Striving for better rating
BY leveraging on Malaysia’s strategic location and sound infrastructure, the nation aims to be a regional higher education hub. In many ways, there are signs that suggest the country is heading in the right direction.
One such indication is the number of international students within our shores.
In 2014, there were up to 135,500 international students registered across the various public and private universities as well as foreign branch campuses, and the number is expected to rise to 250,000 in 2025.
In 2016, the United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Organization (Unesco) recognised Malaysia as one of the top 10 preferred destinations for tertiary education, with a survey among international students listing affordable cost of living and a diverse socio-cultural landscape as among the country’s strengths.
These facts and figures are testament to the increasing quality of education in Malaysia, allowing school-leavers and undergraduates to seek world-class tertiary education without moving abroad.
More notably, however, is the fifth and latest Rating for Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia (Setara 2017) released in November last year that revealed eight universities being awarded the coveted 6 Star: Outstanding rating.
This is the first time the top rating was awarded to any university since the rating system was introduced in 2007.
Raising the bar
The Setara results were introduced as a basis for quality assurance of higher education and a reference point for the criteria and standards of academic qualifications offered at higher learning institutions in Malaysia.
The Malaysian Qualifications Agency has worked closely with participating institutions within the public and private sector to ensure each set of results released in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013 was produced only after conducting critical and impartial evaluation.
The results thus provide schoolleavers with a fair guide to the
education options available to them, providing reasons for confidence in the various institutions due to the many assessments that must be completed to fulfil the rating requirements.
These assessments help universities not only gauge their position in the country’s higher education landscape and pit themselves against competitors, but also have better insight into their processes and build upon their core functions of teaching, research and service.
A vast improvement
Out of the 54 institutions that participated in the Setara 2013 rating, 42 universities were rated Tier 5: Excellent while 11 institutions were rated Tier 4: Very Good. One institution was excluded from the final list due to insufficient data.
Setara 2017, on the other hand, evaluated 71 institutions – eight institutions earned a 6 Star: Outstanding rating, 21 institutions received a 5 Star: Excellent rating, 29 institutions were rated 4 Star: Very Good, 12 institutions rated 3 Star: Good and one institution rated 2 Star: Satisfactory.
At first glance, it would seem that many of the institutions failed to maintain their previous ratings, but it is important to note that a list of changes was made to the new judging criteria, in addition to the change in rating name from Tier to Star.
Institutions were also divided into three categories – mature universities with at least 15 years of establishment, emerging universities with less than 15 years of establishment and university colleges – as opposed to the two categories of public and private institutions in previous editions.
The rating instrument was based on a seven-step methodology that took into account national and international benchmarks, stakeholder engagement, pilot run, data verification, and sensitivity and validity analysis.
The judging criteria can be divided into four main categories: general (institutional profiles), teaching and learning, research capacity, and services and income generation.
Each of these categories carries a different weightage depending on the age of the institution, as shown in the table on the left. The figure below is a breakdown of the judging criteria.
Laying the foundations
The increased participation of higher learning institutions alone from 2013 to 2017 strengthens the credibility of the results.
However, equally apparent is how there is still room for improvement for emerging as well as some mature universities.
Being rated 5 Star: Excellent is no doubt a great feat, but why settle for second best? The good thing about the tedious assessment process is that it would have produced some interesting feedback for institutions to pinpoint their weaknesses, be it in general programme delivery, research, faculty or income generation.
All universities would already have some form of internal reviewing process in place, but having an external and unbiased view will surely add another dimension to quality assurance.
In saying so, institutions must not be overdependent on the Setara findings and continue to conduct their own quality enhancement processes as maintaining high standards of quality is an ongoing process, what more when Malaysia pushes for developed status.
The latest Setara results serve to give school-leavers an unbiased reference to the quality of higher education within the country while providing universities with useful feedback for general improvement.
Ratings were finalised based on institutions’ general profiles, teaching and learning, research capacity, and services and income generation.
Below is the list of Malaysia’s top universities.