For the eighth year in succession, Malaysia has been left out of the World’s Top 500 Universities ranking in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s “Academic Ranking of World Universities ARWU 2010” released yesterday. This is the latest proof that the long-talked about higher education reform based on meritocracy and academic excellence is not making much headway. It underlines the economic and nation-building crisis confronting Malaysia and the warning of the New Economic Model (NEM) that the “human capital situation in Malaysia is reaching a critical stage” because “We are not developing talent and what we have is leaving”. Singapore has two, Taiwan four, New Zealand five, Hong Kong and Israel seven each, South Korea ten, Australia 17, China 22 and Japan 25 among the 106 Asia-Pacific universities in the lastest 500 World Top Universities ranking, which is dominated by US universities Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford and MIT occupying the top four places followed by Cambridge University in fifth place. Among the Asia-Pacific leaders in the ranking are: Tokyo (20th), Kyoto (24th), Australian National University (59th), Melbourne (62nd), Jerusalem (72nd), Osaka (75th), Nagoya (79th), Tohoku (84th), Sydney (92nd) and National Taiwan, Singapore, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Queensland, Western Australia, Tokyo Institute of Technology (all seven in the 101-150 category).
When will Malaysia be represented in the Shanghai Jian Tong University’s annual ranking of 500 Top Universities to demonstrate that Malaysia, which had an internationally-recognised premier university in the first decade of Independence half a century ago, has finally redeemed our international academic reputation? A statement by the Higher Education Minister Datuk Khalid Nordin on the failure of a single university in Malaysia to get recognized by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s annual Top 500 Universities Ranking would be in order as to what Malaysians can expect to look forward in his higher education reform programme.