While this is good news for Vietnam's higher education, some elements of the ranking result should be taken with a grain of salt.
In its newest 2019 publication, the QS World University Rankings — an annual university ranking publication — includes the Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City and in Hanoi in its list of 1,011 higher education institutions around the world, Dan Tri reports.
According to the list, the Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City belongs in the 701st-750th tier of school, while its Hanoi counterpart is in the 801st-1,000th tier. Moreover, the Vietnam National Universiy in Hanoi's Linguistic degree made the top 300 in the subject ranking subset.
Since 2015, Vietnam's universities have been listed in the Asia edition of the ranking, yet none has ever made it to the international list until now. In its 2018's Asia edition, Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh was ranked 142 out of over 400 universities evaluated, and the Hanoi campus was in the 139th position.
According to the QS website, the university's position was determined by six indicators including academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, and international student ratio.
However, the ranking criteria for the two Vietnam National universities — which can be accessed here and here — in the global list only consists of academic reputation and faculty/student ratio. As many have brought up QS Rankings' questionable methodology and data ethics in the past, these results should be considered with a healthy dose of skepticism.
[Photo via Huong Nghiep 24h]
