The U.K. based analyst, Times Higher Education, has just produced its ranking of universities world-wide. Obviously the university people are keenly poring over it. Should it be of great importance to the general public?
It has been said it's just a parlour game. The list should draw attention, however, and because it does, it weilds influence. Like the university exams they conduct, surely faculty people would want to know how their schools fare.
I was interested to see how Malaysia ranks in this list. We have never been brilliant before, and we are still far from it this time, too. But on the scores by countries based on 6 chosen "averages", Malaysia is not at the bottom of the heap.
On Average Overall Score, Malaysia is no. 43.
On Average Teaching Score, it's 24.
On Average Research Score, it's 33.
On Average Citation Score, it's 54.
On Average Industry Income, it's 35.
On Average International Outlook, it's 29.
Singapore tops all 6 scores !
In fact in the Total Overall Ranking Worldwide, the National University of Singapore is an excellent no. 24!
And to think that the Singapore university started as the University of Malaya in 1949, and later in 1959 as the University of Malaya (Singapore), with the sister campus in Kuala Lumpur. It was only in 1962 that University of Malaya was permanently in Kuala Lumpur, and the Singapore campus became the National University of Singapore.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia comes out no. 601 in the ranking.
The 2016 list awards Oxford , England , as the world's top university. It's the oldest university in England, the producers of poets and politicians since 1096. There's a lesson there, somewhere.
The oldest university in continuous existence in the West is said to be the University of Bologna, Italy, established in 1088. But this listing arguably excludes those which are deemed "religious" and not strictly following the operational practices of western universities. If one considers a university as an institute of learning that awards "degrees" to its graduates, the Al Azhar University in Cairo has been in existence since being founded by the Fatimids in 970, more than one century before Oxford or Bologna.
In the top 25 list, 19 are from USA, 5 from UK, 1 Switzerland, 1 Canada and the single one from Asia - Singapore.
The Singapore government says since the island has no natural resources, it is investing heavily in its small population, and if this listing is any indication, it's succeeding.
Malaysia has 10 times more people, and is abundant with natural
resources, in comparison to Singapore. The first university was started at the same time as Singapore, in 1959. In fact it was originally the same university. Since then both countries have added more universities and polytechnics. In my last count, there are presently 20 Public universities, 70 Private ones, and 33 polytechnics in Malaysia. It took almost 10 years for the second university(UKM) to be opened in 1970, but they have been breeding like rabbits since. Are these 123 institutions of higher learning sufficient for the 30-million total population ?
Obviously quantity alone is insufficient. The THE formula is: teaching, research, citations, "international outlook", industrial income and knowledge transfer. I remember a faculty member at the UM saying years ago "publish or perish." It's high time that they take a hard look at this list, and take to heart that phrase.
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1 comment:
Agree!
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