UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta has recorded a historic achievement, placing second nationally after Universitas Indonesia and within the 801–1000 band worldwide, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE WUR) 2027, as published on THE's official website. UIN Sunan Kalijaga Rector Prof. Noorhaidi Hasan welcomed the achievement as a historic milestone for the university and for State Islamic Religious Higher Education Institutions (PTKIN).

"Thank you to the entire academic community, the Senate, the vice rectors, bureau heads, deans, the Director of the Graduate School, and the heads of institutes. In particular, I would like to thank LPPM, which has served as the commander of our ranking effort," he said.

Head of LPPM at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Dr. Abdul Qoyum, explained that this achievement is closely tied to the quality of research and scholarly publication produced by UIN Sunan Kalijaga's lecturers. He noted that THE's assessment spans five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry relations, and international outlook.

Among these areas, Dr. Qoyum highlighted UIN Sunan Kalijaga's particular strength in research quality. He cited the field-weighted citation impact, a measure that normalizes citation impact according to academic discipline, as one indicator showing the university's strong research performance relative to a number of other universities in Indonesia. He also noted that UIN Sunan Kalijaga's publication h-index stands at a solid level.

This explanation aligns with data on THE's official website, which recorded UIN Sunan Kalijaga's research quality score at 82.8, the highest among the university's five assessed areas. Meanwhile, the teaching score reached 16.7, research environment 16.4, industry relations 18.3, and international outlook 45.3. With an overall score range of 36.4–40.1, UIN Sunan Kalijaga placed within the 801–1000 band worldwide in THE WUR 2027.

This strength, he said, is also reflected in lecturers' publications in reputable journals. "The majority of articles published by UIN Sunan Kalijaga's lecturers appear in top-tier journals. Nearly 80 percent are published in Q1 journals. This indicates exceptional quality," he said.

Regarding THE, Dr. Qoyum explained that it is an organization that collects, analyzes, and presents university data for global rankings. In the process, THE independently gathers data and conducts surveys, including determining survey respondents. Universities also submit a range of institutional data, including funding and research program information.

At UIN Sunan Kalijaga, he continued, LPPM has been mandated by the Rector to manage the university's reputation. However, he emphasized that this reputation is built through the collective work of lecturers, students, administrative staff, and the entire leadership.

"Building this reputation certainly requires the work of the entire team, lecturers, students, administrative staff, and all levels of leadership. At LPPM, our role is to process data, present it, and submit it for ranking purposes," he said.

This data management work goes hand in hand with improvements to research governance. Dr. Qoyum explained that LPPM encourages competitive research management and provides mentoring on the outputs researchers are expected to produce.

These efforts are reinforced through additional publication incentives and encouragement of research and innovation programs among students. LPPM has also integrated its various programs and activities to build a database supporting the needs of THE WUR, THE Impact Rankings, and QS rankings alike.

This achievement serves as a strategic asset for UIN Sunan Kalijaga in strengthening trust and expanding academic partnership networks. With research quality as one of its main strengths, this global reputation opens up increasingly broad opportunities for collaboration among lecturers and students. The university's commitment to continuously improving the quality of education, research, and cooperation serves as its foundation for building on this achievement toward sustained academic quality. (humassk)