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Media Conference           
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Monday): Higher Education Minister, Datuk Mustapha Mohamad seems to have lost his proper focus and responsibility, regarding his job more as international marketing officer for Malaysian universities instead of ensuring that Malaysian universities win international recognition as world-class institutions.

Mustapha, on a week-long visit to China to market Malaysian universities, said in Shanghai yesterday that he wants to see at least 15,000 Chinese students coming to Malaysia in three years’ time – more than double the present number.

He said the trend now was for more Chinese students to enroll in the Malaysian public and private universities for post-graduate programmes.

He also announced that his Ministry “will be going around China to market Malaysia as an education hub”.

The Higher Education Ministry has set up an education office in Beijing to promote Malaysia as a market for foreign students. A fifth overseas office besides Jakarta, Dubai, Ho Chi Minh City and Beijing would be set up in Africa “due to the promising market in the continent”.

There is something very wrong with the spectacle of the Higher Education Minister leading a delegation to China to market Malaysian universities to Chinese students at a time when the latest world’s Top 200 Universities Rankings released ten days ago showed a continuing “free fall” of Malaysian universities.

For the first time, there is not a single university in the 2007 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES)-Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for Top 200 Universities.

Both Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Malaya (UM) fell out of the Top 200 Universities ranking, with UKM plunging from 185th slot last year to 309th while University of Malaya plunged from 89th in 2004 to 169th in 2005, 192nd in 2006 to 246th in 2007. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), which was ranked as the only “outstanding” five-star university in a recent government survey, fell to 307th spot from 277 last year.

The latest release of the THES-QS 2007 Top University Rankings from No. 201-400 available on the Net has also confirmed that Malaysia has lost out to Thailand for better university rankings for three consecutive years, as Chulalongkorn University of Thailand is ranked No. 233 in 2007, 161 in 2006 and 121 in 2005 (compared to University of Malaya’s No. 246 in 2007, 192 in 2006 and 169 in 2005).

The second Thai Top University, Mahidol University which is ranked No. 284, is also better placed than Malaysia’s second Top University – USM which is ranked No. 307.

Are these rankings for the past three years proof of permanent inferiority of Malaysian universities to Thai universities, particularly for the Top international rankings?

This however is not the only dismal result for Malaysian universities in the THES-QS 2007 ranking. Also for the first time, there is not a single Malaysian university in the separate listing of Top 100 Universities for five subject areas – Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities; Life Sciences and Biomedicine; and Engineering and Information Technology.

Last year Malaysia was placed in four of the 500 slots in the five Top 100 Universities for the five subjects - University of Malaya ranked 49 in Social Sciences and 95 in Natural Sciences, UKM No. 62 in Natural Sciences and USM at No. 96 for Life Sciences and Biomedicine.

This year, Malaysia was completely excluded in all the five listings of Top 100 Universities for the five categories.

The Higher Education Ministry has planned some 60 promotion programmes overseas this year to attract international students.

Should Mustapha be spearheading the campaign to market universities to the international market or should he be giving top priority to ensure Malaysian universities establish themselves as educational centre of excellence recognized in World’s Top Universities rankings?
 

(19/11/2007)