There is a prevalent belief that the Universiti Malaya (UM) was once a high standing global university and that its standard has been sliding over the years.
This brief article aims to help the public understand the issues better and correct any erroneous beliefs, particularly in regard to the subject of world ranking that is hotly debated in Malaysiakini.
UM has its roots in the King Edward VII medical school (established in 1905 in Singapore). Its merger in 1949 with the Raffles College (established 1928) established the University of Malaya, located in Singapore.
The Kuala Lumpur campus, built in the late 1950s and established on January 1, 1962, is now known as the University of Malaya.
This brief article aims to help the public understand the issues better and correct any erroneous beliefs, particularly in regard to the subject of world ranking that is hotly debated in Malaysiakini.
UM has its roots in the King Edward VII medical school (established in 1905 in Singapore). Its merger in 1949 with the Raffles College (established 1928) established the University of Malaya, located in Singapore.
The Kuala Lumpur campus, built in the late 1950s and established on January 1, 1962, is now known as the University of Malaya.
While UM has served the nation well in producing many thousands of knowledgeable and skilled workers and leaders, it was historically largely a teaching institution.
Research, university wide was pursued at a more casual pace, never like what is happening in UM today based on tough KPIs.
Indeed, from the standpoint of research excellence (as measured in the production of ISI indexed publications and citations) UM's achievement is highest today than at any point during its past history.
The notion that there was once an elevated position of UM has unfortunately escaped quantitative measure by the world ranking standards of today. It is therefore difficult to compare anything in the absence of any past data or measure.
Indeed, from the standpoint of research excellence (as measured in the production of ISI indexed publications and citations) UM's achievement is highest today than at any point during its past history.
The notion that there was once an elevated position of UM has unfortunately escaped quantitative measure by the world ranking standards of today. It is therefore difficult to compare anything in the absence of any past data or measure.
The way forward
Allow me to explain this as follows.
As a measure of research output in UM, the number of papers Scopus-indexed produced increased from 2,822 (in 2009) to 11,640 (in 2013), a huge increase of 42.5 percent annually never heard of in the past.
More importantly, as a measure of research impact, the number of citations increased from 5,298 (in 2009) to 26,283 (in 2013), an increase of 49.4 percent per annum.
Through the implementation of the Standard Academic Performance Target (SAPT) with key performance indicators for publishing in high tier ISI journals, we expect that the rate of increase in publications and citations will grow further and hence will start reaching levels of more highly regarded institutions.
For example, the National University of Singapore (NUS) produced 21,256 publications (in 2009) which increased to 28,655 (in 2011). This represents an increase in annual publication rate by 16.1 percent.
Similarly, its citations were 86,701 (in 2009) and 118,490 (in 2011), resulting in an annual increase in citation rate by 16.9 percent. If UM can maintain its publication and citation rates, UM should be able to match NUS’s publication and citation scores by the year 2020 provided UM continues to get determined and solid support to achieve it.
Allow me to explain this as follows.
As a measure of research output in UM, the number of papers Scopus-indexed produced increased from 2,822 (in 2009) to 11,640 (in 2013), a huge increase of 42.5 percent annually never heard of in the past.
More importantly, as a measure of research impact, the number of citations increased from 5,298 (in 2009) to 26,283 (in 2013), an increase of 49.4 percent per annum.
Through the implementation of the Standard Academic Performance Target (SAPT) with key performance indicators for publishing in high tier ISI journals, we expect that the rate of increase in publications and citations will grow further and hence will start reaching levels of more highly regarded institutions.
For example, the National University of Singapore (NUS) produced 21,256 publications (in 2009) which increased to 28,655 (in 2011). This represents an increase in annual publication rate by 16.1 percent.
Similarly, its citations were 86,701 (in 2009) and 118,490 (in 2011), resulting in an annual increase in citation rate by 16.9 percent. If UM can maintain its publication and citation rates, UM should be able to match NUS’s publication and citation scores by the year 2020 provided UM continues to get determined and solid support to achieve it.
Everyone must understand that the budget of highly ranked universities are huge compared to the lower ranked.
Building and sustaining a top ranked global institution is extremely challenging cost wise and this is the price that needs to be paid if we are serious about it.
Building and sustaining a top ranked global institution is extremely challenging cost wise and this is the price that needs to be paid if we are serious about it.
No Malaysian uni was ever in Top 100
The progress that UM has made, especially in the last five years as evidenced in the QS World University Rankings, has been rapid in spite of changes to the methodology in collecting and computing the various indicators that contribute to the computation by QS.
From the lowest rank (246 in the year 2007), UM has risen to 167 (in 2013).
Critics have wrongly argued that UM was once ranked highest at 89 (in 2004). It should be noted that in 2004, QS made a serious error in their inaugural rankings; they did not approach Malaysian universities for data and instead assumed that non-Malay students at every Malaysian university were international students.
From the lowest rank (246 in the year 2007), UM has risen to 167 (in 2013).
Critics have wrongly argued that UM was once ranked highest at 89 (in 2004). It should be noted that in 2004, QS made a serious error in their inaugural rankings; they did not approach Malaysian universities for data and instead assumed that non-Malay students at every Malaysian university were international students.
This resulted in a flawed score for all Malaysian universities: UM (89), USM (111). When the mistake was rectified in the following year the rankings were: UM (169), USM (326).
Hence, it is clear that no Malaysian university was ever in the top 100 universities in the world. UM's score today (167 in 2013) is better than that achieved in 2005. Last year's rank of 156 was the best ever achieved by UM since it came into existence.
In the last five years UM has taken several important initiatives in keeping with its tagline “The leader in research and innovation.”
These include:
Hence, it is clear that no Malaysian university was ever in the top 100 universities in the world. UM's score today (167 in 2013) is better than that achieved in 2005. Last year's rank of 156 was the best ever achieved by UM since it came into existence.
In the last five years UM has taken several important initiatives in keeping with its tagline “The leader in research and innovation.”
These include:
- the implementation of the SAPT for all UM academic staff;
- the employment of local and international academic staff with outstanding research and publication record;
- the engagement of academic icons to assist UM academics to take their research to higher international levels;
- the consolidation of faculties to foster the synergies for interdisciplinary research which had been hindered by the traditional system promoting the silo-mentality;
- the Bright Sparks scholarship to attract top-class local and international students to pursue PhDs and publish for UM;
- the High Impact Research which focuses on publication in Tier 1 ISI journals such as Nature; and
- collaborating with Nobel laureates and highly-cited researchers to further internationalise UM collaborations.
Goal: Top 100 by 2020
With this focus on academic and research excellence, UM is in the position to accomplish one of the strategic goals of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan (PSPTN), which is to be ranked among the top 100 universities, targetted by the year 2020.
None of the initiatives mentioned here was ever introduced before.
In fact the special High Impact Research Grant created by the government two years ago is gratefilly acknowledged as it has significantly helped UM to fund many of these initiatives.
Thus the UM of today operates in the real world of fierce global competition where there are clear indicators of performance as set by the ranking bodies.
None of the initiatives mentioned here was ever introduced before.
In fact the special High Impact Research Grant created by the government two years ago is gratefilly acknowledged as it has significantly helped UM to fund many of these initiatives.
Thus the UM of today operates in the real world of fierce global competition where there are clear indicators of performance as set by the ranking bodies.
Being the so-called premier university, UM cannot escape public and international scrutiny, and certainly cannot choose not to be ranked.
Whatever is claimed of UM today are based on globally set criteria and measures not in existence a decade ago.
Whatever is claimed of UM today are based on globally set criteria and measures not in existence a decade ago.
GHAUTH JASMON is the vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya. The views expressed in this article are his own.
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