UM, UKM, UPM & USM Ranked Among World’s Top 150 In QS World University Rankings 2026, UM Leads At 58th | WeirdKaya

Good news for Malaysians: our universities are climbing the global ranks once again.

The latest QS World University Rankings 2026 show major improvements from several local institutions, highlighting Malaysia’s growing presence in the international academic arena.

Four Malaysian universities have secured spots in the list, reaffirming the nation’s rising strength in higher education across Asia and beyond.

To start, here’s how Malaysia’s top-performing universities ranked in the QS 2026 list:

Together, these achievements place Malaysia firmly among the most competitive higher education systems in Southeast Asia.

More Malaysian universities see upward movement

The progress does not stop with the top four. Beyond them, several other Malaysian institutions also showed encouraging climbs in the QS 2026 rankings, signalling broader improvement across the nation’s university landscape, reported Relevan.

Here are the latest positions:

These upward shifts suggest that improvements are happening not just at the top, but across a wider segment of Malaysia’s higher education ecosystem.

How QS measures university performance

To understand the significance of these results, it helps to look at how the QS rankings are determined.

The QS 2026 evaluation uses eight indicators, combining long-standing academic metrics with newer measures that reflect modern expectations of universities.

The main indicators include:

On top of that, QS introduced three new indicators for the 2025/26 cycle, further expanding how university performance is measured:

Together, these metrics offer a more holistic look at how universities contribute to the modern world.

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