M'sia home to 1pc of world's top varsities
Published on: Monday, September 14, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Malaysia is now home to one per cent of the world's top universities, thanks to the National Education Blueprint, and now an extended plan envisages local universities to do even better.Higher Education Minister Datuk Idris Jusoh on Saturday said efforts will be intensified to improve the country's higher education institutions, which have already made notable progress in terms of world ranking, academics and research. And the National Education Blueprint (Higher Education) 2015-2025, which was launched by the Prime Minister in April, is set to steer this effort further, he said.
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Idris said the blueprint is aimed at producing not only holistic, balanced and enterprising graduates, but also improve their skill developments, as well as the world rankings of Malaysian universities. Inputs for the blueprint had been gathered from various stakeholders and was drafted by Universiti Malaysia Sabah's Board Chairman and former Federal Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi. Idris said the Ministry plans to see at least two universities make it to the top 100 QS World Universities Ranking, naming Universiti Malaya as one of them. He said Universiti Malaya, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia are on that list, with their positions on the uptrend in the said ranking last year.
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"The present ranking shows that we have achieved various improvements. "We have to accept the realities that Malaysia now has one per cent of the world's top universities," he told reporters after delivering a talk at the ministry's "Soaring Upwards" nationwide roadshow here.
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Also present at the event was Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap. Soaring Upwards is aimed to provide Malaysians an update on the progress of the Malaysian higher education system, Sabah being the fourth destination in the roadshow. Idris said the contribution of 537 lecturers from world ranking universities now working in local public universities is expected to assist the ministry in improving the country's higher education position. Furthermore, foreign reports have surfaced that Malaysian academics have "surprisingly" beaten Thais and Singaporeans in research papers since 2007, adding that these also contributed RM1.25 billion in the field of industrial solutions, non-governmental organisations and agencies, he pointed out. Idris also said the ministry is planning to increase the number of foreign student enrolment at local universities to around 200,000 by 2020 from 104,848 students at present, which has raked in some RM4.8 billion for the country. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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