. The methodology is basically the same as the one used in the world university rankings but the weights are adjusted to match the characteristics of universities in developing countries.

In the ranking period of 2022 (published by THE on October 19, 2021), Vietnam has 5 ranked higher education institutions, of which Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU) is listed for the first time with the position 82/698, the highest among Vietnamese universities.