Malaysia has been left out of the World’s Top 500 Universities ranking for the fifth year in succession in the “Academic Ranking of World Universities ARWU 2007″ just released by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Singapore has two, Australia 17 and New Zealand five universities in the latest world university ranking, which is dominated by US universities with Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley and Cambridge occupying the top four places.
It would have been good news for Malaysia’s 50th Merdeka anniversary to demonstrate the success of the country’s universities to get out of the rut of mediocrity and return to the path of excellence and quality if Malaysia had managed to get listed among the World Top 500 Universities in the ARWU 2007 — but it is clear that all the talk of higher education reform has not borne fruit with the lack of political will to give top priority to meritocracy and academic excellence to scale the ranks of world-class universities.
The Higher Education Minister, Datuk Mustapha Mohamad should explain why no Malaysian university has been able to get ranked in the ARWU in the past five years and when he expects Malaysian universities to achieve such international recognition.
The statistics by country for the World Top 500 universities in the ARWU 2007 are:
USA 166
UK 42
Germany 41
Japan 32
China 25
Canada 22
France 22
Italy 20
Australia 17
Netherlands 12
Sweden 11
Spain 9
South Korea 8
Switzerland 8
Belgium 7
Austria 7
Israel 7
Finland 5
Brazil 5
New Zealand 5
South Africa 4
Ireland 3
Singapore 2
Greece 2
Hungary 2
Poland 2
India 2
Chile 2
Portugal 2
Argentina 1
Slovenia 1
Turkey 1
Egypt 1
Mexico 1
Total 508
#1 by k1980 on Monday, 13 August 2007 - 3:17 pm
The Higher Education Minister is holding a kenduri hajat to celebrate the happy occasion that several malaysian universities are among the top 50,000 in the world
#2 by Toyol on Monday, 13 August 2007 - 4:09 pm
Is it a curse to be able and wiling to work hard for what we want? Is it a curse to sacrifice to be able to provide the best for our families? Are the Chinese cursed because they have the mentality to be prepared to face hardships so their families could have a better life?
The reasons why private sector companies prefer to have Chinese staff is obvious. It is really secondary which university they come from. Of course, some jobs require candidates from top universities…granted. But the majority of employers would take Chinese staff from basically any university/college. Is it their fault that due to their willingness to learn and work hard that other races are marginalised. Is that why the NEP is for? No wonder we breed mediocre people!
#3 by requiem87 on Monday, 13 August 2007 - 4:26 pm
There are two ways to enter university form 6 and Matriculation…the question papers of the matric students are set by their lecturers unlike the form6 students who study like hell to sit for a paper set by the exam board….i feel like this is injustice done to the form6 students ~! why the double standards ?
#4 by Godfather on Monday, 13 August 2007 - 9:16 pm
If there are no double standards, how could they have manouvred the entrance exams ? How could they have continued to occupy the majority of the places in medicine, engineering, dentistry and law ? How could they have lied with the statistics ?
#5 by requiem87 on Monday, 13 August 2007 - 9:43 pm
Can someone explain to me why students with band 1 in MUET can enter university ?? My cousin complained to me that his teacher said that only band 4 and above can enter ? If band 1 can enter university then why bother taking the MUET test which costs RM60 ??
#6 by k1980 on Monday, 13 August 2007 - 10:13 pm
If band 1 can enter university then why bother taking the MUET test?
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It goes without saying that only a certain race is given this exemption of not having Band 4 and above. These Band 1 students will be automatically inducted by the govt as religious officers (which require zero knowledge of the English language) as soon as they graduate.
#7 by tunglang on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 2:03 am
It takes no MORON to figure out who were admitted to our local universities (preferentially at ??? standard), later to graduate ??? and took over the running & teaching & reseaching at the same local unis, and the same ??? standard of admission and MINDSET continues to produce ??? graduates… to figure out how our unis compare vis a vis foreign ones.
#8 by pulau_sibu on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 7:12 am
Why can’t we buy Oxford and make it a malaysian university (but in UK)?
#9 by grace on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 11:20 am
I think that the ranking is “biased “against us!!!
Look at what HRH Sultan of Selangor say.
HRH had said that a lecturer rejected by our local U was readily welcomed by Singpore U and msde the head of the department.
By extension, we must be of very high standard. Our ‘discards’ are readily accepted by others as the elites!!!
Damn high standard we must have. Must be a ‘mistake’ la to rank our Uni so low!!!!
I think we are at ‘par’ with MIT and some say even better!!!
#10 by shortie kiasu on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 12:41 pm
Public universities only accept mediocre students as shown by all the bright students were rejected entry year in and year out, it has everything to with the racial quotas under New Economic Policy, and if the policy makers realize, the NEP is pulling them and the designated race backwards, not propelling them forward, and if they so continue choose to do so that will be bitter fruit they have to devour continuously, so is the same scenario in the academia in the local public universities, put the academia and the students together, they should know where they heading: dead end. Is that what they want, if so, so be it.
The education minister always said rating as such does not matter to them, they can face up to the globalization, so the grape is sour.
#11 by Orangutan on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 2:29 pm
Jeffrey,
I share the same experience with you as an employer. Not only have I observed similar trend, I have also noticed that Chinese candidates going for the same job, generally will command about 30-50% higher pay than their counterparts of other races. And frankly they don’t loose an edge in doing so because of the trust of their quality and performance from the employers and they still end up being the preferred ones.
Non-bumi graduates may be discriminated in their pursuit for higher education in Malaysia, but those who work hard will be rewarded fairly when they are in a free market domain, which all of us will eventually be. Many of NEP’s by-products are now finding themselves going against the free market forces and not marketable.
#12 by requiem87 on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 3:31 pm
Thanks k1980 for your explanations :)
#13 by Jeffrey on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 4:17 pm
Thanks Orangutan for the response. I point it out because our young esp of Chinese descent complained about being marginalized and wanting to migrate though many here become trilingual, very marketable in employment here and abroad.
But even in terms of the entrepreneurial and employment class, you will find that nearly all non Malays would denigrate the NEP though many of them are not admitting that they are making money together with Malay partners or business associates under the auspices of the NEP just as those who condemn corruption and cronyism are themselves partners or friends of such politicians and cronies and are making money in concert…
I don’t want to be construed as if I were defending the NEP or its unintended consequence, patronage slipping over to corruption. Overall, it is no good for the country. It is a communal policy by which UMNO has long relied to sustain its five-decade grip on power, and by itself is no good for even the Malays as well in terms of institutionalizing their reliance on crutches and making them susceptible to reverse discrimination in the market place.
But still many of those supposedly marginalized by such policies have turned out better in spite and sometimes because of such discriminatory policies.
The market is the great arbiter and leveler. And I don’t mean just our local market or our property bubble.
Outside, there are so many bubbles – commodity bubble, derivative bubble, liquidity bubble from the massive growth of debt derivative products and the bursting of the US sub-prime mortgage market may well spread to other markets and bring down the house of cards in the credit market.
It will be interesting to see when the crunch (induced from external conditions) hit us how much of the bumiputra wealth created via NEP will be preserved or transferred by sheer market forces to the non bumiputra entrepreneurs not geared and with savings. :)
#14 by digard on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 7:14 pm
Though I can understand some frustration around, I still sense some racial undertones in some of the comments.
China is heavily polluted by corruption, probably not less than Malaysia. Why, pulau_sibu, would “Chinese are running UTAR.” be any guarantee for a place among the first 500 universities? There are so many Chinese universities in and out of PRC who are not among the first 500.
Think about it, we are so desperate and so sick of all that racial nonsense; and through the backdoor it creeps in again.
We are so sick and tired of the ‘ketuanan’ of one race, and nevertheless some contributors project another race as ‘better’, at least implicitly.
Sorry, but Chinese racism is just as stupid as Malay racism.
It would increase the quality of this blog very much, if it went without playing any racial card.
#15 by cg on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 9:38 pm
digard: Just want to comment about “China is heavily polluted by corruption, probably not less than Malaysia.”
I think at least China gov is doing what they should to make the country moving forward, unlike the coalition who are leading our very beloved motherland towards backward. Really make me sad.
With my stay of nearly 2 years working in China and my knowledge of what is happening back at home. I’d say I feel guilty when I heard some Malaysian criticize the Chinese for not being civilise, while Malaysia aren’t doing any better to improve, at leave I’m seeing improvement in the Chinese on striving to improve themselves.
#16 by tunglang on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 11:39 pm
dear digard, we all happen to sail in the same Malaysia Boat, which is sinking by the day. Some of us still have the ‘ostrich’ mentality to bury our heads when things are not going well. Or we still seem to go on the perpetual honey moon trip to Laguna Bay, singing the ‘Malaysia Boleh’ song knowing fully well we may not survive the next global challenges ahead if nothing is done about ‘it’.
‘Rights’ is one thing, survival for every Malaysian is another more crucial factor. (How to row together if some are not fed well while others are over-fed? How to row in 2nd class? To row for another 13 years towards 2020? No brainer!)
Now, no one being ‘handicapped’ by discrimination would like to sail any further, much less on a journey that took 50 long years that has yet to reach the promised land of Malaysia for all Malaysians.
That’s why we see some jumped ship much earlier!
#17 by digard on Wednesday, 15 August 2007 - 7:10 am
cg and tunglang: Appreciate your dialogues! – Much more interesting to exchange views than simply giving out statements.
I do share your concerns about Malaysia; and still, I am afraid that countering ‘Malay’ with ‘Chinese’ does not serve the purpose. That only puts the well-meaning Malays off; those that DAP has lost years ago. There are plenty who dispise the current gomen just as much. Why should they subscribe to implied Chinese superiority? I personally know some, who could and would contribute a lot to increase the quality of a Malaysian university to attain a high ranking. Why annihilate them with our perceived ‘superiority’ at running a place?
#18 by palmdoc on Thursday, 16 August 2007 - 7:52 am
No problem. We have “University Colleges” here which “twin” courses with other ranked Universities, so we are still messing about with the best.
Malaysia boleh!
#19 by xtracts on Sunday, 7 October 2007 - 12:21 am
Education in Malaysia wont progress and it’s getting from bad to worst…Even Mat Rempit are qualified to enter University….Just imagine our contry’s education level….Ministers are hoping that Malaysia will produce a good students…Hope without doing their job will not bring Education in Malaysia a success….The intake for universities should not based on race and the government should do it in a fair way….There’s no point having so many graduates in Malaysia but none of them have the quality….Quality is better than quantity…The ministers are not paying good attention about it…When they are interviewed they are able to give all sorts of visions but none of it was a success…
Malaysia Boleh 2020…