The University of Indonesia (UI) was named the best university in Indonesia and ranked seventh in Southeast Asia in the annual World University Rankings (WUR) 2020 released by the Times Higher Education (THE), a media and data provider underpinning university excellence in every continent across the world.

This year’s ranking includes 1,400 universities in 92 countries, with the University of Oxford, California Institute of Technology and University of Cambridge in the top three.

Similar to previous years, UI is ranked in the range of 601-800 in the world.

In addition to UI, the list also includes five other local universities, namely Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), Brawijaya University, Gajah Mada University and Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology. However, the other universities are ranked in the range of 1000+ in the world.            

The WUR is the only university ranking that is independently audited by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC)

The ranking system uses 13 calibrated performance indicators grouped into five areas, namely teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.

UI rector Muhammad Anis said in a statement that the university had been improving, which was shown by THE's ranking.

As the country’s best university, Anis said the institution was currently focused on being a think tank and solving problems in society.

“With a focus on three research groups, namely health, social humanities and technological science, UI is committed to producing solutions that are beneficial to industry and society,” said Anis. (jes/kes)