It’s only going up for UM

UNIVERSITI Malaya (UM) continues to make the country proud by climbing up the top 100 rankings in the QS World University Rankings 2020 released today. Climbing from 87th to 70th place globally, it is the sixth consecutive year that UM has risen, and the second time it emerged among the top 100.

Three Malaysian universities are now in the top 200: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) from 202 to 159; Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) from 184 to 160; and, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) from 207 to 165.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) narrowly missed the top 200, climbing from 228 to 217. A notable performance is by UCSI University, a private higher-learning institution that came in sixth in Malaysia.

In the 16th edition of the QS World University Rankings, UCSI University climbed from 481 to 442, making it the best private university in the country for two years running.

UCSI vice-chancellor and president academician Senior Professor Datuk Dr Khalid Yusoff said the latest milestone was a result of a consistent university-wide push for excellence and performance.

He thanked all staff and students for their belief in the university and in the various initiatives which had been introduced to ensure the improvement and advancement of the university’s performance.

“This has not in any way been a natural or organic growth. Rather it reflects the strategies adopted and the dedication and commitment of all concerned”, he added.

In welcoming the recognition, he said it places a great responsibility on the staff and students alike to continue consolidating and scaling up the excellence pathway.

The rankings by global higher education consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranked the world’s top 1000 participating universities.

Twenty Malaysian universities were featured, of which 10 improved their position. two remain unchanged, seven made their first entry and one suffered a drop in placing.

QS said Malaysia’s progressive performance was due to improving results in two key surveys ― academic reputation based on responses from more than 94,000 academics, and employer reputation based on responses from more than 44,000 employers.

UM also benefited from a strong teaching capacity. It ranked 78th globally in faculty/student ratio indicator, which measured average class sizes at universities.

The QS rankings found UPM, UCSI University and Taylor’s University (which ranked in the 511-520 band) scoring high in the international aspect.

However, Malaysian universities were not yet on a par with Asia’s top universities where research was concerned. Only five of Malaysia’s 20 entrants improved their performance in the citations per faculty indicator.

According to QS research director Ben Sowter, although the Malaysian higher education system had performed exceptionally well in the latest rankings, it could not afford to become complacent as competition was fierce regionally and globally.

“The Malaysian government has put education at the core of its agenda and is supporting an ambitious vision with concrete and significant investments.

“But a key challenge for leading Malaysian universities is producing higher impact research outcomes,” he said.

QS used six indicators to compile its rankings: academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty; faculty/student ratio, international faculty ratio and international student ratio.

Apart from insight of 94,000 academics and 44,000 hiring managers, and compilation of 11.8 million research papers and 100 million citations, the rankings were also based on rigorous analysis of trends in the distribution of 23 million students and nearly two million faculties.

Globally, Massachusetts Institute of Technology was ranked No. 1 for a record eighth consecutive year.

Second was Stanford University and at third place was Harvard, both maintaining their positions from the previous year.

The University of Oxford climbed from fifth to fourth, exchanging places with California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Asia’s top universities were the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, both sharing 11th place.