SEPTEMBER 14 — “Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgement; the manner in which information is coordinated and used”- Carl Sagan. In response to a recent article “Malaysia’s Public Universities Falling Behind”, there is a need to address certain allegations and distorted facts brought forth in the article.
The first issue highlighted in the article was on ranking of the universities in Malaysia. The Ministry has time and time again stresses on how ranking is not everything. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that when our universities, both public and private are doing so well, it will attract global attention, hence, comes the rankings. University Rankings are published every year, therefore, it is not right for one to say that public universities are doing better than private universities and vice versa. If a particular university drops in terms of ranking, it does not mean that they are falling behind. It just shows that other universities are improving and excelling at a greater rate.
Both public and private universities play important roles in the country’s growth. They are evolving together. In the initial stage of the formation of private higher institutions in the 1980s was to complement the public institutions as the number of students pursuing higher education at that time was increasing. However, over time private colleges and universities have continued to excel locally and internationally, as well as making their ways in the university rankings. Hence, how UTAR has made its way in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019, after Universiti Malaya. This has been made possible due to the policy and way forward set for the private higher education institutions by the government. We celebrate the fact that the private universities are making their presence known as with the public universities. The recent World University Rankings 2020 (QS WUR 2020) showed that the top five Malaysian Universities are the five research universities with Universiti Malaya consistently leading the way. For the QS WUR2020 Malaysia’s oldest university has leaped from 87th place to 70th, a great achievement for Malaysian public university. We are happy to share that our private universities have also made it into the in the QS WUR2020, where UCSI University has jumped from being ranked at 481 in 2019, to 442 in 2020 ranking . This itself has proven that both the public and private universities are indeed portraying their global prominence.
Ranking is the people’s perception on how our universities are placed in the global platform and it is not the only aspect that the government is looking at. Not merely focusing and stressing on rankings alone, the Ministry of Education has provided internal instruments for both public and private universities to ensure the quality of higher education offered is sustained; among which are SETARA and MyQuest. SETARA is a rating system that is vigilant with the purpose of improving the quality of teaching and learning in public universities. MyQuest on the other hand, is a similar instrument that looks into the performance of the private universities. These rating instruments are part of the initiative put forth by the Ministry in assuring continuous quality improvement for both public and private universities.
The Ministry, in line with the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (HE) or MEB (HE), have carried out initiatives and programmes to ensure that we produce future-proof talents who would meet the industry’s demands. This includes a fluid and organic curriculum introduced by the Ministry as a step in ensuring our students will be able to access knowledge wherever they are and whenever they want, without being too confined to classroom environment like before. Our education system has definitely evolved and transformed in accordance to the current market’s demands. Due to the transformation in Malaysia Higher Education, the current graduate employability rate has increased to 80%.
The comments made and articles written on Malaysia’s Higher Education, we welcome them whole heartedly. The comments and articles show that people are interested to know and they care about our higher education system. We thank those who have made the effort to write about Malaysia’s higher education. Let us work together as Malaysians to shape a generation that could thrive and succeed in whatever environment or circumstances they are in. Let us together put our heart in educating the future as educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all
**This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
