The team at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has taken the top accolade amid stiff competition for Times Higher Education’s awards for Asian institutions.

NTU took the prize for Leadership and Management Team of the Year at 2022’s ɫ��ֱ�� Awards Asia, whose winners were announced at a ceremony in Nagoya, Japan, on 31 May.

As well as transforming its technology infrastructure and administration, the Singapore-based institution also made a bold and powerful commitment to a sustainable future, the judges found. In 2021, it became the world’s first university to publicly issue a sustainability-linked bond, under a 10-year, S$1 billion (£564 million) medium-term note programme. At the same time, NTU announced a new sustainability manifesto to guide its sustainability efforts over the next 15 years.

Judges said that NTU had “achieved an outstanding rate and quality of development in recent years and has become one of the global leaders of the sector”.

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“NTU clearly showed that it is reflexively innovating in many areas. The pandemic has been handled well, and the innovations in teaching and learning are impressive,” they said.

In its fourth year, the event builds on the success of ɫ��ֱ��’s long-running UK-focused awards, known as the “Oscars of higher education”. This year as in 2021, the Asia awards received nearly 500 entries with submissions from 22 countries or territories, whittled down to 80 finalists.

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The 2022 awards saw India punch above its weight, the only country with two winners.

India also boasted the largest number of shortlisted submissions from any country, with 11 institutions in the running. Other top-performing countries include Malaysia, with 10 institutions, and China, with eight.

As this year’s awards show, universities’ response to Covid-19 is still high on the agenda.

The winner in the Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year category, Thailand’s Burapha University, created a platform that allowed doctors to monitor more than 45,000 of patients remotely. Judges praised Burapha for its “timely and innovative response to the needs of hospitals” and for enabling the university’s teaching hospital to mobilise “hidden medical resources”.

ɫ��ֱ��’s chief knowledge officer, Phil Baty, congratulated all the 2022 winners for their success in a year that has seen universities continue to grapple with the fallout of the pandemic even as they adapt to other rapidly unfolding events.

“There is no shortage of challenges, and geopolitical uncertainties threaten more upheaval, but the evidence...attests that Asia’s universities are equipped with the vision, resources and will to rise to any task,” he said.

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Times Higher Education Awards Asia 2022 winners

Leadership and Management Team of the Year
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Workplace of the Year
Seoul National University

International Strategy of the Year
Izmir Institute of Technology

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Teaching and Learning Strategy of the Year
Hong Kong Polytechnic University

ɫ��ֱ�� Datapoints Impact Award
Diponegoro University

ɫ��ֱ�� Datapoints Research Improvement Award
Savitribai Phule Pune University

Excellence and Innovation in the Arts
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)

Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year
Burapha University

Outstanding Support for Students
Taylor’s University

Student Recruitment Campaign of the Year
Amity University Online

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Read more about the winners in the .