Universiti Malaya said it will be ready to participate in the Times Higher Education rankings by 2018. – The Malaysian Insider pic, October 2, 2014.
Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia (UKM) have defended themselves for not taking part in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2014-2015, citing the use of indicators that were not suitable for Malaysian universities younger than their western counterparts.
UM said it will be ready to participate in the rankings by 2018, while UKM said it was better for it to participate in rankings that are more "suited to its direction".
UM vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin cited two reasons why the university did not participate in the THE rankings, which Malaysian universities have not been featured in since 2011.
"The first is because UM is still building up its publications and citations in the Web of Science database," Amin said in a statement to The Malaysian Insider.
"UM’s policy on this began only in 2008. It is now only beginning to bear fruit but is not yet sufficiently mature to make an impact."
The second reason, he said, was the amount of funding the university received, which was not enough to compete with other established universities around the world.
"UM is not yet in a strong enough financial position to compete with other richer, older and better-ranked universities. UM is making plans to be more financially independent but these financial plans are long term in nature."
THE, in releasing the rankings earlier today, said it was disappointed that Malaysia's most prominent universities – UM and UKM – had not submitted any data for the annual rankings, saying they were missing out on the opportunity to be assessed against other universities in the world.
"This is very disappointing as they are essentially holding Malaysia back from being able to benchmark the true standard of its higher education against the rest of the world and, indeed, identify the areas that need improvement," THE rankings editor Phil Baty told The Malaysian Insider.
Four other Malaysian universities submitted their data but none made it into the top 400 of the THE rankings.
"Engagement with the rankings helps universities to identify their weaknesses and strengths and to plan for a stronger future. But we are finding that some Malaysian universities are not yet ready to share data, which I feel is a real missed opportunity."
Amin, however, said that UM was expecting to enter the THE rankings in 2018 when its publications and citations in the Web of Science database are expected to reach a "more mature" level.
"It expects to make a significant impact in 2025 when alternative streams of revenue will be sufficient to finance a significant portion of its operating budget."
UKM's Strategic Centre deputy executive director (performance assessment) Associate Professor Dr Masturah Markom told The Malaysian Insider that the university preferred to focus on rankings that were fair to its direction.
"This ranking (THE) has different indicators and it's more suitable for universities that have been established far longer.
"Indicators, such as 'industry income', are unfair to us as Malaysia's (industry income) is not as much as in the United States, for example. We cannot compete with them so it is best if we spend on rankings that are better suited to our direction and focus," she said, referring to the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) rankings.
QS and THE began developing different ranking systems since they separated in 2010. Malaysian universities have been listed on the QS rankings but not on the THE ranking since it began in 2011.
Western universities dominated the top ten of the World University Rankings for 2014-2015, with California Institute of Technology retaining top spot for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Harvard University in second place.
Oxford University takes third position, followed by Stanford University and University of Cambridge (UK) at fourth and fifth place respectively.
The highest-ranking university in Asia is Japan’s University of Tokyo, which takes the 23rd spot with the National University of Singapore trailing at No. 25.
Other Asian countries represented in the top 400 include South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Iran and Thailand.
DAP's Lim Kit Siang (pic, left) weighed in on the matter and said that Malaysia's performance in recent international assessments showed that the country was facing a crisis in the entire education system.
He said the absence of Malaysian universities in this latest index conflicted with the statement made by Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who had previously said Malaysia had “one of the world’s best education system”.
"Muhyiddin has been education minister for more than five years since 2009," he said in a statement.
"He should make a ministerial statement when Parliament resumes next Tuesday on why all efforts during his tenure as education minister for over five years have failed to restore Malaysia’s high international standing in academic repute and excellence… that for four consecutive years, none of the Malaysian universities had been able to be ranked among the THE Top 200 University Rankings."
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