Vietnamese schools all fall in US rankings of best global universities

This year, many Vietnamese schools were also absent from the US News & World Report's ranking of the best universities globally, in contrast to the upward trend a year ago.

Duy Tan University in Da Nang is the only school to move up in the US News & World Report's World University Rankings for the 2025-2026 academic year.

PHOTO: DUY TAN UNIVERSITY

A school moves up in the university rankings

On June 17, the US News & World Report (US News) in the US announced the ranking of the best universities in the world for the 2025-2026 school year. Among 2,550 higher education institutions from 105 countries and territories, Vietnam has 8 representatives, down 1 compared to last year. Among them, there is a new unit, Da Nang University, and 2 schools that have dropped out of the ranking, Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City National University.

The complete absence of two Vietnamese national universities from the top US rankings has caused many surprises. Previously, in the 2024-2025 school year, Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City National University both made spectacular moves to 844th (up 126 places) and 865th (up 251 places). The two schools have also appeared in the US News rankings for many years and it is unclear why this ranking is no longer appearing, although a member school of Ho Chi Minh City National University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, is still present.

This year, Vietnam continues to lead the way with Duy Tan University in Da Nang, ranked 288th in the world (up 8 places compared to the 2024-2025 period). This is also the only Vietnamese university to rise in this period. Among the top 1,000 best universities in the world are Ton Duc Thang University (ranked 383, down 130 places) and Nguyen Tat Thanh University (ranked 810, down 80 places), all located in Ho Chi Minh City.

Following that, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology fell 127 places to 1,717th place while Hanoi University of Technology fell 93 places to 1,803rd place. The downward trend continued for schools outside the top 2,000, with Hue University falling 10 places to 2,016th place and Can Tho University falling 44 places to 2,087th place. Meanwhile, Da Nang University successfully debuted at 2,037th place in the world.

School name	Ranking 2026	Ranking 2025
Duy Tan University	288	296
Ton Duc Thang University	383	253
Nguyen Tat Thanh University	810	730
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology	1,717	1,590
Hanoi University of Science and Technology	1,803	1,710
Hue University	2,016	2,010
Danang University	2,037	Not rated yet
Can Tho University	2,087	2,043

In addition to the 8 representatives mentioned above, 8 Vietnamese units were named but did not meet the requirements to be included in the general ranking, including Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hanoi University of Medicine, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, Military Technical Academy (Hanoi) and Vietnam Academy of Agriculture (Hanoi). Among them, Hanoi Medical University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics were also on the unranked list last year.

However, if we only consider the university rankings by subject group, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics is ranked 48th in the world in economics and business, while the clinical medicine group at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy is ranked 821st and the plant and animal science group at Vietnam National University of Agriculture is ranked 666th. The Military Technical Academy, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education are ranked 1,381st, 1,396th and 1,401st respectively in the field of engineering.

University of Science and Technology, University of Danang

PHOTO: DANANG UNIVERSITY

Hanoi Medical University alone has two fields ranked, in which the field of public health, environmental health, and occupational health is ranked 77th in the world, and the field of clinical medicine is ranked 521st in the world. Another school that also has two fields ranked is Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, with the field of computer science ranked 687th and engineering ranked 314th.

What is the university ranking method?

According to US News, to be ranked, universities must have at least 1,250 articles published in scientific journals from 2019 to 2023. Then, schools will be evaluated based on analysis of the Web of Science and InCites databases provided by Clarivate (UK) based on 13 criteria, divided into 3 groups: academic reputation, bibliometrics and research excellence.

Some criteria that can be mentioned are global research reputation, regional research reputation, number of scientific publications in the top 10% most cited group (together accounting for 12.5 %) , number of scientific publications, percentage of publications in the top 10% most cited group, standardized citation impact (together accounting for 10%)...

Dr. LaMont Jones, editor of the education section at US News, said the Best Global Universities rankings provide useful reference criteria for those considering studying abroad or wanting to do scientific research at globally influential schools. According to Mr. Jones, the ranking method aims to measure the global and regional research reputation and research performance of universities.

Of the 2,250 universities ranked by US News, 397 are from China, far more than the number of universities in the US (280). The remaining three countries with the most number of universities ranked first are India (118), Japan (104), and the UK (93). Despite the overwhelming number, in the top 10 best universities in the world, the US and the UK each have 7 with 3 representatives, in which the top three positions belong to the US, respectively Harvard University (1), MIT (2), and Stanford University (3).

US News is one of the prestigious and experienced university ranking organizations, along with the rankings of QS, THE (UK) and Shanghai Ranking Consultancy (China). This organization started ranking universities and high schools in the US since 1983. In 2014, US News published its first ranking of the best universities in the world with 500 schools from 49 countries and territories.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/truong-viet-dong-loat-tut-bac-tren-bang-xep-hang-dh-tot-nhat-toan-cau-cua-my-185250620155519391.htm