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The Top 30 Asian Universities 2009: Where is Malaysian University?

1 University of HONG KONG Hong Kong
2 The CHINESE University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
3 University of TOKYO Japan
4 HONG KONG University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
5 KYOTO University Japan
6 OSAKA University Japan
7 Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology South Korea
8 SEOUL National University South Korea
9 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan
10 National University of Singapore (NUS) Singapore
10 PEKING University Japan
12 NAGOYA University Japan
13 TOHOKU University Japan
14 Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore
15 KYUSHU University Japan
15 TSINGHUA University China
17 Pohang University of Science and Technology South Korea
18 CITY University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
19 University of TSUKUBA Japan
20 HOKKAIDO University Japan
20 KEIO University Japan
22 National TAIWAN University Taiwan
23 KOBE University Japan
24 University of Science and Technology of China China
25 YONSEI University South Korea
26 FUDAN University China
27 NANJING University China
28 HIROSHIMA University Japan
29 SHANGHAI JIAO TONG University China
30 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay India
30 MAHIDOL University Thailand
Malaysian universities have failed to crack the top rankings of Asian universities, where do they actually stand? University of Malaya appears at No. 39; Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia at No. 51; Universiti Sains Malaysia at No. 69; Universiti Teknologi Mara (UTM) at No. 82; Universiti Putra Malaysia at No. 90 and Multimedia University appears at no. 171

Clearly, there’s nothing to be proud of in terms of how the academic world assesses our public universities. In fact, we should be concerned that our rankings continue to lag behind even when compared with universities only from this region.

What are the main factors determining the poor performance of our universities and what can be done about it? From my own experience as a former Professor in the University of Malaya and also drawing on the analyses of other professionals, scholars and academics who have studied the topic, the main reason standing in the way of improving our public universities is the government’s insistence on persisting with the NEP racially biased approach to running the universities in all its key aspects: leadership, staffing, promotion, student enrolment, etc. In fact, this race-oriented approach should have ended in 1990.

MM
25/09/09

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