1. In the Star of Thursday 8th October and NST Friday 9th October there were reports of the much awaitedTimes Higher Education-QS World University rankings. The VC of Universiti Malaya, my alma mater was happy because UM has jumped from #230 to #180, a leap of 50 steps. Except for Universiti Teknologi Malaysia which improved by 36 steps, the other big three suffered a bit.
2. When I was a university student (1969-1978) I have never heard of such a topic being discussed by my professors, though I knew Universiti Malaya and University of Reading were among the best in the world at least in my chosen field of study. When I was a lecturer myself at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (1979-now), it is only in the last five years that we pay some attention to this exercise of ranking universities in the world and Asia.
3. As expected the long established universities in US and UK stayed in the top 10. However in Asia, University of Tokyo, University of Kyoto and the National University of Singapore featured among the best 30 in the world.
4. All the top 5 universities in Malaysia are quite similar in history except Universiti Malaya which is the oldest, the others are about 40 years. As a 40-year old university it is expected to be macho, handsome, secured, confident matured and competitive, but as I grew and aged within the academia, I can't help but felt sorry for our universities for a couple of reasons.
5. All universities have been treated like a secondary schools by the ministry, everyday professors have to clock-in and clock-out, take the attendance during lectures, prepare ISO documents like a factory etc. There were too many unnecessary chores and routine that we have to do and the professors at Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford never did in their life times! In addition the VCs and DVCs are appointed, at least some, via political whims and fancies. These people are not among the top academicians in their own universities.
6. Among the criteria that Malaysian universities didnot feature well enough are (a) inadequate publications in top journals in various chosen disciplines (b) the number of international students especially from Europe and other developed countries. We have been receiving post-graduate students from Indonesia and Middle East countries and northern Africa (c) inadequate R & D funds, not that we have no funds, but the funds were not systematically chanelled to research in competitive areas, (d) inadequate freedom given to university professors to innovate and excell and (e) the graduates produced via a 3-year students are just short of becoming competitive force of labours for the private markets.
7. I am happy for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for maintaining the 2nd stop beihind my alma mater, but at # 291 does not reflect the true picture of the sweat and tears we put in daily, weekly and monthly in teaching, supervising, researching, publication and community services. I hope in 2010 we shall improve.
1 comment:
What are the real reasons for the slight increase in the ranking for UM? I heard someone said it is because of an increased intake of international students (I assume mostly from Middle Eastern and South East Asian countries?). Is there any other reasons for the improvement?
Post a Comment