M'sian varsities among top 1% of research universities in the world

PUTRAJAYA: All five public research universities in Malaysia have been listed in the top 1% of such universities in the world.
The five universities are University of Malaya (UM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), which showed an improvement in the world ranking list for the year 2017/2018 issued by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh told reporters here today that the achievement was good news for the country's higher education landscape, especially in celebrating 10 years of initiative to stimulate and encourage growth in research, publishing and innovation.
"Of the 26,000 universities worldwide, the Malaysian research universities are now among the top 260," he said adding that UM was ranked the highest among Malaysian Universities at 114, and on the verge of breaking into the top 100 universities in the world.
He said the greatest improvement was by UPM which jumped 182 places from 411 in 2013/2014 to 229 in the current world ranking.
UKM went up 72 places to 230 compared with 302 in 2016/2017 while USM improved by 66 places, from 330 in 2016/2017 to 264 in 2017/2018 and UTM went up 101 places from 355 in 2013/2014 to 253 this year, he said.
"The Ministry of Higher Education is confident that the strategic plans outlined in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 will allow our universities to be among the world's best 100 universities earlier than expected," he said.
Idris said between 2007 and 2016, university researches had generated more than RM6.18 billion in revenue for the country and this was a 55.3% return on the initial research investment from the government totalling RM3.98 billion.
QS is the world's first university rating agency recognised by the International Ranking Expert Group, and is considered an important reference for stakeholders worldwide.
QS' rankings are based on six key performance indicators including academic reputation and ration of students to lecturers.
The ranking system also evaluates the research, teaching, marketability and internationalisation of each university. — Bernama