London (VNA) – A record 17 Vietnamese universities have landed spots on the 2026 Times Higher Education (THE) Sustainability Impact Ratings, marking the country’s strongest showing so far.
Leading the pack this year is the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH), which vaulted roughly 200 spots to break into the global 101–200 band. It posted an overall score of 89 out of 100 and joined a select group that submitted evidence against all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
FPT University and Nguyen Tat Thanh University both climbed into the 201–300 group. FPT scored a standout win in the Quality Education (SDG 4) category, grabbing 87th place globally, the highest finish ever for a Vietnamese university on that indicator.
Phenikaa University made one of the most dramatic leaps, rocketing from the 1,001–1,500 band into the 401–600 range in a single year, while Lac Hong University advanced from the 1,501+ to the 801–1,000 band.
Unlike traditional rankings that lean heavily on research prestige, these ratings size up how effectively universities deliver on the SDGs. They are evaluated across four pillars of research, stewardship of resources, community engagement, and teaching, with Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17) serving as a compulsory yardstick.
That difference opens up a competitive playing field where Vietnamese and Southeast Asian universities can go head-to-head on more equal terms. This year, 352 ASEAN universities appeared among more than 1,650 ranked globally. Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand, the region’s four most populous nations, together made up roughly one-fifth of the total.
The picture changes markedly when held up against the THE World University Rankings, which put far greater weight on research output and citation impact. In that table, universities from those same four countries claim only around 4% of spots.
The divide is even sharper at the top. ASEAN boasts 25 universities in the global top 200 of the THE Sustainability Impact Ratings but fields none in the top 200 of the THE World University Rankings.
The gap between the two league tables highlights two very different kinds of institutional strength. One rewards international publications and citation performance, where Vietnam still trails the established research powerhouses. The other spotlights a university’s ability to engage with communities and tackle local development problems, an area where Vietnamese schools are showing real and growing strength.
Dao Thi Hong, First Secretary for education at the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK, said the sustainability ratings, grounded in the UN’s 17 SDGs, are writing a new rulebook for global higher education by shifting the spotlight from paper promises to measurable, real-world results. That, she added, delivers a fairer comparison by valuing universities’ concrete contributions to society rather than just their bank balances or research budgets.
She warned that Vietnam faces both a huge opportunity to sprint ahead and a real risk of falling behind. To hold its ground as the global higher education landscape evolves, she urged Vietnamese universities to move fast to digitise and standardise data on their social impact, turning on-the-ground community engagement into a core source of global competitiveness./.
