End the NEP in the universities as the first step to restore a world-class
university system
Malaysia is losing out in the unrelenting battle for international
competitiveness among nations, with Malaysian universities even losing out to
universities in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines – something completely
unthinkable in the first three decades of our nationhood.
For the second consecutive year, Malaysia had fallen completely out of the list
of the world's Top 200 Universities this year in the 2008 Times Higher
Education Supplement (THES) - Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University
Rankings.
The national shame of Malaysia falling completely out of the list of the
world's Top 200 Universities this year in the 2008 Times Higher Education
Supplement (THES) - Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings is
being compounded by the ignominy of Malaysian universities losing out not only
to top universities in Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South
Korea but also to other South East Asian nations like Thailand, Indonesia and
Philippines.
For the second consecutive year, there is not only not a single university in
the 2008 THES-QS Top 200 Universities list, there is also not a single
university in the separate ranking of Top 100 Universities for five subject
areas – Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities; Life Sciences
and Biomedicine; and Technology.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Malaya (UM) were in the
2006 Ranking, placed No. 185 and 192 respectively. UKM plunged to 309 last
year and improved to 250 this year while UM fell to 246 last year improving
slightly to 230 this year – but both remain outside the Top 200 Universities
ranking.
The government named Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) as the Apex University but
it has a dismal international rankings after being included once in the Top 200
Universities list – No. 111 in 2004, No. 326 in 2005, 277 in 2006, No. 307 in
2007 and No. 313 in 2008.
It is both sad and pathetic that our Apex University, the USM, at No. 313
ranking, is not only left far behind in South East Asia by Singapore
(National University of Singapore No. 30 and Nanyang Technological University
No. 77) but also by Thailand (Chulalongkorn University No. 166), Indonesia
(University of Indonesia No. 287) and the Philippines (Ateneo de Manila
University No. 254 and University of the Philippines No. 276).
Until last year, Malaysian universities were all ranked well ahead of the
Indonesian universities, but in the 2008 THES-QS World Top Universities
ranking, Indonesian universities are catching up with Malaysian universities in
leaps and bounds.
Last year for instance, the three top Indonesian universities were all ranked
behind the Malaysian universities – University of Indonesia (UI) No. 395,
Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) No. 369 and Gajah Mada University (UGM)
No. 360, as compared to the three top Malaysian universities University of
Malaya (UM) No. 246, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) No. 307 and Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) No. 309.
In this year's ranking, University of Indonesia has improved by 108 placings to
be ranked as No. 287, Bandung Institute of Technology No. 315 and Gajah Mada
University No. 316.
This means that in the 2008 THES-QS Ranking, University of Indonesia (No. 287)
has narrowed the gap with University of Malaya (No. 230) and Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia (No. 250), while ahead of Malaysia's apex university,
Universiti Sains Malaysia (No. 313), University Putra Malaysia (No. 320) and
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (No. 356).
The performance of Malaysian universities in the 2008 THES-QS Top 100 lists for
the five subject areas are even more dismal, with not a single university
making into the five lists for two years consecutively although Malaysia
secured four of these 500 prestigious slots in 2006 - University of Malaya was
ranked 49 in Social Sciences and 95 in Natural Sciences, UKM was placed No. 62
in Natural Sciences, and University Sains Malaysia placed No. 96 for Life
Sciences and Biomedicine.
For the 2008 THES-QS ranking, National University of Singapore (NUS) (No. 30)
is ranked among the Top 100 Universities for all the five categories while
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) (No. 77) is ranked among the Top 100
universities for three categories, viz: Technology (No. 26); Life Sciences &
Biomedicine (No. 78) and Social Sciences (No.89).
NUS is ranked No. 11 for Technology; No. 17 for Life Sciences and Biomedicine,
No. 31 for Natural Sciences; No. 18 for Social Sciences and No. 30 for Arts &
Humanities.
NTU is ranked No. 25 for Engineering & IT; No. 99 for Natural Sciences and No.
88 for Social Sciences.
Even Thailand's Chulalongkorn University is rated among the Top 100
Universities for two categories – Technology (No. 86) and Social Sciences (No.
72); Indonesia's Bandung Institute of Technology rated as among the Top 100
universities for Technology (No. 90) and two universities in Philippines ranked
among the Top 100 Universities for Arts and Humanities - Ateneo de Manila
University (No. 79) and University of the Philippines (No. 82).
After being placed in four of the 500 slots in the five Top 100 Universities
for the five subjects in 2006, Malaysian universities has been conspicuously
missing from all the five listings of Top 100 Universities for the five
categories for the past two years.
There are over 30 "elite of elite" universities, which are not only ranked in
the Top 200 Universities list, but also ranked in every one of the five Top 100
subject list.
Universities in the Asia-Pacific region which are in this exclusive "elite of
elites" list include six in Australia, two in China, one each in Japan, Hong
Kong, Singapore and South Korea. Why is Malaysia not in this "elite of elites"
listing and when will Malaysia have a university which will have all-round
excellence as to be included in this list?
Malaysians have not been told the real and true reasons for the shocking
performance of Malaysian universities in the THES-QS Top 200 Universities
ranking. Malaysian universities have been consistent in increasingly deplorable
results in world rankings, whether the THES-QS, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
World's Best 500 Universities or the Newsweek's Top 100 Global Universities.
If the government is serious about its slogan of "Cemerlang, Gemilang,
Terbilang" to create a world-class university system to transform Malaysia into
a knowledge-based innovative economy, it must end the New Economic Policy (NEP)
in the universities and fully restore the policy of meritocracy and academic
excellence coupled with social need to provide university education
opportunities to economically-backward Malaysians regardless of race.
It is the NEP policy and mentality which caused University of Malaya to fall
200 rankings behind University of Singapore in less than four decades as both
universities had started on the same footing some 50 years ago. University of
Malaya is ranked No. 230 as compared to the 30th ranking for National
University of Singapore.
The government must recognize that so long as the NEP is kept in place in the
universities, there would be no way for any Malaysian public university to
compete with other universities from other countries. This is why Malaysia is
also losing out to universities from Thailand and Africa – which was
unthinkable four decades ago!
If Malaysia is to get back to the trail of world-class academic excellence, all
universities should be allowed to enroll the most qualified students, employ
the most competent professors and researchers with competitive remunerations
and restore a culture of academic excellence and freedom.
One simple test of whether the government is seriously committed to abandon the
baggage of past NEP policies to create a world-class university system is
whether it has the political will to end the annual brain drain depriving
Malaysia of the best and brightest for the development of the country.
For a start, the Higher Education Minister should ask the Cabinet to check the
annual four-figure brain-drain of the best and brightest STPM students and
Chinese Independent Secondary school students to Singapore by providing them
equitable higher education opportunities at home to demonstrate that the
government is serious in wanting to build a world-class university system.
Secondly, the Higher Education Minister must ask the Cabinet to end the present
fraudulent meritocracy using both STPM and matriculation by having a common
university entrance examination.
This is the recommendation of the World Bank study on "Malaysia and the
Knowledge Economy: Building a World-Class Higher Education System" submitted to
the government in March last year.
Otherwise, the Higher Education Ministry is only continuing to pay lip service
to university excellence and quality without the political will to bring about
the institutional changes without which there is no way for Malaysian
universities to return to world-class university status.
Lim Kit Siang
Those held under the ISA are defined as a group that has virtually no rights,
so it is hardly surprising that prison guards treat them as less than human.
Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division.
I regard class differences as contrary to justice and, in the last resort,
based on force.
Albert Einstein
