The Times Higher Education YOUNG UNIVERSITY Rankings list the world's best universities that are 50 years or younger. The universities are judged on criteria based on the core business that any university aims at - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. These rankings provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons for students as well as other stakeholders. The 2021 ranking includes 475 universities.

Students searching for a course or university can use these rankings as a guide.These rankings benefit universities because they serve as a catalyst to attract the best brains and talent looking for a place to teach. Besides this, they provide international partners with information on universities for the purpose of affiliation.

When choosing which university to attend, it can be easy to get distracted by old established universities that have been around for way more than 50 years such as Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and the like. Students should not miss the wood for the trees. Attention should also be given to younger universities as their assessment is also based on the same methodology used for THE's World University Rankings with adjustments made to reflect on the strength and aspirations of these emerging young universities.

So, are university rankings important? The answer is yes. It can be well worth your time to carefully study how different universities rank in different subjects. Often, the right university for you wont be the one with the highest overall ranking. Rankings can be a useful guide to making a decision about whether an institution is going well in a specific academic area compared with its counterparts in any parts of the world.

The table below shows where some of the participating Malaysian universities stand in the world under THE ranking:

Young University Rankings 2021 by The Times Higher Education (THE)