For the first time, Vietnam has 11 schools in the world's best university rankings.

For the first time, Vietnam has more than 10 representatives in the world's best university rankings, the largest number ever.

Danang University of Technology, a new representative of Vietnam, is included in this year's THE rankings.

PHOTO: DANANG UNIVERSITY

University rankings remain unchanged

On the morning of October 9, the UK's Times Higher Education (THE) announced the world's best university rankings in 2026. This year, Vietnam continued its growth momentum with two new names appearing: Nguyen Tat Thanh University in the 1,001-1,200 position, and Da Nang University in the 1,501+ group. This helps bring the total number of ranked schools to 11 and this is also the highest achievement our country has achieved in the three famous global rankings of the UK and China.

According to Dr. Tran Ai Cam, President of Nguyen Tat Thanh University, this result comes from "systematic investment in the teaching staff, laboratory system and research centers, along with promoting international publications and academic cooperation with schools and research institutes around the world." Being included in the world university reputation rankings for the first time is an important milestone, Dr. Cam shared in an official statement.

Notably, the remaining schools all maintained their rankings, with the No. 1 position in Vietnam still belonging to Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics (in the 501-600 group). Following that, Duy Tan University and Ton Duc Thang University continued to hold the 601-800 positions, while Hanoi Medical University was the last unit in the top 1,000 best universities in the world, ranked 801-1,000.

The remaining familiar faces are Ho Chi Minh City Open University and the following universities: Hanoi National University, Hanoi University of Technology, Hue University, Ho Chi Minh City National University all maintained their old positions. The detailed rankings of Vietnamese universities among 2,191 universities in 115 countries and territories are as follows:

School name	Ranking in 2026	Ranking in 2025
Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics	501-600	501-600
Duy Tan University	601-800	601-800
Ton Duc Thang University	601-800	601-800
Hanoi Medical University	801-1,000	801-1,000
Nguyen Tat Thanh University	1,001-1,200	Not rated yet
Ho Chi Minh City Open University	1,201-1,500	1,201-1,500
Vietnam National University, Hanoi	1,201-1,500	1,201-1,500
Hanoi University of Science and Technology	1,501+	1,501+
Danang University	1,501+	Not rated yet
Hue University	1,501+	1,501+
Ho Chi Minh City National University	1,501+	1,501+

On a 100-point scale, Hanoi Medical University leads Vietnam in teaching with 32 points, while Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, Duy Tan University and Ton Duc Thang University have strengths in research quality with 92.1 - 91.9 - 85.9 points, significantly different from Hanoi University of Science and Technology (30.5) and Ho Chi Minh City National University (31.6). On the contrary, in terms of research environment, the scores of the ranked schools are not much different, ranging from 9.4 to 21.8 points.

In terms of international prospects, Ton Duc Thang University ranked first (63) and the lowest was Ho Chi Minh City National University (33.1). Ton Duc Thang is also the only university with an international student ratio of up to 2%, according to THE. Meanwhile, the names that are considered to "master" the best technology transfer in Vietnam are Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, Hanoi Medical University with scores ranging from 66.1 to 44.8.

In 2020, for the first time, Vietnam had a school in the top universities in the world of THE with 3 universities: Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi National University, Ho Chi Minh City National University, all from the 801-1,000 group and above. Up to now, there have been many other schools with the highest rankings ever recorded belonging to Duy Tan University and Ton Duc Thang University, at positions 401-500 in 2022 and 2023.

What is the ranking method?

The method of ranking world universities of THE this year remains the same as last year, with 18 ranking criteria divided into 5 groups: research environment, technology transfer, research quality, teaching and international prospects. Each criterion will account for 2-15% of the weight in the final ranking results, except for the criterion "study abroad" which is only included without any weight.

The weight of the criteria for ranking the world's best universities by THE

PHOTO: SCREENSHOT

Of these, the three criteria groups with the highest weight are research quality (30%), teaching (29.5%) and research environment (29%). The data for ranking the world's best universities is based on scientific citation statistics, research publications, survey responses from scholars and many other public sources, THE added.

This year, the top 10 best universities in the world still belong to the US and UK, in which Oxford University (UK) continues to lead for the 10th year. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University (US) still hold the 2nd and 3rd positions, while Cambridge University (UK) moves up 2 places to joint 3rd place. Harvard University (US) drops 1 place to 5th place, tied with Stanford University (US) which moved up 1 place compared to last year.

THE is one of the most prestigious, experienced and influential university ranking organizations in the world, along with QS (UK) and Shanghai Ranking Consultancy (China). THE has been ranking universities since 2004 with QS, one year after the world first had a global university ranking published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (later Shanghai Ranking Consultancy).

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/lan-dau-tien-viet-nam-co-11-truong-vao-bang-xep-hang-dh-tot-nhat-the-gioi-185251009092219825.htm