In the recently released Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE WUR) 2025 on Wednesday (9/10/2024), Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta (UMS) earned a spot in the 1201-1500 range globally.
The ranking placed UMS as the best private university in Indonesia alongside BINUS University. Both campuses achieved an overall score of 25.2-30.6.
Out of 31 public and private universities assessed, UMS and BINUS University secured second place among universities in Indonesia. They stand alongside prominent public universities such as Teknologi Bandung, Universitas Airlangga, Universitas Gadjah Mada, dan Universitas Sebelas Maret.
This marks UMS debut in the THE rankings, which are notoriously challenging for Indonesian universities to break into. UMS outperformed other private institutions, including Universitas Islam Indonesia, Telkom University, Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, and Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
UMS Vice Rector V, Prof. Supriyono, S.T., M.T., Ph.D., expressed pride in the university’s success, emphasizing that the THE rankings are notoriously challenging, even compared to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) rankings.
“This is truly a proud moment for UMS,” said Supriyono on Wednesday (9/10/2024).
Read more: THE WUR 2025 Names UMS as the Best Islamic University in Indonesia
THE WUR 2025 uses five key indicators: teaching (29.5%), research environment (29%), research quality (30%), industry impact (4%), and international outlook (7.5%).
UMS scored 16.3 in teaching, 9.2 in research environment, 58.2 in research quality, 17.6 in industry impact, and 31.2 in international outlook. Notably, UMS research quality score was the highest, ranking first nationally.
According to Supriyono, the research quality indicator was strongly influenced by the number of research published in Scopus, with UMS reaching over 2,500 publications. He suggested that the ratio between citations and publications played a crucial role in UMS strong performance in THE WUR 2025.
This success reflects UMS commitment to supporting its academic community in publishing their research in prestigious international journals, indexed by Scopus Q1, such as The Lancet, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Cancers, Life, Nature, Injury Prevention, Schizophrenia Bulletin, and BMC Medicine.
“Not every research gets accepted by these journals. Journals like The Lancet, Nature, and Cancers are extremely competitive when it comes to publishing,” Supriyono noted.
Read more: UMS Earns Global Recognition in THE Impact Rankings 2024
Despite this remarkable accolade, UMS still strives to improve its quality, particularly in the industry indicator, which was the university’s weakest. Two areas needing improvement in the coming years are securing more research funding from industry and increasing the number of patents developed by UMS researchers adopted by industry.
“We still have a great opportunity to improve our ranking by focusing on other indicators, such as teaching and the research environment. At the same time, we must work hard to maintain our high research quality,” said Supriyono.
In a separate interview, Gunawan Ariyanto, S.T., M.Comp.Sc, Ph.D., Head of UMS Office of Public Relation and Rankings, expressed optimism that UMS performance in THE WUR 2025 will drive further transformation, particularly in teaching and research. As evidenced by UMS efforts to prioritize research quality and the outputs it produces.
“In the past, we prioritized the quantity of research, such as the number of Scopus-indexed articles. Now, we are highly focused on enhancing the quality of the research itself,” Gunawan explained. This shift is evident in the growing number of UMS research outputs being published in high-impact, reputable international journals.
Gunawan aspired this achievement will inspire all departments at UMS to support the ongoing transformation efforts. The results of THE WUR 2025, he noted, demonstrate that UMS researchers can compete globally in terms of research quality.
“Hopefully, the progress of this transformation, both current and future, will be strengthened, so that our outputs in teaching and research will continue to improve,” he concluded.
Writer: Gede Arga Adrian, Maysali
Editor: Al Habiib Josy Asheva
Translator: Farizal Luqman Majid
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