Rising in quality
THE Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject was released earlier this month.
Malaysia’s universities did very well, climbing up the rankings in many subjects. For example, three Malaysian university programmes are ranked in the top 30 – Universiti Malaya’s (UM) electrical engineering is ranked 23rd and its development studies 26th while Taylor’s University’s hospitality and leisure management programme is 29th.
Taylor’s is the first private university to be included in the rankings. UM remains the best-performing public institution, with five subjects ranked in the global top 50.
Congratulating the universities for their stellar performance, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh says, “Having 11 subjects across four universities ranked within the world’s top 50 is a highly commendable improvement from three subjects last year.”
Nineteen Malaysian universities are included at least once in this year’s QS World University Rankings by Subject. These include UM, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia, International Islamic University Malaysia and Taylor’s.
However, we cannot focus only on the performance of Malaysian universities but foreign or international branch campuses too. Foreign branch campuses are universities from another country that have established a campus in Malaysia.
The University of Nottingham is a good example. The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC), set up in Malaysia in 2000, originally operated out of a building in Kuala Lumpur and moved to its purposebuilt campus in Semenyih in 2005. It is now celebrating its 17th year in Malaysia and has about 5,000 students.
UNMC has three faculties, 21 schools and almost 10,000 graduates. In the last MyRA (Malaysia Research Assessment) exercise, UNMC was awarded a five-star rating, which is the highest rating awarded to any international branch campus.
UNMC also has a five-star Setara (Rating for Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia) rating, which means that its teaching and learning is of the highest quality.
Its graduates are highly sought after, with almost 90% getting jobs within six months – a better performance than the United Kingdom (UK) campus, which was named the best university in the UK for graduate employment, according to the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.
UNMC recently launched the Vinod Sekhar Incubation Centre, which will enable its graduates to set up their own companies with the support of the university and our partner in this initiative.
This demonstrates that UNMC is an established university in Malaysia and, valued for its contribution to the higher
UNMC has three faculties and 21 schools and has graduated almost 10,000 students. In the last MyRA (Malaysia Research Assessment) exercise, UNMC was awarded a five-star rating, which is the highest rating awarded to any international branch campus.
education landscape in the country.
It is perhaps understandable that the recent QS subject rankings focused on Malaysia’s public and private universities, as universities are listed according to their home country.
In the case of The University of Nottingham and its branch campuses, they would be listed under their home country, which is the UK.
Therefore, regardless of the branch campus you study at, you will earn a degree from The University of Nottingham.
In addition to the significant achievements by the Malaysian institution, it is worth noting that this year’s QS World University Rankings by Subject features Nottingham as an elite institution in 37 of the 46 subjects surveyed.
The rankings also show that 21 Nottingham subjects are in the global top 100 and seven are in the top 50.
The university was placed highly in pharmacy and pharmacology (6th), education (22nd), anatomy and physiology (36th), veterinary science (29th), nursing (42nd), geography (46th) and English language and literature (49th).
If you are referring to the QS subject rankings when considering studying at a branch campus in Malaysia, you might want to also look at the university’s ranking in its host country. After all, the degree you pursue will reflect its quality in the host country.
Prof Graham Kendall is the chief executive officer, provost and pro-vice-chancellor of UNMC. Twitter: @Graham_Kendall