TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The University of Sumatera Utara (USU) emerged as Indonesia's best higher educational institution in 2019 followed by the University of Indonesia (UI) and Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) standing second and third, Scimago Institutions Rankings revealed.

USU, based in Medan, North Sumatra Province's capital city, bagged top ranking owing to its outstanding performance in research and enhancing innovation achievements, the Scimago Institutions Rankings revealed on its official website as quoted by ANTARA on Wednesday.

The seven other Indonesian universities among its 10 best are the Gadjah Mada University (UGM), the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the Jenderal Soedirman University (Unsoed), the Syiah Kuala University (Unsyiah), the Brawijaya University (Unibraw), the Airlangga university (Unair), and the Negeri Sebelas Maret University (UNS).

This year's full listing of Indonesia's universities by the Scimago Institutions Rankings can be accessed on "https://www.scimagoir.com/rankings.php?country=IDN&ranking=Research".

Developed by Scimago Lab through Scopus as its data source, the Scimago Institutions Rankings maintains that it is "a science evaluation resource to assess worldwide universities and research-focused institutions."

To decide on the ranking of academic and research-related institutions across several parts of the world, the Scimago Institutions Rankings applies a composite indicator that combines three diverse sets of indicators on the basis of research, performance, innovation outputs, and societal impact.

USU is one of Indonesia's public universities, whose foundation was initiated by the North Sumatra governor on June 4, 1952, to cater to the requirements of the province's locals. However, it was Indonesia's first president Soekarno, who had officially inaugurated USU as a public university on November 20, 1957.

Thus, USU has turned out to be Indonesia's seventh public university.

The Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education's Sinta, or Science and Technology Index, which puts the spotlight on local universities' performance in terms of research work indexed by Scopus over the last three years, ranked USU seventh as of Wednesday.

With reference to Sinta, 10 local universities delivering top-class scientific publications encompass the UI, UGM, ITB, IPB, Hasanuddin University (Unhas), USU, Unibraw, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS), Diponegoro University (Undip), and Padjadjaran University (Unpad).

ANTARA