Malaysian universities still in international backwaters – omitted fourth year in succession in  January 2007 Webometrics Ranking of 3,000 Premier Universities

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Media Statement    
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Petaling Jaya, Saturday) : Malaysian universities are still in the international backwaters with the country fighting a losing battle to enhance international competitiveness in the quest for academic excellence and university quality.

For the fourth  year in succession, Malaysian universities have been omitted in the January 2007 Webometrics Ranking (WR) of 3,000 Premier Universities, based on their commitment to Web publication and to the Open Access initiatives.

The National University of Singapore tops the Asian universities in the WR, ranked No. 139 internationally, with the Nanyang Technological University ranked No. 18 among the top Asian universities.  Chulalongkorn University of Thailand has again confirmed that it is recognised internationally as in various recent world universities rankings as of superior quality to all the 17 Malaysian universities.

The top 25 Asian universities in the latest  WR are:

Top Asian Universities                                   

The country distribution of the top 500 WR Premier Universities are:

Rank             Country        Top 500

1.                 USA                  211

2                  Germany             51

3.                 UK                      40

4                  Canada                27

5                  Spain                   20

6                  Australia             18

7.                 Italy                     13

8                  Sweden               10

9                  Netherlands          9

10                Switzerland          7

10                France                  7

10                Japan                    7

10                Finland                 7

14                Austria                 6

15                Denmark              5

15                Brazil                   5

15                Belgium               5

18                Norway                4

18                Czech Rep           4

18                Israel                    4

18                Ireland                  4

18                Hong Kong          4

18                Portugal               4

24                Taiwan                  3

24                New Zealand        3

26                China                    2

26                Singapore             2

26                South Korea        2

26                Mexico                2

26                Greece                2

26                Hungary              2

26                Turkey                2

33                Estonia               1

33                Argentina           1

33                South Africa      1

33                Serbia                 1

33                Iceland               1

33                Chile                  1

33                Russia                1

33                Slovenia             1

Unless there is urgent universities reform, Malaysian universities face the great risk of disappearing from the international radar of quality universities altogether.

Malaysian universities were completely left out in the new Newsweek Top 100 Global Universities ranking announced in August last year , stuck in the world’s lowly academic divisions – three years after the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s call for world-class universities and “towering Malaysians”.

For four successive years, none of the 17 Malaysian public universities made it into the  Shanghai Jian Tong University’s 500 Top Universities Rankings.

As for the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) World University Ranking of 200 Best Universities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)  and University of Malaya (UM) are struggling to keep inside the list, as their present rankings of No. 185 for UKM and No. 192 for UK are most precarious and perilous.

Did the unusual Friday  Cabinet meeting yesterday discuss the latest proof of the failure of the Abdullah administration in the battle to enhance Malaysia’s international competitiveness to produce quality human resources by raising the global standing of the quality of Malaysian universities, and what should be done to address the failures of the universities in the past  three years – or it merely provided further evidence of a “half-past six” Cabinet totally unaware of the conspicuous absence of Malaysian universities in  the latest Webometrics Ranking of 3,000 Universities?

(3/3/2007)