University rankings: Can they be bought?

Universiti Malaya (UM) has moved up 40 places from 207 last year to 167 this year in the QS World University Rankings. Some people were jumping for joy while some deprecated it.

There are many world university rankings nowadays. In additional to the QS, there are also the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

In fact, all university rankings have their own rules of the game and the differences could be wide. Some attract more attention and are more authoritative but there might still be controversy over impartiality and objectivity.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said earlier that it was normal to see fluctuation in world university rankings and thus, we should not be obsessive about it. He also pointed out that we could not be ranked against universities abroad whose conditions and environments were very much different from ours, just like we should not compare an apple with an orange.

Of course, the remarks were made when the UM had dropped from the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings last year. It might not be the case if the UM was ranked within the top 200.

Ambitious

In any case, world rankings have given us a coordinate criterion for references, which is better than groping in the dark and blowing our own trumpet. The UM performance this year is indeed gratifying. It has at least proven that hard work will definitely be repaid.

The UM's approach to encourage staff members publish articles in international academic journals with promotion has achieved some results. Excitedly, its Vice-Chancellor also expressed the desire to attract Nobel Prize laureates to join the university, so that the UM could achieve a better result in the ARWU.

A university must be ambitious and the UM's desire to make progress is of course commendable. However, it must not indulge too much in the ranking game and lose its own tradition and characteristics, while neglecting the phenomenon of political interference and the racist enrollment system, which require a greater attention.

Mercenary researchers

There are rumours saying that some universities are trying to increase the number of their research output through recruiting well-known researchers and professors.

Some universities are also spending a huge amount of money on recruiting foreign professors as non-native scholars so that they can be justifiably being called affiliated teaching staff members of the universities, with their research outputs and published papers being counted under the names of the universities and thus, help to improve their rankings.

If such approaches are being adopted just to achieve a higher ranking, it has indeed deviated from the core value of education and killed the spirit of universities! The UM should bear this in mind and refrain itself from being too obsessive about it.

Teaching, research and social services are the three indispensable functions of a university. So what if a university achieves an impressive ranking but fails to cultivate quality students who are willing to contribute to the country and society?

- MySinchew