On Saturday, I had said that Malaysian universities are still in the international backwaters with the country fighting a losing battle to enhance international competitiveness in the quest for academic excellence and university quality — pointing out that Malaysian universities have been omitted in the 2007 Webometrics Ranking (WR) of 3,000 Premier Universities, based on their commitment to Web publication and to the Open Access initiatives.
I said that the National University of Singapore tops the Asian universities in the WR, ranked No. 139 internationally, with the Nanyang Technological University ranked No. 18 among the top Asian universities. Chulalongkorn University of Thailand has again confirmed that it is recognised internationally as in various recent world universities rankings as of superior quality to all the 17 Malaysian universities. Chulalongkorn University is ranked No. 21 among the top Asian universities and No. 505 in the world ranking of 3,000 Premier Universities.
I found that I had made a mistaken when I downloaded the 3,000 universities for more detailed study as there are 10 Malaysian universities in the WR list, but they rank from No. 1193 for Universiti Sains Malaysia to No. 2969 for University Malaysia Sabah.
The Higher Education Ministry and the ten universities ranked in the Webometrics Ranking (WR) of 3,000 Premier Universities cannot be unaware of my mistake, but for 48 hours there had been no attempt by anyone of them at correction or clarification. Why?
Clearly, they are all too shy to point out the mistake, for it will only highlight their lowly ranking in the WR list.
This is because the best Malaysian university ranked in the 2007 Webometrics Ranking (WR) of 3,000 Premier Universities, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is not only ranked No. 1193, and is ranked behind eight Thai universities and two Indonesian universities — showing how serious had been the drop and decline of Malaysian universities standards for the past three decades even for the region of Southeast Asia.
The Regional and Global Ranking of South East Asian universities are:
Top South-East Asian Universities
(SEA Rank) (University) (World Rank)
1 National University Singapore (Sg) 139
2 Nanyang Technol University (Sg) 150
3 Chulalongkorn U (Th) 505
4 Kasesart U (Th) 577
5 Asian Inst of Tech (Th) 721
6 Chiang Mai U (Th) 861
7 Thammasat U (Th) 894
8 Prince of Songkla U (Th) 896
9 Mahidol U (Th) 909
10 Inst. of Tech Bandung (Id) 927
11 Khon Kaen U (Th) 1009
12 Gadjah Mada U (Id) 1076
13 Universiti Sains Malaysia 1193
14 Assumption U of Thailand (Th) 1195
15 University of the Philippines Diliman (Ph) 1226
16 Universiti Technologi Malaysia 1317
17 Multimedia University 1338
18 King Mongkuts Inst. of Tech (Th) 1419
19 Universiti Putra Malaysia 1426
20 King Mongkuts Inst. of Tech Ladkrabang 1460
21 University Malaya 1475
22 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 1503
23 Suranaree Univ of Tech (Th) 1735
24 De La Salle University of Manila (Ph) 1798
25 Ramkhamhaeng U (Th) 1801
26 King Mongkut’s Univ of Tech North Bangkok (Th) 1811
27 Naresuan U (Th) 1890
28 International Islamic University Malaysia 2056
29 Ubonratchathani U (Th) 2068
30 Universiti Utara Malaysia 2085
31 Bangkok U (Th) 2109
32 Universiti Teknologi MARA 2110
33 Ho Chi Minh City U of Natural Sciences (Vn) 2120
34 Sukhothai Thammathirat Open U (Th) 2125
35 Mahasarakham U (Th) 2180
36 Burapha U (Th) 2181
37 Sipakorn U (Th) 2196
38 Srinakharinwirot U (Th) 2204
39 Ateneo de Manila U (Ph) 2240
40 Can Tho U (Vn) 2364
41 Sdusuan Dusit Rajabhat U (Th) 2374
42 Singapore Polytechnic (Sg) 2415
43 Bach Khoa U (Vn) 2432
44 National Inst. of Education (Sg) 2450
45 Singapore Management U (Sg) 2494
46 Walailak U (Th) 2602
47 Rangsit U (Th) 2635
48 Univ of the Philippines (Ph) 2745
49 Mahanakorn U of Tech (Th) 2922
50 University Malaysia Sabah 2969
The Higher Education Minister, Datuk Mustapha Mohamad must regard it as a national shame that the best Malaysian university ranked in the 2007 Webometrics Ranking (WR) of 3,000 Premier Universities is ranked behind eight Thai universities and two Indonesian universities, and that generally, Malaysian universities are losing out to the universities in other countries in South East Asia — a grim warning that Malaysia is losing out in the stakes for international competitiveness to ensure our rightful place in the global arena.
Mustapha should present a special report on the latest dismal rankings for Malaysian universities to the Cabinet on Wednesday and report to Parliament in two weeks’ time as to the strategy not only to reform but even to revolutionalise tertiary education in Malaysia if we are not to become a laggard in development in the 21st century.
P.S. I thank johnsee for drawing attention to the South-East Asia WR ranking, which would have made life easier all round – but it was not there on Saturday.
with this happening, I am glad that I did not choose to go to a local university. if i did, then maybe i would not be reading this blog right now because i will not be qualified to work overseas or even in good companies in malaysia because all i would have been taught in local universities is “umno is great” brainwashing policies.
well, i do not need to go to local universities to learn that however, what i learn has a little bit of addition to it. call it an added information… “umno is great at lying and robbing”
Mr. Lim,
You are wrong that they are shy to inform you of your mistake.
In fact you will find that universities would be putting up signboards telling people that they are ranked at least. Those people are never ashame of achieving some thing for the wrong reasons!
This is a HP6 survey.
Please read & understand the methodology.
Cybermatics Labs is promoting Web-publishing. They rank Universities on the basis of how many web publications are in place. Although the assertion that Malaysian Universities are no longer top ranked is correct, bashing Malaysian Universities based on this survey is not good practice. Please gauge the standards of research coming out of Malaysian Universities. I visited a Malaysia Bio Seminar, and was pleasantly surprised by the type of research being conducted in Malaysia, it’s leading edge.
This knee jerk reaction appears akin to politics in Malaysia. What needs to be done is to increase the amount of funds made available for reserach instead of flushing it down EAD’s toilet by purchasing a new plane, or building a new palace. The amount of priceless biological life lost in our wanton destruction of forests is criminal. Kit, I m not a supporter of your political party, but I would like you to press for the use of the Treason Act on Civil Servants and politicians who contracted the country’s wealth away. Those who signed those highway concessions signed away the rights of the people & I believe jeopardized & continue to jeopardize the security of the country by increasing disharmony among the rakyat. That is TREASON.
The Universities in Malaysia are decent & have woken up and smelt the roses. Take a leap of faith, the Spirit of Malayia still lives, the heartbeat is there. Just P.U.S.H. and the bloggers are doing the right thing in PUSHING.
Do we compete with the best or do we compete with the worst to save our water face ?
Forget about the rankings. We all know who are at the top of the list. For the unfortunate ones like myself and most of the average M’sian students, we have to settle for the most economical institutions for the sake of well, a piece of paper so-called a degree. For me, the situation is even worse. My institution does not even get listed on the 10000 Premier Universities! I’m starting to worry what kind of degree I’m going to obtain…=!=
There is a GUG (Good University Guide) which shows ranking of universities in Europe which I found it to be reflective and true. I am not sure of Webometrics rankings.
Irrespective of how universities are ranked, local universities should make special efforts to be in the limelight if they want to be recognized worldwide.
Whether it is web materials available, thesis published, or others, local universities need to take the trouble to do it.
How else do you think Universities like Oxford and Cambridge does it.
There is no excuse. The people in charge of the universities in Malaysia are sleeping peacefully.
Uncle Lim,
I do not totally agree with this Webometrics methodology in rating and ranking universities. However, I do agree Malaysia universities require more value-added research, than merely repeating what ppl have done years ago.
ahkok1982, as far as i know quite a number of local grads are working in big MNCs, probably you are referring to those unemployed bumiprince? :)
perhaps, we should be more concern on the recent upgrade of university colleges into full-fledged university status. as i understand, these new university colleges are competing among each others by grabbing prominent lecturers/professors from more renowned public uni (UM, UTM, UPM, etc.). the question is do we have the resources to build up 20 elite universities? bear in mind, we dont have outstanding past record huh… why don’t we focus on a few, and grow them to be the bests (in Asian region at least)…? i am puzzled….
Alamak. All the numbers look like 4D numbers :(
Like some commentators, I did have some reservation on the web-publications requirement initially. On second taught, this should not be an issue at all.
At present day, which paper is not done electronically using computers? Converting from normal file to web-document is just a piece of cake. Anybody with some basic web knowledge can do it. Certainly, we can’t expect universities to overlook rankings over this.
Can this ‘4D-results’ ranking be a wake up call for the BN govt?
We can still hope – a fat hope?
The whole question is i)do we have the right people to helm the Universities ii) the right people to lecture the students and iii) the right students attending the lectures. If we can do it right by eliminating the skin culture, we WILL definitely be on the right track.
I am sure the UMNO politicians are not that naive not to know this but simply not determine to do anything for political reasons.
I can still remember that RRI( Rubber Research Institute) and now known as Lembaga Getah Malaysia was a renowned research organisation before mid 70s but as soon as it was taken over by them what has become of it. They are now thinking of converting the land in the Sungei Buloh research station for other uses and the Research Lab in UK into a sports complex.
Three cheers for all the UMNO musketeers.
“….Malaysian university ranked in the 2007 Webometrics Ranking (WR) of 3,000 Premier Universities, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is not only ranked No. 1193, and is ranked behind eight Thai universities and two Indonesian universities …”
ITB and Gadjah Mada are good universities – and have been around longer.
Getting good universities is not really a big problem as we do have very capable Malaysians of all races in various fields.
But once politicians get involved with determining on who gets employed for the top posts and if this based on dubious principles and who gets admitted for the various courses and if lecturers are required to pass unsuitable students, we only place ourselves on a slippery slope to oblivion.
Even if the ranking method can be faulted I believe the common perception is that all our local universities have suffered from gross incompetence of our education policies; starting from the selection of school teachers to upgrading of polytechnics in the 80s into full universities without proper upgrading but by ministerial fiat.
Next year, all the Malaysian universities will be ranked below the University of East Timur…
I agree with HJ Angus. Politicians have a hand in everything and make a mess of everything with their politicking. They need to be V VIP in everything but what do they bring to the sports. Look at our sports – badminton, football, hockey for example. Where are we now compared to 20 years ago? We have regressed and many conuntries have overtaken us.
The bumis themselves don’t care about the ranking, they have their own methology to value the progress and achievement they made, as like other things as well. Maybe in the heavenly world, Malaysian universities are rank number one, who knows. Anyway, got rank better than no rank, got university better than no university.
Coincidentally I was in a plane from Hongkong today and read a inflight magazine that had an article on an interview with Professor Paul Chu, the President of the Hongkong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). It is ranked in the top 20 in the world. What is even more amazing is that the university was established only in 1991. In less than 20 years, it is now one of the world’s top ranked university. Summarising Prof Chu’s own words the reasons for HKUST’s success:
1) On his own success as a world renowned researcher in superconductivity with many international awards, Prof Chu was modest on his personal achievements.
2) Even though he was silent on it, his personal stature attracted many top brains to HKUST.
3) In essence he said the university welcomes the best brains for its faculty and students “irregardless of their race, colour or creed”. He went on to say, ” we do not ask them for their passport’s”.
4) He went on to say that the best brains in HKUST will act as a magnet for other top quality people to join the uni.
and many more thought provoking comments which our universities, established much longer, can learn from. But the first step is to get rid of the political interference. That is the root of all the problems and is like a cancerous growth that is slowly but surely killing the universities..
Our local degrees will one day be worthless like the banana currency.
TO get back into the ranking radar just make sure we “donate” more. We were taught from young that achievement can be obtained if we can “pay” for it.
“… Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is not only ranked No. 1193, and is ranked behind eight Thai universities and two Indonesian universities – showing how serious had been the drop ..”
There is no reason to be looking down upon universities like Chulalongkorn and the two top Indonesian universities. Their standards are higher than any of our local universities for a long time.
To the pm and umno, malaysian universities are still ranked higher than the other universities in the islamic world, and this is all that matters. New billboards will soon spring up with the slogan “WE HAVE THE BEST UNIVERSHITIES IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD”
the problem is that people is choosing today rather than tomorrow. choose today by voting bn because it is a safe choice and people know what kind of shit to expect. vote for anything else, tomorrow will definitely be brighter but they do not know what kind of hardship they will have to endure to get a better future.
so they continue to vote for bn….. hard to blame them because i myself do not like uncertainties but they only have themselves to blame for all the shit they are experiencing today.
“That is the root of all the problems and is like a cancerous growth that is slowly but surely killing the universities..”
Yep. Let’s twist the clock back to the era before Mahathir sat on the University Senate of the country’s only university.
The once-upon-a-time Malaysia’s pride – University Malaya now ranks 1475 position in the world, 5th placing behind four others local universities!
SAD, SAD, SAD! See the mess our BN politicians have made? When you let in the mediocre students, lecturers and professors and keep the brainy ones out because of skin color and politics, this is the result. Corruption is another issue.
Malaysians, you deserve it! Vote BN again in the next GE and you will find UM at the bottom of the malaysian university ranking list.
One consolation, we are still way ahead of Sudan, Ethiopia and Burma, aren’t we not?
It should be highlighted that Webometrics ranks publications on the Internet. Hence this ranking is not very accurate, as it is dependent on how “e-savy” a University is, and how many research publications are made available on the Web. Any local University who wants to improve their position, just has to ensure all publications are posted to their web-site via a e-magazine.
Money to fund research is badly needed. Research & publishing results are the key to improving the ranking of our Universities. Shouldnt Parliment & PAC query research funding & allocation?
Haiyoh! MMU only 1338 also behind USM. So shameful. I always thought MMU so high class and world class. Charge so much for fees but still in kampung backwaters status/ranking.
Can’t wait to see what boastful things they put in the Advertisement brochure after SPM result comes out! If Govt manja half past six Unis can suck in, but private exclusive Unis? How shocking!
Class? ….. after 50 years of BN rule, that’s the class we have turned into, Malaysia Boleh!
i am a bit apprehensive to notice that Malaysian universities are ranked lower. however, we can’t perceive that Webometrics ranks publications are doing justice either.
indeed, we need to listen from the authorities of universities and colleges concerned to share comments and to shed lights on the matters. i have friends (academicians and administrations) from the universities who said that institutions like National University of Singapore has excellent expertise invited from all over the world. they are mostly foreigners from diverse fields ranging from latest technology to up-to-date medical discovery who were drawn to the city-state to make up the group of brain communities.
i am not sure but should we invite the best foreign academicians to attach to local universities so that the ranking will pick up? will born-and-bred Malaysians soon be competing for the post at the universities with foreigners, eying for the same academic positions? perhaps we should emulate what Singapore has done by relaxing the immigration rules so that foreigners will easily flocked to Malaysia. or should we?
there are always two sides of the coins hhhmmm….
When the up and coming Multimedia Unviversity (MMU) can outrank the likes of mnore established universities like MU, UKM, UPM and IIU (“Harvard of the East”, they claim), then something is not quite right at the more established Us.
When the formerly premier MU is falling like a rock, you know that the rot has set in. I hear the politicians favour the rural universities because of the rural votes there, so they pump in a lot of assistance and publicity there.
However, all is not lost. In terms of University infrastructures, I am sure Malaysian Universities will outrank many universities on the list. Billions have been spent on building our universities, money is no problem. Idris Jusoh of Terengganu state said recently that we have buildings, facilities and infrastructure “comparable to Harvard, minus the professors”. Every one of the Universities have a fleet of expensive luxury buses (More than RM 1 million each) to ferry their students around the country. Style mesti ada. Standard boleh compromi la. What are our priorities? Educational standards or ‘style’?
even UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND…
huh, come from where…
ranked much better than any BOLEH university…
real ashame…
ptui…
say NO to UMNO, MCA, MIC…
bunch of monkey see monkey do….
I suppose if you want to get a more accurate picture of how well a university is performing you must first, aim at what is the specialty of the university. Second of all, what type of faculty members they have in there. Third, what sort of publications have been made. Next, the course structure they use for their specialty area. Compare it with the other universities in the world in terms of the course structures for specialty courses and major, last but not least, the teaching methodologies employed. That would give a better clearer picture than just merely rankings.
A bit weird that there are two S’pore universities, S’pore Management University (SMU) and National Institute of Education (NIE) ranked that lowly. If you have been there, you will know that Malaysian Unis can’t hold a candle to them. Would definitely rank them among the top few in SEA.
SMU is ranked lowly possibly because they just started a few years ago.
Even I am from local university but I don’t think we can’t compete with those from overseas. If you think that the university syllabus do not make you a better person, you are dead wrong. For me its all depend on you to improve yourself, if you just sit there doing nothing that makes you a loser.
In order to rank well among the Universities, the main thing is that paper publishing and international presentation. Most of our undergraduate do not participate in publishing paper in journal where overseas undergraduate mostly took part in writing paper with the guidance from the lecturer. Even their findings is not big but they tend to write more, therefore I think if we want to rank well first thing we must do is nurture our writing skills and publish more paper.
ahkok1982, you choose not to go to local universities or you just did not get in?
I can ensure you that most of the company do prefer local grad than oversea because technically most fresh grad no matter you are from local or oversea universities, your knowledge gained was just theoretical and what we need in industry is a lot more than what we learn. In university, we just learn how to search for information, do some critical thinking, analyze which is the best and the rest is still learning process. With a huge amount of school fees differences, I can say that local universities is a better bargain.
kafkalee, I agree with you that MNC’s hire most of our local graduate and I am proud to say that I am going to be one of them.
Don’t blame the system, don’t let the ranking influence our studies in uni; if you felt you are missing something, find a solution, step up and make changes to suit you.
Wow, this is definitely an alarm to everyone in Malaysia but do we really care? Or still Malaysia Boleh?
I’m so speechless after checking the website…
dahlan Says:
March 6th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
i am a bit apprehensive to notice that Malaysian universities are ranked lower. however, we can’t perceive that Webometrics ranks publications are doing justice either.
indeed, we need to listen from the authorities of universities and colleges concerned to share comments and to shed lights on the matters. i have friends (academicians and administrations) from the universities who said that institutions like National University of Singapore has excellent expertise invited from all over the world. they are mostly foreigners from diverse fields ranging from latest technology to up-to-date medical discovery who were drawn to the city-state to make up the group of brain communities.
i am not sure but should we invite the best foreign academicians to attach to local universities so that the ranking will pick up? will born-and-bred Malaysians soon be competing for the post at the universities with foreigners, eying for the same academic positions? perhaps we should emulate what Singapore has done by relaxing the immigration rules so that foreigners will easily flocked to Malaysia. or should we?
there are always two sides of the coins hhhmmm….
WELL i would rather let the foreign expertise in instead of those illegal no brainer. Does it make any different by relaxing the immigration rules since we now have so many illegal immigrant in the country?
Even if we are able to attract foreign talent, are we capable of competing with them? The problem actually lies in Malaysia’s education system. The whole nation is lagging behind and lacking in competency.
Luckily i have choose the right choice of studying in Singapore. I’m having my internship now in Shanghai. I wonder if university in Malaysia do offer chance of having internship overseas.
Hi moonant,
If Malaysia still stay with this kind of politic, it will be getting worse and worse. This is because a lot of Malay in Malaysia scare to compete with others and they don’t like to have competition that’s why they make a lot of laws and regulation to benefit themself. We all know that. If they don’t have the law, they won’t be able to survive.
I think that this should just be a reference for us, but not the ultimate ranking as the discrepencies are published on the website explicitly. However, I do agree we need improvement on our rankings..
http://www.webometrics.info/Webometrics%20library/discrepancias.pdf
BTW, I am not sure if private Universities in our country like MMU is rated/evaluated (or not allowed?) in THES and ARWU. But hearsay that it is not allowed…???
No surprises about the ranking on our public universities is dropping over the years which based on quota for their majority of the students. How can academic excellency based on kulitfication instead of qualification for more the thirty years?
For instance, we have no objection for a unveristy to recruit students from different type of certificates such as A levels, STPM, matriculation but any exam must be open to all candidates not exclusively for a particular race. No body questions about A Levels, STPM or its equivalent exams because everyone can sit for it. But not for the matriculation which is reserved specially for one race although it started accepting 10% of the other races lately but already lost its credibility
We are touch by the government policy to create a education centre of excellence in Malaysia and LAN is doing a great job based on the guidelines and policies. We have no question about the government and LAN sincerity in setting policies and conducting the audit respectively.
But they have forgotten about the most important element in this excellence of education environment (specially the private colleges) is the most forefront persons to promote quality in education i.e. the lecturers, in Malaysia, lecturers are receiving the lowest pay if comparing to their counterpart in the industry although with the higher degree (atleast masters degree and above). Private colleges lecturers are overworked and underpaid, they are deprived from the basic right to form an in house union, those involves in union somehow will “leave” or “retire” voluntarily soon (one of the college operators even take the HR minister to court for union matter for years).
When lecturers are not represented all kind of tactics will be used against the lecturers by the so called “education” operators, for example some “education” operators are “setting” minimum passing rate from 90% to 95 % for their lecturers in subject they are lecturing. This will be the guaranteed passing rate for each lecturer to pass their students in their subject as part of the “performance evaluation” and based on the “feedback” from students. So if a lecturer wants to have good feedback is to pass all his or her students in exams.
Another example is the put all-college-related jobs under the job descriptions of the lecturers. For example to invigilate their own students in examination, the is a conflict of interest in this situation but the ‘education” operators couldnt careless, however, the students are charged with expensive exam fee but lecturers are told this is part of their job descriptions without extra pay
There are many other indirect tactics and techniques used by the so called themselves “educationists” to exploit the situations against the lecturers however, these so called “education” operators they are interested in money making with meeting the bottom line and in long run they are against the government and LAN objectives to make Malaysia a education centre of excellence.
I’m 2006 STPM student, I fail to get my 1st Choice-3rd Choice which is accountancy at Local University . My CGPA is 3.92 , I get 4th choice , UM economic. I appeal to get in USM accountancy but finally USM tell me no place for me . then I dicide to study at private university , due to this matter . Isn’t this shows that our country local University is very hard to enter and needed a High requirement to enter? I’m also planning to study singapore Nanyang Teachnological University next year if success to get the admission . Our country government being complaint about, why our best student or potential human resourses all running away from malaysia ? I think , government thierself need to make and an evaluation on what they had done !
to ahkok1982..
DO NOT critisize the local graduates..we work extremely hard to earn a place in the local universities..we have to go through the hardships during our foundation years..we can’t obtain a degree from the private colleges because we couldn’t afford it..we did not ask to be born in a poor family..unlike you..who can obtain a degree from the private colleges just because your family has higher income..pls have some sense before speaking!!!!
Luckily i’m a graduate from University of Southern Queensland Australia with high distinctions and credits. It’s a sad case when more and more jobless fresh graduates from the local universities keeps increasing every year. Let me tell you guys who are local graduates undergoed your previous SPM, STPM, local universities. I truly understands you guys have worked hard to obtained places in local university as most of you are unable to afford it. Even myself is not like you guys top student with spm 6A’s, 9A’s or higher and so on. In Malaysia, of course everybody is holding a piece of degree no matter foreign or locals. But as long when you’re able to earn starting salary of RM2k then it shouldn’t be any problem. However there is a real problem of malaysian education these days where most syllabus are taught superficially low. No strong theories and practical work. Even i noticed many malaysian citizens graduated with poor academic results as well as communications. They find it hard time when comes to seeking employment.
To kevin1984, it’s not easy to earn a degree from foreign universities and let’s not compared about it. I have spent most of my time learning softwares, theories, practical lab work unlike the locals where most of them are backed by their lecturers most of the time. Percentage of local graduates unable to get a job is higher compared to the foreign graduates. Can you beat that? The education syllabus design flaws which is occuring in most of local institutions is real major constraints these days. So my point here is that there are pros and cons no matter you’re foreign or local graduates. Stop complaining and keep on moving forward. Look for the best alternative that suits yourself.
One last word, if you guys are not satisfied with the course given by the local institutions, change your course and look for other school if you could afford. For those who cant, loan the banks and work outside to pay for your school fees. You wouldn’t mind doing so if you’re hardworking person and stop complaining like mumbo jumbo 3 years old kid.
Universiti Malaya,
Mother who rejected Son:
At least an ekor nombor gave-
1475, Thank you!