HIGHER EDUCATION MINISTRY NOT OBSESSED WITH RANKINGS, PARLIAMENT TOLD

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 (Bernama) -- The Higher Education Ministry is not
obsessed with the pursuit of international recognition but is more focused on
producing quality human capital for the nation, the House of Representatives was
told Thursday.

Its minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin stressed that the ministry was
not obsessed with university ratings but would use them as a reference to
benchmark local varsities against their foreign counterparts.

"Although we are not doing so well in the rankings, the latest findings is
that our universities have shown encouraging improvement in various aspects and
the ministry is very satisfied with this achievement," he said when winding up
debate on the Supply Bill 2011 at the Committee stage for his ministry.

He said the achievements of local universities in terms of human capital
in research universities witnessed an increase in number of postgraduate
students by 34 per cent to 39,813 students this year compared to 2009.

There was also a marked increase in the number of students pursuing doctoral
studies as well as enrolment of foreign students in local universities, he said.

"As for academic staff with PhD qualifications, there was an increase from
3,348 people to 3,742 people. So too for publication of journals that made a
major impact which saw a 99 per cent increase from 3,221 publications in 2007
and 2009 to 6,419 publications now," he said, adding that there was also an
increase in the number of patents registered and revenue generated.

Replying to a question from Khairy Jamaluddin, a MP on why Malaysian
universities were not in the top 200 in the Times Higher Education
Supplement (THES) 2010, Mohamed Khaled said this was because of changes in the
evaluation criteria.

He said the criteria included research activities as far back as 10 years,
but 10 years ago Malaysia had yet to have research universities.

"It is different from the QS (QS World University Rankings) whose criteria
measurement are only over five years,. That is why our research universities are
listed in the QS rankings," he added.

The House of Representatives sits again on Monday.

-- BERNAMA