Rankings portfolio expands to support regional development

New World University Rankings derivatives for South-east Asia and Central Eurasia will support universities on their development trajectory

Published on
September 30, 2026
Last updated
September 30, 2026
Man holding a lotus flower at his shop in Hanoi, Vietnam. To illustrate the rankings portfolio expanding to support regional development.
Source: Nhac Nguyen/AFP via Getty Images

Explore the list of the world’s top universities


Times Higher Education is further expanding the reach and diversity of the World University Rankings.

I’m delighted to confirm that after successful pilot editions in 2026, two new regional derivatives of the World University Rankings will be published annually starting from this 2027 cycle: one covering South-east Asia and another including countries across Central Eurasia.

As part of our plans to help bring greater clarity to a rather busy global rankings landscape, the two new rankings will be derived directly from the World University Rankings, under the World University Ranking umbrella. They will be built on the same annual dataset as the overall world rankings and the same balanced combination of 17 performance metrics used to create the world rankings.

But the metrics weightings will be altered to reflect the areas’ different higher education and research policy priorities, and the minimum research publication entry threshold for the world ranking – 1,000 research papers in the past five years – will be lowered to support inclusive participation in the regional rankings.

ADVERTISEMENT

The methodological and data harmony with the overall world rankings will support universities on their development trajectory into the World University Rankings, if that is part of their strategic mission, and will open access to THE’s trusted global data benchmarking and insights for a wider range of institutions as they develop their research capacity and increase research output.

The new rankings will be added to current regional derivatives covering Asia, the Arab world and Latin America.

ADVERTISEMENT

The World University Rankings for South-east Asia will include all nations in the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN). The pilot edition of the Central Eurasia ranking included all full members of the Organization of Turkic States (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan), but THE will consult on including a wider range of nations in the region.

  • It is free to take part in all of Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings and derivatives. Universities must actively sign up and submit data through our data portal to be included. To register to take part in the rankings, email profilerankings@timeshighereducation.com

Register to continue

Why register?

  • Registration is free and only takes a moment
  • Once registered, you can read 3 articles a month
  • Sign up for our newsletter
Please
or
to read this article.

Related articles

Sponsored

Featured jobs

See all jobs
ADVERTISEMENT