Malaysia was again not featured in the latest Times Higher Education World Reputation rankings released on March 6, but universities in its neighbour across the Causeway featured twice in the rankings, with the National University of Singapore (NUS) coming in at 21st place while Nanyang Technological University came in at number 91.
To provide the definitive list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands, the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014 employs the world's largest invitation-only academic opinion survey.
The past has also shown the NUS beating Malaysia by leaps and bounds when it placed 18th in 2004, 22nd in 2005 and 19th in 2006 in the Times Higher Education Supplement rankings of top 200 universities in the world.
In comparison, Malaysia’s premier Universiti Malaya (UM) came in at 89th place in 2004 and 169th in 2005. In 2006, UM came in at 192nd place.
This is such a drastic difference in numbers between two universities which were initially one as both NUS and UM were one university with two branches until 1962, when the two governments decided that the two divisions of the University of Malaya should become autonomous separate national universities.
Honorary Secretary of Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) Tunku Munawirah Putra said there are many factors causing Malaysia to lag behind Singapore, with a major one being politics.
“NUS and UM used to be the same university but Singapore has taken a huge leap to be where they are now. Obviously they have done something right. Their GDP is huge and they don’t have any hardcore poor among their citizens.
“There are a lot of factors that have caused us to lag behind Singapore in terms of education. One main factor is that education should be free of politics. I don’t mean just the politicians but the politicking that’s happening. For example, the brain drain in the country is a problem and the reason why there is a brain drain is the after effect of “unchecked politicking”,” she told theantdaily.
Tunku Munawirah pointed out that along the way, the focus and objectives of the education sector had been sidelined.
“The focus went on to nationalism after the May 13, 1969 incident and this caused us to unintentionally sideline the importance of education from a global perspective.
“Some of our universities prioritise more on people earning a diploma or degree and the objective to produce more graduates has compromised standards and the overall quality of education,” she said.
An education industry insider who declined to be named said any ranking is debatable as it would depend on the criteria used.
“I think among the best rankings are those based on reputation as reputation is based purely on perception.
“If it is perception based you get an idea of what our status is in the eyes of the world,” he said.
However, he said that people also have to realise that most of the universities ahead of Malaysia in the rankings were from more developed countries.
“For our education system to be elevated, our country also has to be elevated. It is not about comparing university with university but about comparing country with country. This is because in developing countries, it is all about the bread and butter as well as developing the country’s workforce but in advanced economies, it’s more than that.
“Take Harvard University for example. They have the funds and the privilege to carry out whatever they want. They can be the ideal university to produce holistic human beings as they don’t have to cater for the country’s workforce. They are also able to source for the best students from around the world just based on their reputation. Our universities don’t have that privilege. You should compare apple with apple, not apple with orange,” he said, adding that this was not an excuse for local universities to be lousy.
He said the government had to play a role in facilitating the advancement of universities but that the current regulations imposed on them did not help them prosper.
“One good example of this is the Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS). In none of the top universities in the world do foreign students have to go through this EMGS kind of procedure where they have to go to the country in question to obtain their student visa. They would instead obtain their offer letter and student visa in their own country. With all this hassle, why would they want to come here?” he asked.
The Education Ministry was reported to have received RM38.7 billion in Budget 2013 and is set to receive RM54 billion this year.
Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was also reported to have said that Malaysia has one of the best education systems in the world, better than Britain, Germany and the United States.
Malaysia also reportedly aims to be an education hub for the region with 200,000 international students by 2020.
But wouldn’t international students flock to a country based on its reputation? And Harvard University is placed number one in this ranking. Does Muhyiddin think Malaysia’s education system is better than Harvard’s? If so, this is yet another reason why everything is so wrong in Malaysia while everything is so right in Singapore.
By Sonia Ramachandran, The Ant Daily
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