AppliedHE Launches Asia Ranking Centered On Student Voices

• AppliedHE has released its first Public & Private University Rankings: ALL ASIA, the region’s only system that evaluates both sectors separately using a student-centered methodology.
• The 2025 edition ranks 493 universities across 41 countries, emphasizing student satisfaction, employability, community impact, research strength, and global engagement.
• Top performers include Yonsei University for private institutions and the University of Hong Kong for public institutions, marking strong regional diversity and rising excellence across Asia.

AppliedHE is today publishing its first AppliedHE Public & Private University Rankings: ALL ASIA, a major milestone in the evaluation of higher education across the continent. Launched at the AppliedHE Xchange event at Sunway University, the new ranking is the first pan-Asia system that evaluates public and private universities separately while putting student voice, employability, and real-world impact at the heart of the methodology. The launch comes as demand grows for university rankings that more closely reflect what really matters to students, families, employers, and society as a whole especially in a region as diverse, fast-expanding, and dynamic as Asia.

A total of 493 universities from 41 Asian countries earned a place in this year’s ranking, highlighting the breadth of academic excellence across the continent. The evaluation framework is balanced and covers six main areas of performance: Community Engagement, Employability, Student Satisfaction, Research Excellence, Internationalisation, and Peer Recognition. The inclusion of student satisfaction and employability shows AppliedHE’s commitment to a more student-centered model where teaching quality, learner experience, and real-world impact have equal importance as research output and institutional prestige.

The geographical spread of participating universities reflects the rich diversity of Asia. Indonesia is top with 73 ranked institutions, followed by the Philippines on 60 and Malaysia with 44. India and South Korea also feature strongly with 29 and 28 universities respectively. All six Asian subregions are represented, showing that high-quality higher education is beginning to emerge from every corner of the continent, and that academic success is no longer concentrated in a handful of metropolitan or historically dominant hubs.

Results across both sectors show strong performances: Yonsei University is the highest-ranked private university in Asia, narrowly ahead of Sungkyunkwan University and Korea University, underlining South Korea's dominance in the private higher education sector. On the public side, the University of Hong Kong comes out top, ahead of the National University of Singapore and China's Peking University. Sunway University continues to rise as Southeast Asia's best private institution, ranking sixth among all private universities, while NUS stays as the region's top public university. The findings reflect a vibrant ecosystem where both types of universities are gaining in influence, bringing different strengths to the blossoming knowledge economy in Asia.

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One of the main differentiators of the ranking is that AppliedHE are deeply committed to recognizing both sectors equally. While most global rankings either put all institutions in a single list or disproportionately emphasize public universities, ALL ASIA splits the two sectors to ensure more appropriate, meaningful comparisons. Such a split acknowledges differences in mission, funding models, and strategic priorities.

Public universities are usually driven by national development priorities, whereas private universities are more likely to drive innovation, industry engagement, and internationalization. AppliedHE has evaluated them in separate lists to give equal recognition to each sector.

Another hallmark of the new ranking is the reliance it places on student and alumni voices, captured through structured surveys about teaching quality, support services, campus life, career guidance, and online learning experiences. These insights are factored into the final scores to ensure that the lived experience of the learners lies at the heart of the shaping of institutional reputations.

AppliedHE's founder and CEO, Mandy Mok, underscored the fact that ALL ASIA is designed to be a ranking based on the priorities of Asian learners and employers, rather than one solely on reputation. Sunway University President Professor Sibrandes Poppema said that the ranking reveals the depth and diversity of excellence across Asian universities and also underscores the imperative of collaboration in building a stronger, more future-ready higher education system. The AppliedHE ALL ASIA ranking, with its student-centered and Asia-based methodology, is set to be a distinctive and influential benchmark for universities aiming to advance teaching, research, and societal contribution for years to come.