Universiti Malaya (UM) has improved five notched to rank 146th in the annual Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings as compared with last year.

This is the second consecutive year the nation top public university improved in its performance. It ranked 167th in 2013, and climbed to 151st (2014) and 146th (2015).

UM also ranked 29th in Asia, with an overall score of 62.1 point.

However, it is miles behind both the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) which have leapfrogged in performance, according to QS ranking released today.

The universities from the southern nations outshined renowned institutions such as Yale, Johns Hopkins, Cornell and King’s College London.

NUS maintained its position as Asia’s top university, climbing from 22nd place last year to 12th place this year, while NTU moved from 39th place to 13th place, according to the QS ranking released today.

A total of 891 universities were ranked worldwide and assessed based on employers reviews, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio and international student ratio, reputation and student-to-faculty ratio.

The 12th survey introduces a change in its methodology - a new measurement for research excellence, known as normalisation.

Five Malaysia public universities made it to the top 400, with three improved in ranking and two deteriorated.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has climbed from 309th to 289th this year. It ranked 49th in Asia with an overall score of 43.4 point out 100.

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) recorded an encouraging improvement, as it climbed from 376th to 331st this year.

Two universities that dropped in performance are Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

UTM was ranked 303rd this year as compared to 294th in 2014.

While UKM fell 53 places to 312th this year as compared to 259th in 2014.

The world’s top 10 universities this year are:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

2.Harvard University

3.University of Cambridge

3.Stanford University

5.California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

6.University of Oxford

7.University College London (UCL)

8.Imperial College London

9. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich)

10.University of Chicago