Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) marks another milestone being the first university in the Sultanate to be ranked at Top 150 in the 2021 Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QSWUR) by Subject. The QSWUR rep ort has revealed that UTB’s Petroleum Engineering subject has clinched Top 101-150 and it is now at 44th place in Asia, 10th place in Southeast Asia and 1st place in the country.
UTB was evaluated against 1,343 notable universities around the world and only Top 150 are included in this year’s QSWUR by Subject in Petroleum Engineering. The QSWUR by Subject for this year analysed over 13.9 million unique papers, producing close to 81 million citations. A total of 1453 institutions ranked across 51 subjects in 5 subject areas, creating over 16,981 published entries. As for the 51 subjects, 4,275 institutions from 157 countries are included.
This achievement has placed UTB in the same league as other prestigious universities also ranked at the Top 150 which include University of Bradford and Royal Holloway University of London in the United Kingdom; University of Seoul in South Korea; University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates; China University of Geosciences in China; Edith Cowan University in Australia; and Aligarh Muslim University in India.
The QSWUR by Subject is measured by four metrics namely Academic Reputation survey, employability metric based on employer reputation survey, citation per paper published over the last five years, and H-index that measures both the productivity and impact of the work published by UTB. The academic and employer reputation surveys contribute heavily in the overall score of QSWUR by subject.
This notable achievement indicates that academic programmes and research quality at UTB are recognised globally by international academics. This also shows the employable quality of the university’s graduates in the relevant industries. From the report, amongst the 4 measured indicators, UTB scored highest in the H-index which measures the productivity and impact of quality published research works of the university.
According to the Programme Leader of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Dr. Mohammad Hazwan bin Azri, this achievement is a result of having educators who are highly regarded in their field,
“Their broad knowledge helps propel our academic and research capacity towards a world-class standard. In addition to that, we have highly competent support staff and a supportive management team within UTB which makes it much easier to achieve these global standards” said Dr. Hazwan.
He also said that besides its people, strong partnership in the realms of education and research with major oil and gas companies in Brunei and international universities makes Petroleum Engineering at UTB at par with other global universities.
“We are fortunate and grateful to have strong ties with these entities within the local government and private sectors as well as international establishments which have supported us on an advisory level since the inception of this programme. We ensure that our curriculum remains relevant and up to date and our graduates are industry-ready” he added.
The Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Dr Hajah Ena Kartina binti Hj Abd Rahman, highlighted that UTB being the key provider of engineering higher education in Brunei, and understanding the importance of professional accreditation and its impact to the country, all engineering curriculums at UTB are currently designed so that the programmes will be internationally recognised by professional engineering institutions.
“We hope to not only equipped the graduates with fundamental engineering knowledge, but also the skills and abilities in programming, problem-solving, handling technical uncertainties, communication, teamworking, analysis & design, and working within the economic, legal, social, ethical and environmental contexts as well as developing self-learning and lifelong learning abilities” said the Dean.
Pleased on the accomplishment, Professor Dr. Dayang Hajah Zohrah binti Haji Sulaiman, Vice-Chancellor of UTB shared her delights,
“Alhamdulilah, thanks to the inspiring leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam and the Chancellor of UTB, continuous support of His Majesty’s government and hard work of everyone at the University, UTB has achieved yet another commendable milestone. Although Petroleum Engineering programme area at UTB is relatively new in the Faculty of Engineering and yet, it has positioned itself globally. This achievement is a testament, amongst others, on how academia views our expertise in Petroleum Engineering. UTB Petroleum Engineers have also been engaged by Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sendirian Berhad in providing research solution to the most expensive technological problem of the nation’s oil production.”