It’s often been said that one’s university years are the first draft of your future. Like the droplets of water that will eventually fill a pail, all freshmen will soon understand what it means to be NTU students and how they will be prepared for the challenges of a globalised society. This new world is being driven by dramatic changes in the environment, economics, politics and advancements in technology, resulting in new ways of working, living and playing. In 2011, NTU introduced a new undergraduate curriculum that puts learning within and beyond the curriculum at its core. Called NTU Education, this approach focuses on supporting how students learn and providing them with opportunities to develop skills that will enable them to face the challenges of the 21st century with optimism and confidence

QS World University Rankings

NTU was ranked 11th in the world and 3rd in Asia in the 2020 QS World University Rankings. NTU also came in overall 1st in the world in the ranking of young universities for five consecutive years in the QS Top 50 Under 50 rankings from 2015 to 2019. In 2011, NTU became the first university in Asia to receive the maximum five stars under the QS Stars evaluation system, and the only one in Singapore to date.

QS World University Rankings by Broad Subject Area and Specific Subject

In 2017, NTU's Engineering and Technology was ranked 4th in the world and 1st in Asia by the QS World University Rankings by Broad Subject Area - Engineering and Technology 2017. NTU also has a research citation that is among the top four in the world, with its research output being ranked among the top three universities globally in Engineering by Essential Science Indicators of Thomson Reuters. In the 2017 QS World University Rankings by Broad Subject Area, NTU is ranked 22nd in the world for Social Sciences and Management for three consecutive years. Social Sciences and Management includes the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Business School and School of Social Sciences. In the field of Natural Sciences, NTU's College of Science is ranked 17th in the world, a drop of 2 places from the previous year, while Arts & Humanities (consisting of the School of Humanities and School of Art, Design and Media) is ranked 51st globally, a drop of 6 places from the previous year.

In the 2017 QS World University Rankings by subjects published, NTU had 19 subjects in the world's top 50, with two subjects in the global top 10. It also came in first in Asia for Materials Science and Electronic Engineering.

Times Higher Education World University Rankings

NTU is ranked 4th in Asia in the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2017, a drop of 2 places from the previous year. In 2017, NTU rose to 52nd position worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings with strong scores in all the categories measured, particularly for research, citations, international outlook as well as industry income and innovation. As a result, NTU rocketed a total of 122 places since 2011 in the THE rankings. NTU is also ranked 3rd best among the global young universities under 50 years old, a drop of 1 place from the previous year.

Academic Ranking of World Universities and other rankings

Independently, the 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy that ranks universities' research performance and places a high weightage on the number of Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals won by a university’s alumni and faculty placed NTU 115th worldwide and 2nd in Singapore. NTU president Bertil Andersson had voiced out in 2015 that the ARWU ranking methodology is inherently biased against young universities like NTU. Nevertheless, in the same ranking, ARWU places NTU's engineering faculty at No.2 in the world.

NTU's Nanyang Business School is Singapore's top business school, having ranked 24th worldwide in the 2017 Financial Times Global MBA Rankings. For the 13th straight year, Nanyang Business School has been ranked the best in Singapore by The Economist. Also, NBS is placed 10th worldwide in the Financial Times’ (FT) rankings of the world’s top 100 Executive MBA (EMBA) programmes. Accounting research at NBS is rated 7th in the world and remained No. 1 in Asia by the Brigham Young University (BYU) Accounting Research Rankings released in April 2014. NTU Tan Hun Tong is currently the world's top accounting researcher for the third year running while Clive Lennox is ranked 7th in the world and 2nd in Asia. Notably, Vijay Sethi was voted the world's best business professor as the sole recipient of the prestigious Business Professor of the Year award from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in March 2013, beating top business professors from Harvard Business School, Wharton Business School and London Business School.

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies has been ranked second among university-affiliated think-tanks in Asia and 22nd internationally.