SMU entered the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) rankings for Asian universities for the first time in 60th place. NUS has kept the top spot while NTU moved up one place to third. London-based education and career consultancy QS has expanded the top Asian universities list to include the region's 350 best universities, 50 more than in the previous year. Asked to comment on SMU's debut in the rankings, QS said it included SMU this year as it now offers degrees in information systems and social sciences. It called SMU's 60th placing a "great achievement" as it is not a comprehensive university. It added that SMU ranks 25th regionally for citations per paper and had perfect scores for two indicators of internationalisation: international faculty and outbound exchange students. SMU Provost Professor Lily Kong said the university "is highly committed to delivering high-quality teaching and research, for which ranking is only one possible - if imperfect - indicator".