Malaysia is losing out in the unrelenting battle for international competitiveness among nations, with Malaysian universities even losing out to universities in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines – something completely unthinkable in the first three decades of our nationhood.
For the second consecutive year, Malaysia had fallen completely out of the list of the world’s Top 200 Universities this year in the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) – Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.
The national shame of Malaysia falling completely out of the list of the world’s Top 200 Universities this year in the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) – Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings is being compounded by the ignominy of Malaysian universities losing out not only to top universities in Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea but also to other South East Asian nations like Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines.
The 2008 THES-QS rankings should be a “wake-up” call to the Higher Education Minister and the Cabinet of the advanced crisis of higher education in Malaysia, but I have given up hope that the Barisan Nasional government is capable of “waking up”!
For the second consecutive year, there is not only not a single university in the 2008 THES-QS Top 200 Universities list, there is also not a single university in the separate ranking of Top 100 Universities for five subject areas – Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities; Life Sciences and Biomedicine; and Technology.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Malaya (UM) were in the 2006 Ranking, placed No. 185 and 192 respectively. UKM plunged to 309 last year and improved to 250 this year while UM fell to 246 last year improving slightly to 230 this year – but both remain outside the Top 200 Universities ranking.
The government named Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) as the Apex University but it has a dismal international rankings after being included once in the Top 200 Universities list – No. 111 in 2004, No. 326 in 2005, 277 in 2006, No. 307 in 2007 and No. 313 in 2008.
It is both sad and pathetic that our Apex University, the USM, at No. 313 ranking, is not only left far behind in South East Asia by Singapore (National University of Singapore No. 30 and Nanyang Technological University No. 77) but also by Thailand (Chulalongkorn University No. 166), Indonesia (University of Indonesia No. 287) and the Philippines (Ateneo de Manila University No. 254 and University of the Philippines No. 276).
Until last year, Malaysian universities were all ranked well ahead of the Indonesian universities, but in the 2008 THES-QS World Top Universities ranking, Indonesian universities are catching up with Malaysian universities in leaps and bounds.
Last year for instance, the three top Indonesian universities were all ranked behind the Malaysian universities – University of Indonesia (UI) No. 395, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) No. 369 and Gajah Mada University (UGM) No. 360, as compared to the three top Malaysian universities University of Malaya (UM) No. 246, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) No. 307 and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) No. 309.
In this year’s ranking, University of Indonesia has improved by 108 placings to be ranked as No. 287, Bandung Institute of Technology No. 315 and Gajah Mada University No. 316.
This means that in the 2008 THES-QS Ranking, University of Indonesia (No. 287) has narrowed the gap with University of Malaya (No. 230) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (No. 250), while ahead of Malaysia’s apex university, Universiti Sains Malaysia (No. 313), University Putra Malaysia (No. 320) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (No. 356).
The performance of Malaysian universities in the 2008 THES-QS Top 100 lists for the five subject areas are even more dismal, with not a single university making into the five lists for two years consecutively although Malaysia secured four of these 500 prestigious slots in 2006 – University of Malaya was ranked 49 in Social Sciences and 95 in Natural Sciences, UKM was placed No. 62 in Natural Sciences, and University Sains Malaysia placed No. 96 for Life Sciences and Biomedicine.
For the 2008 THES-QS ranking, National University of Singapore (NUS) (No. 30) is ranked among the Top 100 Universities for all the five categories while Nanyang Technological University (NTU) (No. 77) is ranked among the Top 100 universities for three categories, viz: Technology (No. 26); Life Sciences & Biomedicine (No. 78) and Social Sciences (No.89).
NUS is ranked No. 11 for Technology; No. 17 for Life Sciences and Biomedicine, No. 31 for Natural Sciences; No. 18 for Social Sciences and No. 30 for Arts & Humanities.
NTU is ranked No. 25 for Engineering & IT; No. 99 for Natural Sciences and No. 88 for Social Sciences.
Even Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University is rated among the Top 100 Universities for two categories – Technology (No. 86) and Social Sciences (No. 72); Indonesia’s Bandung Institute of Technology rated as among the Top 100 universities for Technology (No. 90) and two universities in Philippines ranked among the Top 100 Universities for Arts and Humanities – Ateneo de Manila University (No. 79) and University of the Philippines (No. 82).
After being placed in four of the 500 slots in the five Top 100 Universities for the five subjects in 2006, Malaysian universities has been conspicuously missing from
all the five listings of Top 100 Universities for the five categories for the past two years.
There are over 30 “elite of elite” universities, which are not only ranked in the Top 200 Universities list, but also ranked in every one of the five Top 100 subject list.
Universities in the Asia-Pacific region which are in this exclusive “elite of elites” list are:
(Ranking in Top 200 Universities in bracket)
Australia
ANU (16)
Sydney U (37)
Melbourne U (38)
Queensland U (43)
New South Wales U (45)
Monash U (47)
Japan
Tokyo U (19)
Hong Kong
Hong Kong U (26)
Singapore
National University of Singapore (30)
China
Peking U (50)
Tsinghua U (56)
South Korea
Seoul National U (50)
Why is Malaysia not in this “elite of elites” listing and when will Malaysia have a university which will have all-round excellence as to be included in this list?
Speech at the Tawau DAP Thousand-People “Towards A New Era” dinner at Lau Gek Poh Memorial Hall, Tawau on Saturday, 15th November 2008 at 9 pm)
#1 by melurian on Monday, 17 November 2008 - 6:22 pm
to all who said um/usm/ukm sux:
1) are those samtet and stpm top scorers who became um alumni are lousy and “bad quality”?? remember that 128 top students denied entry in 2004, why don’ you at that time dissuade them from appealing and ask them to try overseas instead since um,usm,ukm are sux.
2) are um/usm/ukm graduates now working in uh and hukl really bad that malaysians should shun them and opt for private hospital instead??
3) just because that lim guan eng challenger was stpm top scorer and um law graduate, that does not mean she’s sux and lousy in her profession.
4) you can question how many managers/directors in mncs out there are um/usm graduate. even most dap mps/dun are local grad anyway…
do you know that there are some stpm students opt to south just because they cannot enter “um”? that means um is actually much better than nus/aussie univs instead.
#2 by rubini on Monday, 17 November 2008 - 9:26 pm
The rot started long time ago. We created MSC, Cyberjaya and all the good infrastructure. Where’s the local manpower? India & China don’t have such specific infrastucture, yet they have a well developed local IT, satellite, space, nuclear, pharmeceutical technology, to name a few. Good education & very high level of competition is propelling them to the forefront as next economic superpower. Malaysian can only pay these get these like we paid our Angkasawan to hitch a ride on the space craft.
#3 by melurian on Monday, 17 November 2008 - 9:42 pm
look at our VC who so straightforward without putar belit when her contract not renew:
“‘Just because we are women and we don’t have that thing between the legs so we are not good,”
http://malaysiakini.com/news/93261
you think nus/nsw/monash got such “integrity” VC ???
#4 by jartze on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 - 4:39 am
I have always been very disappointed with the education system in Malaysia. It doesn’t shock me at all to see the ranks of our Unis going down. In fact, I don’t even think they deserve the current rank. What’s wrong with our education?
i) Lack of competition – skin color overs grades and ability
ii) Too much politic involves – the headmasters are hired to ‘control’ the students, not hired for better education
iii) Quantity overs quality – our government seems to think that the more Unis the better (by keep promoting under-qualified colleges), and the more graduated students the better (without even considering if the students are capable of facing the challenges)
What can we expect from these kinds of systems?
To solve the problem, we built the Laman University (sry if I get the name wrong. I couldn’t find it in google, obviously the ranking was too low). But then? More politics involve, 60% bumi, etc etc. Nothing changes. Look at the recent issue in the xin ji yuan college. Isn’t it just prove that in our country, politic always come in front of education?
Only when the Universities in our country are completely independent from the politicians, then they can truly function as what they are created for, purely to educate the younger generation. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening in this direction, and I think it won’t happen in next 10 years.
#5 by murid-murid on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 - 6:35 am
The new vice chancellor of Universiti Malaya, Professor Datuk Dr. Ghauth Jasmon, has only 30 journal papers. How can he become a vice chancellor? If it is a good American university, he would not have had his tenure even, which means he would not be qualified for promotion to associate professor and will be fired. No wonder our ranking is below 200.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghauth_Jasmon
As an academic, Prof Ghauth has contributed extensively in research and in the Engineering Profession. He researched in the areas Power Systems Analysis, Network Analysis, Voltage Stability, System Security and Neural Networks. His works have been published in 30 international journal papers, 45 conference/seminars and other publications. He has also been involved in many professional engineering activities especially in the IEE(UK) and IEEE (USA) and was formerly a Secretary General and Vice President of the Association for Engineering Education in South East Asia and the Pacific. He is currently a Fellow of the IEE, Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, Senior Member of the IEEE and an Eisenhower Fellow.
#6 by murid-murid on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 - 6:44 am
His citation report:-
Results found:26
Sum of the Times Cited:189
Average Citations per Item:7.27
h-index:9
my conclusion is he is quite a lousy researcher
#7 by ktteokt on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 - 8:03 am
Reserving university places by way of quota for the bumiputras is what caused the downslide in quality of our universities. By depriving non-bumis of places in local universities for so many decades, it cannot be seen that the standard of the bumiputras has improved. Neither can it be seen that the standard of the non-bumis have dropped!
The true reason lies in whether one is hardworking enough to face challenges and not the provision of handicap of any form! So if the non-bumis have been making it all these years despite the discrimination and deprivation, it simply goes to show that the bumis themselves have fallen even further down the pit! Didn’t the government see this? Is it blind? And it had the guts to complain of brain-drain!!!!!
#8 by sayaAnakMalaysia on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 - 8:57 am
Pakatan rakyat going to face similar problem if given the chance to rule Malaysia. What PR going to do? pick the best to be the lecturers. Unfortunately, very few malays are among the best. So PR going to replace the Malays? I don’t think so unless PR just want to rule Malaysia for a short while. Don’t forget, the Malays will not vote PKR or PAS unless their personal interests are safeguarded! Without PKR and PAS, there is no way PR will become strong.The reasons Malays do not vote UMNO its because they believe Anwar’s arguments that NEP only benefits UMNO people only. The majority of the Malays want more than what UMNO are providing them! We cannot deny this.
Forget about rhetoric NEP statements, the Malays want prove. Be realistic. PR must prove to the Malays that they are better with PR than BN. Also PR must prove to the non-Malays,equally. PR must prove the Islamic concept of PAS is ok for the non-Muslims.PR must find a solution that will be acceptable for all races.Else, forget about winning the next general election.So am I a a Malay? Pakatan Rakyat?
#9 by marketer on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 - 11:30 am
uncle Lim,
take a look at this UPM, haha shame on d bumis……these r our future leaders?? i feel shameful to b a Malaysian.
thank god i’m not studying in any of our national universities.. SHAME!
http://www.merdekareview.com/news.php?n=2131
http://www.merdekareview.com/news.php?n=2135
watch the video here… http://www.merdekareview.com/video_files/clip_0001.wmv
goodness gracious!!
#10 by marketer on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 - 11:37 am
those kind of mentality, undergraduates?? it explains precisely why d ratings dropped drastically!!
i don’t see anyone mengamuk like that in my own college. i stronly suggest d need of our higher education ministry to tackle attitudinal problems before anything else.. those ppl r d future parliament ‘bastards’ n ‘bloody bastards’ who will put our country to further shame…
#11 by messi on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 - 1:57 pm
The reasons Malays do not vote UMNO its because they believe Anwar’s arguments that NEP only benefits UMNO people only. The majority of the Malays want more than what UMNO are providing them! We cannot deny this.
– quoted by anakmalaysia
———————————————-
Absolutly agreed with the above statement. They want more benefit than what Umno giving to them and not for the change.
But again, how are they able to sustain the long term subsidies which keep increasing every year due to the production of useless graduate?
The G need to put a stop on quantities production and emphasize on quality to minimize long term subsidies that will drain all the revenue from our resources.
Another Indonesia in the making. They have a lot of natural resources like petrol, timber..etc but now this country open up to attract Investor according to their terms.
#12 by ccl on Sunday, 14 December 2008 - 1:23 pm
I am conducting a research for my thesis as part of the requirement for my Bachelor of Economics (Human Resource Economics). The title of this thesis is “Unemployment Among Graduates”.
In my research, the respondents will include graduates who are not working yet, 3 months after their convocation.
Any of your friend not working yet, 3 months after their convocation? If yes, can u give me their email address or email their mail address to me (chinchiewlan85@gmail.com) Cos I need their help to be my respondent in filling up the questionnaire.
Currently, I faced a severe problem. I can’t get any respondent who are not working yet, 3 months after their convocation. Hopefully you can help me.
PLEASE…PLEASE…PLEASE help me…
Your co-operation is much appreciated. Your response will be use for the preparation of thesis only and the information will be kept confidential. Thanks…
#13 by ccl on Monday, 15 December 2008 - 9:53 am
Either you are employed or still searching for a job, please enter the following link to filling up the questionnaire
http://www.scribd.com/people/view/2814575-chiewlanchin
If i can’t get respondent, my supervisor will fail my thesis and i can’t convo on year 2009..
wuwuwu.. i want to get respondent…i want to convo