Asean has two top-30 universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025

Asean has two world top-30 universities for the first time ever in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2025. The National University of Singapore (NUS) moved up to 17th place, up from 19th last year, while Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) is 30th, up two places from last year.

Other highlights include:

- Universiti Teknologi Petronas is Malaysia’s highest ranked institution and joins the top 250 for the 1st time in band 201–250, up from band 301-350 last year.

- Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University are Thailand’s highest-ranked universities, both in band 601–800 (unchanged from last year). Maejo University debuted this year in band 1201-1500 – ahead of eight Thai universities.

- The University of Indonesia, has remained in band 801-1000 since last year and retained its No. 1 position in Indonesia.

- Ateneo de Manila University is the highest-ranked university in the Philippines in band 1001–1200, and is also the country’s highest-ranked university since joining the rankings in 2023.

- Vietnam’s UEH University debuted in band 501–600 while Universiti Brunei Darussalam in Brunei Darussalam is the country’s highest-ranked institution, in the same band.

- Australia’s top five universities have all slipped down the rankings.

Asean universities in the top 800 of the THE World University Rankings 2025

University	Country	Rank 2025	Rank 2024
National University of Singapore	Singapore	17	19
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore	30	32
Universiti Teknologi Petronas	Malaysia	201–250	301–350
University of Malaya	Malaysia	251–300	251–300
Sunway University	Malaysia	401–500	601–800
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia	Malaysia	401–500	401–500
Universiti Sains Malaysia	Malaysia	401–500	401–500
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia	Malaysia	401–500	401–500
Universiti Utara Malaysia	Malaysia	401–500	401–500
UEH University	Vietnam	501–600	NR
Universiti Brunei Darussalam	Brunei Darussalam	501–600	401–500
Chulalongkorn University	Thailand	601–800	601–800
Duy Tan University	Vietnam	601–800	601–800
Mahidol University	Thailand	601–800	601–800
Ton Duc Thang University	Vietnam	601–800	601–800
Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah (UMPSA)	Malaysia	601–800	601–800
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris	Malaysia	601–800	601–800
Universiti Putra Malaysia	Malaysia	601–800	501–600
Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN)	Malaysia	601–800	601–800

Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings. See the full list at https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Three new countries have joined the top 200, including KSA and the UAE, bringing the total to 30 countries.

A record 93 Asean universities were ranked this year, up from 80 last year. Indonesia boasts the most newcomers with seven new universities ranked; the highest-ranked is Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta in band 1201-1500.

Indonesia also has the most-ranked universities from Asean, with 31 institutions represented. Malaysia has the second-most ranked institutions with 23 in Asean, and Thailand is third with 20.

Of Malaysia’s 23 universities, four rose in the rankings, with Sunway University in Malaysia jumping forward to join the top 500 in band 401-500, up from band 601–800 last year. Meanwhile, newcomer Management & Science University (MSU) joined the rankings in band 801-1000. Elsewhere in Malaysia, three universities had lower rankings, and 15 stayed in the same position.

The number of Thai universities increased from 19 last year to 20 this year, with Maejo University debuting strongly in band 1201-1500 – higher than eight other Thai universities.

The Philippines had six universities ranked this year, up from five last year.

The rankings assess research-intensive universities across 18 performance indicators, which are divided into five pillars, covering the core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internationalisation. Pillarwise, Malaysia scored well in the research excellence and research influence metrics, and it is particularly successful in the international metrics.

The industry pillar, which measures the exchange between academia and industry, was Thailand’s strongest pillar, however, this has been declining over time relative to the rest of the world. Conversely, its research quality and research environment pillars have been improving since 2019.

While three out of the 31 Indonesian universities fell in the rankings, none improved their position. There were seven new entrants this year, and 21 remained in the same band.

Compared with last year, Indonesian universities, on average, improved by 0.6 points, most of which is driven by research influence and research excellence. Compared with the Asian average, Indonesian universities underperformed in all metrics except two – studying abroad and international staff. Its worst metrics were patents, research strength and research excellence.

Philippine universities underperformed against the Asian average across most metrics except student-staff ratio, studying abroad and international co-authorship. Its worst-performing metric compared with the Asian average was research strength.

The industry pillars have been growing significantly in Singapore, as have research quality and research environment. However, the international pillar has been declining in the last five years relative to the rest of the world.

Across most of Asean a lack of qualified effective academics, who are equipped to lead universities there, has contributed to holding back higher education in those countries. Phil Baty, Times Higher Education Chief Global Affairs Officer, said: 

Singapore

“Singapore’s status as a world-class hub for higher education, research and innovation talent is well and truly established, with Times Higher Education’s data now showing that the dynamic city state has two world top-30 universities for the first time ever. It is a remarkable achievement and testament to strong support for universities and R&D as fundamental to the success of the nation and the centring of human talent as Singapore’s greatest resource.”

Malaysia

“Transformations are taking place in Malaysian higher education, including attracting more international students as part of its efforts to globally promote its universities as well as growing research strength, which is paying dividends as a university breaks into the top 250 of the THE World University Rankings 2025. As Malaysia emerges as a strengthening global education hub, we expect to see further success in the world’s most comprehensive and rigorous university rankings in the years to come.”

Thailand

The Thai government is supporting its universities to deliver maximum social and economic impact, and they are emerging as world leaders on the sustainable development goals, which bodes well for their international partnerships and their global academic standing. However, concerns have been raised about a ‘publish or perish’ mindset in Thai research, with too much focus on the quantity of research outputs over their quality. Our rankings methodology values quality over quantity, so we look forward to supporting the sector with data insights and practical support to strengthen the research base."

Indonesia

"It is fantastic to see the participation of Indonesia who have 31 institutions represented, the most in the Asean region and who boast the most newcomers with seven new universities ranked."

The world’s highest-ranked higher education institution is the UK’s University of Oxford, which has maintained the top spot for a record nine years in a row. Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US is the second highest ranked university in the world and in third place is Harvard University.

The THE World University Rankings started with 200 universities. The 21st edition of the rankings has 2,092 universities ranked – up from 1,907 last year – from 115 countries and regions.

This year 2,860 institutions submitted data, up 6.9% from last year, representing 133 countries and territories. The remaining 768 institutions gained “reporter” status, which means, although they submitted data, they did not meet THE’s eligibility criteria to receive a ranking.

Explore

View the full World University Rankings 2025 results at https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Southeast Asian universities rise in the Times Higher Education university rankings

Tsinghua University in mainland China has topped Times Higher Education’s (THE's) Asia University Rankings 2024, retaining its No. 1 spot for the 6th year in a row. In second place is Peking University, which is 2nd for the 5th year in a row. 

Taking third place is National University of Singapore (NUS), which has also maintained its position for the 5th consecutive year. Besides NUS, Singapore has Nanyang Technological University in the ranking. The university up one place, from 5th to 4th this year. 

Meanwhile, mainland China’s representation in the top 10 has increased to five, up from four last year. The advances come at the expense of Hong Kong universities, with one fewer institution in the top 10 against three last year.

Japanese universities had significantly higher scores in this year’s research quality pillar due to the addition of a new research influence metric. Institutions such as the University of Tokyo moved from 8th last year to 5th, and Kyoto University jumped from 18th last year to 13th.

Top 10 universities in THE’s Asia University Rankings 2024

1 Tsinghua University, mainland China (2023 1st)

2 Peking University, mainland China (2023 2nd)

3 National University of Singapore, Singapore (2023 3rd)

4 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2023 5th)

5 The University of Tokyo, Japan (2023 8th)

6 University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (2023 4th)

7 Shanghai Jiao Tong University, mainland China (2023 tied for 9th)

8 Fudan University, China (2023 tied for 9th)

9 Zhejiang University, China (2023 12th)

10 Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (2023 6th)

Source: Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2024 

Seventeen of Thailand’s 19 universities either moved up or maintained their position in this year’s ranking. The country’s top three institutions are: Chulalongkorn University, which is ranked 117; Mahidol University, ranked 139; and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, ranked 192. All rose from 201–250 rankings last year.

While most of Indonesia’s 24 universities maintained their position in the ranking there are two notable exceptions. The University of Indonesia jumped up from 251–300 last year to 201–250 this year, and Universitas Gadjah Mada shot up from 401–500 last year to 351–400 in 2024.

Seventy more universities are ranked this year than last, totalling 739 this year. This is a 10.5% increase, from 31 countries/regions, while a further 388 are listed as having reporter status*. Many of the newly-ranked institutions are in west or south Asia.

Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s Chief Global Affairs Officer said: “We have tracked the impressive rise of China in the global rankings for two decades now, but what we can clearly see now is that the rising tide in Asia is lifting all boats.

“While China’s leading universities now compete at the very top of the world rankings, our data shows a strengthening across Asia, where a healthy competition, more collaboration, more investment in research and university capacity and more internationalisation is driving up performance. It all amounts to hugely positive tectonic shifts in higher education from the west to the wast, with real excellence demonstrated in East Asia and Southeast Asia in particular and well beyond.

“Another significant highlight is the growth of other regional powerhouses including India, Japan and increasingly Thailand, all of which show a continuous improvement in Asian countries’ higher education systems, which must be seen against the backdrop of an increasingly highly competitive higher education environment in the region.”

This is the 12th edition of THE’s the Asia University Rankings. Japan had the most universities in the rankings with 119 entries, followed by India with 91, up from 75 last year. The country’s highest-ranked institution is the Indian Institute of Science at 32nd place, up from 48th. In 3rd place is mainland China with 86 universities. 

Turkey has 75 universities, up from 61 last year. The top two – Koç University and Middle East Technical University – share 69th place, while Istanbul Technical University rose from joint 149th to 92nd. Iran is the fifth-most represented country with 73 universities.

Details

The methodology behind the Asia University Rankings is based on the same framework as the World University Rankings, but the weightings are recalibrated to reflect the priorities of Asian institutions. Check the Asia University Rankings 2024 methodology. THE revised and improved its methodology for its World University Rankings 2024, adding new metrics relating to research quality and patents. The methodological change has highlighted performances from universities in research that were not previously completely visible.

The addition of the new patent metric, part of the industry pillar, allows the transfer of knowledge from academia to industry to be measured. Nineteen Asian universities scored 100 on this metric, with four institutions each from Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea achieving this. 

*Reporter status means that although the institution submitted data, it did not meet THE’s eligibility criteria to receive a ranked position.

2019 Passport Index shows smaller nations making greater gains

Source: Arton Capital website. The Global Mobility 
Barometer 2019.

The 2019 Passport Index Report has seen smaller nations surfing higher in the ranks.

Kicking off the Top 10 Greatest Passports of the Decade is the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu in 10th place, showing a 70% increase in its passport power after gaining 53 visa waivers.

Timor Leste comes next in 9th place with +55 visa waivers, jumping from 86th position on the global rankings, to 48th place. Micronesia takes 8th place with a 116 Mobility Score after gaining 57 visa waivers.

At the top of the rank as the world's Greatest Passport of the Decade is the UAE, gaining a total of +111 visa waivers, most of which have been agreed in the last three years. China was one of the lowest-placed countries 10 years ago, but has gained 37 points to reach a Mobility Score of 80 today.

In 2019 the UAE preserved its global lead, adding another 12 countries to its mobility score. Qatar, Macau, and Indonesia have also shown progress in the power of their passport this past year. Qatar gained +12 visa waivers through 2019, while Macau and Indonesia added +10 to their passport power. Brunei ended the year with nine more visa waivers.

Another country of note in the list of The Fastest-Growing Passports of 2019 is KSA, Arton Capital said. It also has nine additional visa waivers.

The war in Syria has forced it down to 3rd place in rankings for the world's weakest passport. In 2010 Syria was not even on the bottom 10 list. The authors for the Passport Index note that there is a correlation between the economic and political state of a country and the power of its passport, which can also be seen in bottom 10 places such as Yemen and the Palestinian Territories.

According to the report's World Openness Score, the world is 54% open.

"At an average increase of 4% year-over-year, it would be incredible to assume that by 2035 the entire world be open for travel," shared Armand Arton, President of Arton Capital. page.

Singapore ranks third in APAC for fostering women entrepreneurs' growth

Source: Dell. Post-it notes show challenges facing women
in the workplace.

• Singapore is the third top-ranked city in the Asia Pacific region, behind Sydney and Melbourne in Australia for Dell's annual Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index.

• Since 2017, all 50 cities studied have improved on the majority of their indicators year-over-year. Cities in the Asia Pacific region are improving alongside all other cities globally, recording the biggest improvement in the Talent pillar.

• The Index serves as a diagnostic tool to advise policy-makers on how to better support women in business.

At the 10th annual Dell Women Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) Summit in Singapore, Dell announced findings from the 2019 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index, ranking 50 global cities on their ability to foster growth for women entrepreneurs.

Source: Dell. Infographic showing the Dell Global WE Cities rankings for 2019.

Rankings for Asia Pacific and Middle East cities include:

12. Sydney
13. Melbourne
21. Singapore
23. Hong Kong
26. Taipei, Taiwan
34. Tokyo
37. Dubai, UAE
38. Beijing, mainland China
41. Seoul, Korea
43. Bangalore, India
44. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
47. Shanghai, mainland China
48. Istanbul, Turkey
49. Jakarta, Indonesia
50. Delhi, India

All 50 cities have made progress since 2017, Dell noted. However, some cities made bigger strides than others.

“The 2019 Dell WE Cities report is unique from other bodies of research in that it not only ranks 50 global cities on their ability to foster women entrepreneurs, it shows how the cities have improved from their 2017 benchmark,” commented Karen Campbell, Consulting Associate Director, IHS Markit.

“This year we can see some patterns emerging. Ranked cities have collectively made the most improvement in the Capital and Culture pillars, which shows the importance of measuring not just the operating environment but also enabling environment for women entrepreneurs. This data-driven approach shows where women entrepreneurs still face barriers in scaling their business.”

Highlights include:

• Out of a total of 100 possible points, the No. 1-ranked San Francisco Bay Area in the US only scored 63.7. Dell says that this means there is still much work to do to level the field for women – and validates the need for this kind of research and outreach to policymakers to move the needle for female founders.

• Lack of funding, high cost of living, low representation of women in leadership roles and the lack of government-led policies that support women entrepreneurs were among the barriers globally.

• Thirty out of 50 cities improved on more than half of their indicators. The most-improved cities represent nearly every region, which indicates how broad-based the improvements have been around the world.

“When more women work, economies grow. Technology is helping to drive this progress as a genderneutral enabler, and helps create a level playing field,” said Amit Midha, President of Asia Pacific & Japan, Global Digital Cities at Dell Technologies.

“Whilst all cities in the Index have improved, the crucial factor is the consistency of this improvement across the different factors that impact women entrepreneurs’ success. The WE Cities Index helps Dell Technologies get closer to our customers and understand the landscape in each city so we are better able to help women entrepreneurs scale their businesses.”

"We’re very excited about what’s been accomplished and what’s on the table," commented Midha at a media briefing. "Ten years ago, it wasn’t possible. Technology is a great new frontier and we are only at the end of the beginning."

Midha said that the size of a company is not as much of an advantage compared to speed and innovation, calling it "a great time to be a startup and a technology business". "We are solving problems that haven’t been solved before. Startups have a better playing field than ever before," he noted.

He highlighted e-commerce provider Zilingo's story as disruptive. "It's female founded, 50% of the board are female, we’re seeing a lot of green shoots come out, that’s fantastic," he said. "There's never been a better time to be a female founder."

In Asia Pacific (APAC), cities are improving as facilitators of growing businesses for women entrepreneurs alongside all other cities globally. The research suggests that APAC can add a collective annual US$4.5 trillion by 2025 – adding significant growth to growth – if women’s equality is addressed. Similarly, disruptive technologies also have great potential to push the region ahead as many markets are not faced with legacy infrastructure issues.

Four APAC cities are in the top 10 of most-improved for value of funds awarded to businesses with at least 25% women executives. In general, a regional challenge remains in the availability of funding – with contributing factors including lack of policy, and a lack of awareness that funding specifically for women-owned/led businesses is needed.

The research notes that public discussion on women’s issues is slow compared to the rest of the world, and the impact of those discussions emerged with less force. There are some exceptions. Much attention has been on the public discussion of women’s rights in India, owing in part to the power of social media in the country, and in Japan, high-profile women have spoken out against discriminatory working practices.

Regional highlights include:

• More cities in APAC moved down in rankings, than stayed the same or moved up.

• Cities in the APAC region scored the highest improvement in the Talent pillar. The region also improved significantly in the Technology pillar and was the top-improved region for that pillar.

• The median WE Cities score for the APAC region improved by a score of 0.7, compared to 3 in Europe and 0.9 in North America.

• APAC cities mainly fell behind in the pillars for Culture and Markets.

• Globally, Tokyo, Japan ranks second in improvements for women as a percentage of students at top universities, and first for the number of globally top-ranked universities. Tokyo also ranks most improved in number of  globally-recognised, successful women business leaders.

• Globally, Melbourne ranks second-most improved for percentage of the population with a tertiary education, and most improved for both percentage of women with a tertiary education and percentage of the labour force employed in IT.

• APAC is the second-lowest region in terms of board members who are women.

Singapore

Singapore ranks in the top half of the Index and is ahead of other cities in the region, behind only Sydney and Melbourne. The country ranks 2nd in improvements for an economic growth rate forecast of city, region or country over the next five years. While Singapore ranked No. 8 in 2017, and No. 21 in 2019, its decline in rank is not because the city has done poorly, but rather that the competition has made more progress.

Talent and Technology are Singapore’s strongest pillars. Singapore moved from 17th to 11th place in 2019 for Talent and moving from 10th to 6th place in Technology. Singapore’s Talent pillar benefitted from increasing its top school and business school rankings. It also increased its pool of professionals needed to help scale businesses.

Singapore ranks No. 47 globally for Markets as it was hampered by a high cost of living and suffered from a lack of accelerators and relatively few female board members. The 20 by 2020: Gender Diversity on Singapore Boards report was launched in 2018, highlighting that as of June 2017, the overall representation of female directors on boards listed on SGX crossed into the double digits for the first time in history. The report also noted that immedia te action on gender diversity on boards is imperative for Singapore to maintain its positioning as a leading global financial centre in Asia.

For the Capital pillar, Singapore ranked No. 25 globally as venture capital funding to female entrepreneurs increased, but this is still relatively light to other cities. Singaporean women also saw less crowdfunding, fewer female founders and a slight decline in high net worth individuals.

At the No. 28 spot globally on Culture alone, Singapore’s Culture score was relatively low due to fewer female role models or leaders amongst other factors. This said, Singapore is nevertheless more advanced than majority of its neighbours in the region in actively addressing gender parity issues.

“Singapore’s strong base in technology literacy and access to talent position it well to realise its goal in becoming the world’s first Smart Nation,” added Eric Goh, VP and MD, Singapore, Dell Technologies.

“This vision requires the collective effort of the public and private sector, to enable and equip individuals of all genders as agents of change. By highlighting the complex challenges that women entrepreneurs face in Singapore, we hope to be able to drive meaningful conversations and growth as we embark on this nationwide digital transformation journey.”

In a speech at DWEN Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Singapore noted that a lot had changed for women in the past 200 years. She highlighted the role of Samsui women in building infrastructure for Singapore in the 1960s and 70s, and said that women make up nearly half of the migrant workforce across ASEAN. Education for women has catalysed "a virtuous cycle that will benefit the economy," she said.

"Women are beginning to drive whole sectors of the economy. We are having our voices heard at all segments of Singapore," she said.

Source: Dell. Fu speaks about challenges facing women.

The Singapore government recognises the contribution that women make to the economy and is supporting the expansion of choices and opportunities for them, she said. "We don’t want our women to have to choose between career and family. We want to support them to have both in their lives, and increasingly men [to have the same flexibility in choices] too," she said.

Government initiatives include work-life grants to further develop a workplace that is supportive of flexible work arrangements, and a drive to expand diversity at the board level, Fu shared. The government is also looking at solutions to ease the social pressure on women to leave the workforce early to look after children and their elders.

"We need women around the table to equally cast our eyes on the present and the future, and ask ourselves what can we do to leave behind a great lecacy for ourselves, to create a better place for our daughters and our grand-daughters so that we will, equally, be the trailblazers of tomorrow," she concluded.

The 2017 to 2019 WE Cities Index results highlight the successes and challenges that each city faces, and where cities can learn best practices from one another. These key learnings, if supported by local governments, can add up to big changes for women-owned businesses, globally, said Dell.

Based on the findings and comparison between the 2017-2019 indices, Dell has developed a set of WE Cities Policy Recommendations focused on three areas, including:

• Access to and the development of financial and human capital.

Specifically, this can be supported through:

- Incentives for individuals and organisations to invest in women-owned companies through
venture funds, corporate venture, private equity and social capital.

- Modernisation of existing government certification, grant and loan programs that help women-owned businesses compete to reflect changing investment models.

- Promotion and marketing of existing government programs to encourage broader awareness and
use.

- Continuing to or start to foster small-business lending programmes.

- Creating new sources of capital such as crowdfunding and impact investments.

- Encouraging enterprises and government agencies to increase supplier diversity with a percentage of contracts being awarded to women-owned businesses.

- Considering a shortening of government payment cycles from 90 days to 30 days for small women-owned suppliers.

- Incentivise the adoption of family-friendly policies including access to affordable child care, elder
care and paid family leave policies.

• Private and public sectors role in increasing access to local and global networks and markets.

This could include:

- Supporting trade agreements that further liberalise trade and open new markets for businesses of
all sizes.

- Promoting global and open standards, and reliable mechanisms for cross-border data transfers
and business support services and networks, while providing sufficient protections for privacy and
information security.

- Supporting mentorship efforts through financial support and encouragement of multiplier
platforms such as accelerators, continuing education and training programmes, and facilitated
networking events.

- Encouraging conscious placement of women on boards, in venture partnerships and on executive
teams.

- Promoting positive success stories of female founders and business owners through the media,
conferences and leadership movements.

• How government and business leaders can help women entrepreneurs thrive in the changing face of technology, for example through:

- Streamlining the process of partnering and applying for government resources,

- Emphasising science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and digital literacy in
education and early training programmes.

- Working with business leaders and educators to encourage technology training programmes to end
unconscious biases in the STEM fields, government, corporations and institutions.

- Enabling access to broadband globally.

- Increasing awareness of options women have to the hardware, software and digital resources they need to scale their companies.
Dell partnered with IHS Markit to launch the research to measure a city’s ability to attract and support high-potential women entrepreneurs. Research for WE Cities began during the 2016 DWEN Research Symposium. The successful pilot of the 2016 index led to the scaling for the 2017 index to include 50 cities and in turn the remeasuring and ranking for 2019.

Building on 10 years of research on women entrepreneurs, Dell partnered with IHS Markit to research and rank 50 cities on five characteristics, including access to Capital, Technology, Talent, Culture and Markets. These pillars were organised into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment.

The criteria includes the impact of local policies, programmes and characteristics in addition to national laws and customs to help improve support for women entrepreneurs and the overall economy.

The overall rating is based on 71 indicators; 45 of which have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component.

"When we invest in women, we invest in the future; communities prosper, economies thrive and the next generation leads with purpose,” said Karen Quintos, EVP and Chief Customer Officer at Dell Technologies.

“By arming city leaders and policymakers with actionable, data-driven research on the landscape for women entrepreneurs, we can collectively accelerate the success of women-owned businesses by removing financial, cultural and political barriers."

Dell supports and nurtures a community of female entrepreneurs through the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network by providing access to technology, networks and capital. The annual DWEN Summit was held in Singapore from July 14-16, 2019.

Hashtag: #DWEN

Ladies in KSA prefer Apple to Almarai

Apple has beat dairy brand Almarai to become the top brand in the 2019 Women’s Choice Brand Rankings* by YouGov MENA for KSA. With new iPhones and Apple watches last year, the brand generated a lot of noise and has strengthened its appeal among women, YouGov said.

Almarai increased the price of milk in the past year, which generated substantial resentment among consumers. They took to social media to call for boycotts of the brand. Almarai’s perception among women in KSA declined subsequently, pulling it down from 1st to 5th place this year.

Source: YouGov. 2019 Women's Choice Rankings for KSA: top 10.

The rankings were compiled using the Impression score from YouGov’s daily brand tracker, BrandIndex, asking respondents the question “Which of the following brands do you generally have a positive/negative feeling about?” over the past 12 months.

Apple’s smartphone brand, iPhone, is now in 2nd place.

Fast food restaurant chain Al Baik climbed from 7th in last year's YouGov BrandIndex Women's Rankings to 3rd this year.

Dettol has moved up to 6th from 8th last year while Fairy and Alrajhi Bank are new entrants at 8th and 9th respectively. Galaxy (the chocolate brand) made a re-entry into the list at 10th. It had dropped out last year.

Technology brands did not do well. Both WhatsApp and YouTube saw a decline in their rankings, slipping down to 4th and 7th respectively in 2019.

YouGov also revealed the 10 brands that made the largest improvement to their Impression scores over the past 12 months. Telco mada is the most improved brand of the past year among women with a change in score of +11.5, going from an Impression score of 23.2 in last year's YouGov BrandIndex Women's Rankings to 34.7 this year.

Food and beverage brands seem to be resonating well with women in LKSA. Some of the top brands such as Maestro Pizza (+8.7), Coca-Cola (+8.2), Pepsi (+7.4), Kinder (+7.0) and Tasali (+5.9) are in the list of the top 10 improvers.

Source: YouGov. 2019 Women's Choice Rankings for KSA. The brands that improved the most year on year.

Chinese tech giant Huawei is also becoming popular amongst women and has shown a marked improvement in its score (+7.9), becoming the fourth best improver of 2019.

*The 501 brands in KSA in the YouGov BrandIndex were ranked using the Impression score, which asks respondents, “Overall, of which of the following brands do you have Positive/Negative impression?” Scores are net scores, calculated by subtracting the percentage of negative responses from the percentage of positive responses for each brand.

The Women’s Rankings chart shows the brands with the highest average Impression scores between February 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019. The Impression Improvers chart ranks the brands with the highest increase in Impression comparing the scores for the 12 months ending January 31, 2019 and the 12-month period ending January 31, 2018. To be included, the year-over-year variance must be positive. Scores are representative amongst women.

All Impression scores listed have been rounded to a single decimal place; however, YouGov also used additional precision to assign ranks.

All brands had to be tracked for at least six months to be included in the rankings. They had to be tracked for at least six months in the prior year’s period (as well as be currently tracked) to appear in the movers' tables.

Dubai’s flag-carrier airline is the most impressive brand amongst women in the UAE

Source: YouGov. 2019 Women's Choice Rankings, top 10 for the UAE.

Emirates tops the UAE women’s YouGov BrandIndex Women's Rankings* for the 3rd time in a row, and has received the highest positive Impression score of +70.0 among women in the UAE. WhatsApp also holds on to second position this year, while Carrefour moves up one place in the list to 3rd, replacing Apple which has dropped one place to 4th.

The rankings were compiled using the Impression score from YouGov’s daily brand tracker, BrandIndex, by asking respondents, “Which of the following brands do you generally have a positive/negative feeling about?” over the past 12 months.

Last year Emirates paid a tribute to its female employees for International Women’s Day through a video entitled Superwomen flight. The movie showcased an all-female crew operating the flight from UAE to San Francisco, USA. The video created a lot of noise and was received positively.

Another brand that has managed to boost its Impression among women in the UAE is Samsung, which has moved up from 8th to 5th this year. Likewise, Almarai has improved its perception among women since its debut in 10th last year and is now in 9th place.

Baskin-Robbins has improved steadily year-on-year, and is in 6th this year. Facebook, on the other hand, exits the list in 2019.

The past year has been difficult for technology brands. Scores for those in the top 10 list declined year-on-year. Google and iPhone both move down two places from last year to 7th and 8th respectively, and YouTube has seen a consistent slide, from 6th in 2017 to 7th in 2018 and now at the bottom of the list in 10th for 2019.

YouGov also revealed the 10 brands that made the largest improvement to their Impression scores over the past 12 months. Coca-Cola is the most improved brand of the past year among women with a change in score of +10.1, going from an Impression score of 7.4 in 2018 to 17.5 in 2019.

Netflix’s original content may be one of the factors impressing women in the UAE as it has become the second-most improved brand with a score of 23.4 this year (up +9.9 from 13.5 last year). Fast-food chains like KFC and McDonald’s seem to be resonating well with women and have also registered improvement.

Newly-opened entertainment venue Warner Bros. World, fabric softener Downy and Chinese mobile giant Huawei are some of the other top improvers. Finally, food brands Lacnor and Sadia complete the list as the 9th and 10th most improved brands.

*The 586 brands in the UAE for the YouGov BrandIndex were ranked using the Impression score, which asks respondents, “Overall, of which of the following brands do you have Positive/Negative impression?” Scores are net scores, calculated by subtracting the percentage of negative responses from the percentage of positive responses for each brand.

The Women’s Rankings chart shows the brands with the highest average Impression scores between February 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019. The Impression Improvers chart ranks the brands with the highest increase in Impression scores when comparing the scores for the 12 months ending January 31, 2019 and the 12-month period ending January 31, 2018. To be included the year-over-year variance must be positive. Scores are representative amongst women.

All Impression scores listed have been rounded to a single decimal place. However, YouGov has used additional precision to assign ranks.

All brands must be tracked for at least six months to be included in the rankings, and must have been tracked for at least six months in the prior year’s period (as well as being currently tracked) to appear in the movers tables.

Garuda has the most brand advocates in Indonesia

Airline Garuda Indonesia has the strongest brand advocates among Indonesian consumers, an analysis from YouGov BrandIndex* has found.

The carrier heads the list with a score of 87.5, followed by Singapore Airlines (77.2) and Bank Central Asia (76.5).

YouGov’s rankings are a form of net promoter score and analyse which brands have the highest proportion of current and former customers recommending them to a family member or friend. The top 10 features a number of automotive brands. Toyota in 4th (75.9) while Honda appears twice - with Honda cars in 6th (75.2) and Honda motorcycles in 8th (74.4).

The list comprises of both global brands – such as Google in 7th (74.6) and Apple in 9th (74) place, and fashion retailer Nike scoring 10th (73.1). Local players include Traveloka in 5th place (75.4).

In terms of customer advocacy improvement Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) is out on top (+10.7 points), ahead of cosmetics brand Maybelline and insurance company Prudential. The two brands came in at joint 2nd, each up by 10.1 points.

Ervin Ha, Head of Data Products, YouGov said: “Recommending a brand to friends and family is great indicator of how well a brand is performing, and Garuda has emerged a true winner in this regard. Capturing the attention and advocacy of consumers in a market as extensive as Indonesia is no easy feat, but Garuda has soared to the challenge.”

Source: YouGov. The top 10 list of brands most recommended by Indonesian consumers.

*The YouGov BrandIndex Brand Advocacy Rankings were calculated by measuring recommend scores among each brand’s customers for the twelve-month period through October 2018. Scores are calculated by subtracting the negative responses from the positive responses. Respondents were drawn from YouGov’s online panels of 6 million consumers across 38 markets. The index looks to give brands a good indication on how well or poorly they have been doing in terms of their customer service, as well as quality of services and products provided.

TrustYou lists the best hotels in SEA

TrustYou, the guest feedback platform, has published its research* on the best hotels in Southeast Asia. 

Leading the pack out of 11 properties in Singapore is Naumi Hotel Singapore, followed by Oasia Hotel Novena by Far East Hospitality, Hotel Jen Orchardgateway Singapore, The Ritz - Carlton Millenia Singapore and Conrad Centennial Singapore.

The March 2018 list of best-rated luxury hotels from TrustYou, covering Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines, lists The Westin Langkawi in Malaysia as the top hotel among the countries surveyed, followed in No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 place by Thai hotels: the JW Marriott Phuket, the Hansar Bangkok, and the Renaissance Phuket. The New World Manila, Philippines, is in No. 5 place, followed by sixth-ranked Grand Hyatt Jakarta. The Naumi Singapore, the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, the Sofitel Krabi Phokeethra Golf & Spa Resort in Thailand, and the Oasia Hotel Novena Singapore round out the top 10.

The three best-rated hotels in Vietnam are:

• Hotel de l'Opera Hanoi
• Paloma Cruise - this is a boat which offers overnight stays
• InterContinental Saigon

For Cambodia, they are:

• Anantara Angkor Resort
• Hotel Shinta Mani Siem Reap
• Heritage Suites Hotel

There is one entry for Laos, the Luang Say Residence. For the Philippines, Solaire Resort & Casino is ranked No. 2, and the Monaco Suites de Boracay is ranked 3rd. In Indonesia, the Mulia Villas in Bali is ranked No. 2, while the JW Marriott Hotel Jakarta is No. 3. In Malaysia, the JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur is in third place. 

These aggregated results are drawn from TrustYou’s keyword analysis of travel reviews associated with hotels, destinations and travel websites scattered across the vast and fragmented market. The company draws its data from over 230,000 travel reviews a month from various sources and transforms this content into actionable insights and visualisations for over half a million hotels.

*A hotel is defined as luxury hotel if it gets a certain amount of keywords such as "luxury" and "luxurious" in their reviews that TrustYou analyses. The company looks at reviews, popularity within the same city, and popularity globally.

Singapore Computer Society unveils 2017 10 Best Tech Companies to Work For

Singapore Computer Society (SCS), the nation’s largest body for infocomm and digital media professionals, has announced the winners of the Best Tech Company to Work For Award at its annual conference, the Tech³ Forum.

The award recognises four of the 10 Best Tech Companies to Work For as overall winners for their implementation of innovative practices and their demonstrated workplace excellence in the infocomm and digital media (ICM) industry.

This year’s Best Tech Company Award ceremony was graced by the Minister of Manpower, Lim Swee Say, and attended by more than 200 senior professionals from the public and private sectors. In his speech, the Minister shared how Singapore is ahead of the curve in driving innovation in the ICT sector. He also praised the 10 best tech companies for providing inclusive opportunities to Singaporeans, and valuing talent based on their skills, helping to drive industry growth.

In its second instalment, the Best Tech Company to Work For Award aims to honour the best infocomm and media workplaces and inculcate a strong people culture across the industry. Nominations were assessed by an independent panel of judges, represented by both public and private sectors in the industry.

Howie Lau, President, Singapore Computer Society, said, “The success of the 10 best tech companies to work for is a testament to the importance of investing in human capital in the midst of a digital revolution. We hope that this award will inspire other technology companies to join us in creating a strong people culture across the industry.”

Standing out from a pool of nominations, the winning companies demonstrated outstanding performance on five criteria: Inspiring people culture, spirit of innovation, financial sustainability, people management and human resource policy. The 10 best tech companies to work for in Singapore are:

• Accenture

10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017

Accenture is a leading global professional services company providing services and solutions in strategy consulting, digital, technology and operations. In a video celebrating Accenture's win, staff spoke of access to the latest technologies and their dedication to build future technology leaders through hands-on learning.

Winning qualities

• Strong team spirit, with passion and pride displayed by everyone

• Revolutionary performance management system accompanied with solid mentorship programme, where the bell curve distribution is removed and each individual is assessed by their mentor and not direct boss

• Promotes a learning culture with digital, social and mobile learning materials available at all levels

• Carousell 

Winner – Small Organisations/Startups category

10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017

Carousell created a marketplace that makes it easy for preloved items to find new homes. Its goal is to become the No. 1 mobile classifieds marketplace in all markets. A video of Carousell's employees reflected the company's open culture, which is focused on problem solving. "The people here are very driven to solve problems for our customers," said one employee.

Winning qualities

• Great mission and vision for social impact - ability to humanise their mission stories

• Significant time and effort spent in the hiring process to find the right hire to fit into the culture

• Strong culture and great vibes in the office, with the ability to attract good talent

• EON Reality 

10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017

EON Reality is the world leader in virtual and augmented reality (AR)-based knowledge transfer for industry and education. The company aims to make knowledge available, affordable, and accessible for everyone. Staff shared in the video profiling Eon Reality that they are exposed to lots of new technology and are constantly learning.

Winning qualities

• Leaders are sincere and people-oriented

• Excites employees on the huge potential of AR for applications in education, healthcare, smart city planning

• Transparent corporate culture and staff are trusted and empowered

• IBM Singapore

10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017

IBM is a globally integrated technology and consulting company. The company is focused on helping organisations embark on their cognitive journeys, built on a strong foundation of cloud, big data and analytics, and security. According to a video on IBM, people form the heartware of the organisation, and use IBM technology to help businesses grow. "We work together and grow together to become business partners, it's like a friendship formed," said one staff.

Winning qualities

• Sense of sincerity and authenticity among the leadership team

• Prides itself as a company that is essential and socially relevant

• Open workspaces that encourage collaboration

• Razer
Joint winner – Large Organisations/ MNCs category

Razer is the leading lifestyle brand for gamers. Its mission is to be the world’s greatest brand for gamers. "We are always one team, we're always bigger than ourselves as a person," said Min-Liang Tan, Razer CEO, on video. "We play hard, and we play fair."

In her acceptance speech, Patricia Liu, Chief Customer Officer, Razer, said that the company is "made up of gamers who design and make products for gamers". "We constantly ask ourselves what kind of environment do gamers need to be phenomenal and that's the approach that we take to design our workplace and our culture," she said.

Winning qualities

• Inspiring and charismatic leader

• Appealing to young working adults, especially gamers

• Puts in sincere efforts to groom local talent  

• Red Hat Asia Pacific

Joint winner – Large Organisations/ MNCs category

10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017

Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open source software solutions. Its mission is to be the catalyst in communities of customers, contributors, and partners, creating better technology the open source way. Red Hat has translated open source principles into principles that connect business success to personal growth, staff said in the accompanying video. The company has a cross-department mentorship programme, for example.

Richard Koh, Country Manager, Singapore, Red Hat, said the win recognises the open source culture all Red Hatters live and breathe daily. "We're an open organisation, we firmly believe in meritocracy," he said. "All Red Hatters are given equal opportunities."

Koh also brought up 'kampong spirit', where villagers would pitch in to help each other, to recognise the efforts of others. "By working together we can actually make the infocomm industry a lot more vibrant and an attractive destination for talent," he said.

Winning qualities

• Strong sense of identity amongst employees, shown by the low staff turnover rate and high Glassdoor rating

• Openness, transparency and innovation is embedded in the company DNA

• Emphasis on training, and sets aside a generous training budget for external training programmes

• ST Electronics (Info-Comm Systems)

10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017

ST Electronics is a leading info-communication technology solutions provider in Asia delivering solutions in intelligent transportation, public safety and security, smart infocommunications technology (ICT) infrastructure, cyber security and defence. ST Electronics (Info-Comm Systems) has many HR initiatives to attract and retain staff, shared employees in an associated video. There is a 'work hard and play harder' spirit at the company, they said.

Winning qualities

• Strong family-friendly and Singapore kampong-spirit culture

• Well-structured HR programmes that attract and retain both the young and matured working professionals

• Encourages innovation and provides seed funding to try worthy ideas

• Tableau Asia Pacific

10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017

Tableau is on a mission to help people see and understand their data. "High energy, vibrant and dynamic" were adjectives used by Tableau staff to describe themselves.

Winning qualities

• High energy and dynamic workforce with cool workspace

• Empowering staff (even non-IT staff) to use Tableau's own products for data analytics to generate meaningful and impactful businesses

• Appealing to young working adults (both IT and non-IT)

• Tinkerbox Studios

10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017

Tinkerbox Studios is a design and development studio on a mission to build innovative products that changes lives for the better. The company has code reviews which give feedback on how they can improve the quality of their software. "For me it's like a family," one staff said on video.

Winning qualities

• Promotes a strong culture of learning and experimentation, eg. TinkerThursday for dinner as a team in the office to share ideas.

• Great talent development programme and strong sense of mission and dedication to train a good pool of developers for the better of the industry, eg. the intern was so impressed with the coding standards that he joined the company after graduation.

• Emphasis on peer code reviewing to enhance quality of the codes, which further demonstrates their commitment to culture of quality codes and peer support.

    

• Titansoft 
Winner – Mid-sized Organisations category

10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017

Titansoft is a software development and consultancy company specialising in gaming and entertainment. Its vision is to empower customers to become global leaders in their respective industries. Titansoft's motto is to never stop improving. The company has striven to create an environment which is very open, one where staff can learn something new every day.

The company has a unique self-promotion model, in which staff initiate the process to promote themselves when they think they are ready. They first undergo self-assessment, then a technical assessment followed by a panel interview. In the accompanying video, an employee from Titansoft said the company is "creating an environment I actually want to work with."

Winning qualities

• Daring and advanced in implementing latest thinking in human resources and organisation development (HR & OD) practices, eg. Self-promotion and self-organising agile development teams

• Open and transparent culture that values bottom-up initiatives, e.g. When the self-promotion idea was suggested by the Technical Manager and not HR

• Highly committed workforce that is empowered and serious with their self-development and peer reviews

“Our vision is of an inclusive ecosystem in which Singaporeans can maximise the use of the resources available, and fully access to all opportunities in the industry. It is made possible thanks to the support from our partners, including Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Workforce Singapore (WSG) and e2i (Employment and Employability Institute),” Lau said.

The Best Tech Company to Work For Award is a manifestation of the collaboration between industry partners to support ICM professionals and drive industry development.

“Singapore is in the middle of the most dynamic region in the world that is rapidly digitalising, and our infocomm and media sector is well-positioned to benefit from this growth. To do so, companies will need to be at the forefront of adopting policies and practices to attract and retain talent in this industry. IMDA is pleased to honour the achievements of the companies awarded with the Best Tech Company to Work For Award, which celebrates the spirit of innovation, the creativity and passion of our people, as we work towards building a digital economy,” said Tan Kiat How, Chief Executive, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

Tan Choon Shian, Chief Executive, WSG said, “In this changing manpower landscape, it is critical for employers to put in place progressive human capital practices and take greater ownership in grooming talents for the future, to enhance their competitiveness. I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the award winners, and I hope more companies will emulate these role models and adopt progressive human capital practices to develop and retain their employees.”

In addition to the award, SCS has also partnered e2i to co-organise an Infocomm Technology Career Fair which will run from August to September. “e2i has been working with industry partners to enable ICM professionals to stay updated and deepen their competencies through training, networking and masterclasses. We have also initiated integrated career fairs to improve job matching. As tripartite partners, e2i is committed to work with SCS to provide enhanced career support for ICM professionals and companies on skills development and job placement,” the CEO of e2i Gilbert Tan said.

More details about the Information Technology Career Fair will be announced in August.

SCS has over 31,000 members. Established in 1967, the society serves as a key platform for professionals to network with established practitioners, advance their careers, and sharpen their skills and knowledge in order to stay ahead of the latest trends and best practices in the infocomm and digital media industries.

Source: SCS. From left: Howie Lau, President, Singapore Computer Society; Tan Choon Shian, Chief Executive, Workforce Singapore (WSG); Andrew Chow, President, ST Electronics (Info-Comm Systems); Sam Liew, MD, Technology, ASEAN, Accenture; Lum Seow Khun, Director, Sales & Transformation, IBM Singapore; Marcus Tan, Co-Founder & President, Carousell; Patricia Liu, Chief Customer Officer, Razer; Lim Swee Say, Minister for Manpower; Richard Koh, Country Manager, Singapore, Red Hat (wearing red hat); Wong Yew Choy, Director of Titansoft; Khoong Hock Yun, Chief Digital Evangelist, Infocomm Media Development Authority; Gilbert Tan, CEO, e2i (Employment and Employability Institute); Kelvin Tham, COO & Co-Founder, Tinkerbox Studios; Sridhar Sunkad; MD, EON Reality and Cherilyn Tay, Territory Development Manager, Tableau.

*SCS defined the three categories as large organisations or multinational companies (MNCs), mid-sized organisations (SMEs) of 50 to 200 employees, and startups or small parties with up to five years of incorporation, or fewer than 50 employees. Nominations began in September 2016, and the evaluation process included site visits, and employee interaction sessions.