KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) ranks 98th in the Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings 2019, climbed up 16 ranks from 114 places in 2018.

UTP is ranked second in the nation after Universiti Malaya and first among private universities in Malaysia.

According to UTP vice-chancellor Prof Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Mutalib, the university’s achievement in the rankings was a testament of its outstanding and continuous achievement in the international arena.

"This achievement is a tribute to the hard work, support and commitment demonstrated by the entire university community, our partners and collaborators as well as Petronas. This is indeed a shared success as UTP has been persistent in ensuring focused execution in realising its vision and mission.

"We will continue with our emphasis on strategies leading towards academic leadership, research stewardship, students’ experience and operational excellence in our quest to become globally prominent,” he said in a statement today.

Mohamed Ibrahim said the establishment of UTP Centre for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETaL) was proof that UTP was serious in ensuring its graduates were able to overcome the 21st-century challenges, solve issues and problems relating to sustainable development as well as become agile and adaptable for the forthcoming Industry 4.0.

In relation to this, UTP is planning to introduce four new academic programmes namely Bachelor of Materials Engineering, Bachelor of Business Management, Master of Science in Corrosion Engineering and Master of Science in Industrial Environmental Engineering, he said.

The university has also maintained its high employment rate of 90 per cent as its graduates are employed within six months of graduation, he added. — Bernama