Unlike the previous year, this year’s assessment has added one scoring component to the main components, namely Innovation Performance. Five main components used to assess the performance of higher education in Indonesia in 2018 are Quality of Human Resources, Institutional Quality, Quality of Student Activities, Quality of Research and Community Service, and Quality of Innovation.

Director General of Science & Technology Institutions and Higher Education, Patdono Suwignjo said that the clustering was conducted to map Indonesian higher educations under the auspice of Kemenristekdikti in order to continuously improve the quality in implementing Three Pillars of higher education.

The 1st Cluster higher educations sorted according to their scores are as follows:
1. Institut Teknologi Bandung (3,57)
2. Universitas Gadjah Mada (3,54)
3. Institut Pertanian Bogor (3,41)
4. Universitas Indonesia (3,28)
5. Universitas Diponegoro (3,12)
6. Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (3,10)
7. Universitas Airlangga (3,03)
8. Universitas Hasanuddin (2,99)
9. Universitas Padjadjaran (2,95)
10. Universitas Andalas (2,88)
11. Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (2,83)
12. Universitas Brawijaya (2,82)
13. Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (2,70)
14. Universitas Negeri Malang (2,61)

“The clustering could also be as a basis for Kemenristekdikti to conduct mentorship to higher education in order to improve the quality of universities in Indonesia, policy making to improve the quality of higher education, and provide information to general public about the performance of higher education in Indonesia,” Patdono Suwignjo stated in a press release.