The new world has an interdisciplinary science ranking, a Vietnamese university ranked 95th.

Vietnam has two representatives in the newly launched ranking of the world's best interdisciplinary research universities, with both rankings in the top 200.

Two Vietnamese universities ranked in interdisciplinary science

The Times Higher Education (THE) in the UK, in collaboration with the Schmidt Science Fellows organization, announced on November 21 the world's best interdisciplinary research university rankings (ISR) in 2025. According to the parties, this is the world's first interdisciplinary science ranking, with the goal of "assessing the contributions and commitments of universities to interdisciplinary science".

The campus of Ton Duc Thang University, the highest ranked unit in Vietnam in the world's best interdisciplinary research universities. PHOTO: NGUYEN ANH

Among the 749 universities from 92 countries and territories ranked, Vietnam has two representatives, Ton Duc Thang University at 95th place and Duy Tan University at 176th place. Of which, Ton Duc Thang University achieved 56.5/100 points with the component scores of 3 criteria: input, process and output of 51.5-33.3-63.6. Meanwhile, Duy Tan University received 47.4 points, with the component scores of the above criteria of 26.1-33.3-57.1.

This is also the highest ranking that these schools have achieved in their first appearance in THE rankings. Previously, Ton Duc Thang University was only in the 101-200 group when it debuted in the ranking of the most influential universities in 2019, or ranked 98th in the ranking of the best young universities in the world in 2022. Similarly, Duy Tan University's achievements were 601-800 and 122, respectively, both in 2022.

Meanwhile, with the world's best university rankings - also THE's most prestigious rankings - the highest rankings ever recorded in Vietnam belong to Duy Tan University and Ton Duc Thang University when they debuted at 401-500 in 2022 and then maintained their achievements until 2023.

On the other hand, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics is also on the list of the world's best universities for interdisciplinary scientific research but is in "reporter" status. This means that the school only meets certain criteria but does not meet all the requirements, so it has not been ranked. In the same "reporter" group as Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics are 273 other universities in the world.

Notably, a prominent name in interdisciplinary scientific research in Vietnam, the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts (SIS) under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, has not appeared in this year's rankings.

A building of Duy Tan University (Da Nang). PHOTO: DUY TAN UNIVERSITY

Interdisciplinary science is the combination of knowledge, methods, and traditions from many different scientific fields. It can be many researchers from different fields working together, or a researcher approaching a scientific question from many different angles. In this year's rankings, THE only considers science in four main fields: computer science, engineering, life sciences, and physical sciences.

Previously, in the 2025 World University Rankings, Vietnam had 9 representative universities for the first time, which is also the highest achievement our country has achieved in the famous global rankings of the UK and China. Among them are 3 new names: Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Hanoi Medical University and 6 old faces: Duy Tan University, Hanoi National University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Ho Chi Minh City National University, Hue University and Ton Duc Thang University.

What is the ranking method?

According to THE and Schmidt Ocean Scholars, the global university rankings for interdisciplinary research are based on 11 different criteria, divided into three main groups: input, process and output. Each of these groups also represents a stage in the life cycle of research projects and each group of criteria accounts for 16-65% of the weight in the final ranking results, with the output group being the most important.

Specifically, the input group includes 2 criteria: interdisciplinary scientific research funding (8%) and funding from industry (11%). The process group includes 4 criteria: success measures, facilities, administrative support and promotion process (both 4%). For output, 5 criteria are used: number of interdisciplinary scientific research publications (10%), rate of interdisciplinary scientific research publications and usefulness outside the industry (both 5%), quality of interdisciplinary scientific research (20%), reputation (25%).

The data for the university rankings is based on 157 million scientific citations, 18 million research publications and survey responses from more than 20,000 scholars globally, THE added.

Method of ranking the best universities in interdisciplinary scientific research. PHOTO: THE

Ranked No. 1 in the newly released World University Rankings for Interdisciplinary Sciences is Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), followed by Stanford University (USA) and National University of Singapore in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Positions 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10 also belong to American schools: California Institute of Technology, Duke University, Minnesota, California at Santa Barbara and Michigan-Ann Arbor. Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands holds the 7th place, while Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is ranked 9th.

THE is one of the most prestigious, experienced and influential university ranking organizations in the world, along with QS (UK) and ShanghaiRanking Consultancy (China). THE has been ranking universities since 2004 with QS, one year after the world first had a global university ranking published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (later Shanghai Ranking Consultancy).

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/the-gioi-moi-co-bang-xep-hang-khoa-hoc-lien-nganh-mot-dh-viet-nam-hang-95-185241123053141599.htm