Seven Vietnamese schools stand in the top 100 universities in Southeast Asia, July statistics from the 2011 Webometrics Ranking of World Universities show.
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They are the Vietnam National University – Hanoi (VNUH), Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), Can Tho University (CTU), Nong Lam University (HCMUAF), Lac Hong University (LHU), Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUT), and University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH).
VNUH ranks 29, followed by HUT (55), HCMUT (59), CTU (61), HCMUAF (84), UEH (95), and LHU (98).
The "Webometrics Ranking of World Universities" is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, the largest public research body in Spain.
It rates universities based on various web indicators to promote web publication, and to support open access initiatives and electronic access to scientific publications and other academic material, according to Dr Vu Thi Phuong Anh, director of the Centre for Educational Testing and Evaluation under the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City.
These web indicators are very useful for ranking purposes as they are not based on the number of visits or page designs but on the global performance and visibility of the universities, Webometrics says.
The ranking is not to compare schools in terms of education quality, Anh said, further explaining the higher a school stands, the better its website’s visibility is.
“Simply put, the website provides a wide range of scientific information, which is critical to a research institution like a university.”
A university’s position in the eye of the international scholastic community will become as good as it presents itself via its website, Anh said.
Seven is so small a number still, Anh said, referring to the number of Vietnamese schools in the ranking.
VNUH is also among Asia’s top 200 universities that provide the best education when it comes to natural sciences, engineering & technology, social sciences & management, and life sciences & medicine, according to the 2011 Asian University Rankings by Subject released in June by Quacquarelli Symonds, a UK-based company specializing in education and overseas study.
Vietnam has been trying to build world-class universities to catch up with other countries in the region.
It has particularly set a target to put one university in the world’s top 200 universities by 2020.
