SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIVERSITY LISTS UM AMONG WORLD'S TOP VARSITIES

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 (Bernama) -- The University of Malaya (UM) has been
listed as being among 400 to 500 Top Universities in the World by China's
Shanghai Jiao Tong University this year.

The Chairman of the UM Board of Directors, Arshad Ayub said UM was
included in the list based on the number of journals published in the data base
of the index journal of the Information Sciences Institute (ISI), the number of
international lecturers engaged and the enrolment of international students at
the university.

He said the list issued by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University was different
from the list issued by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Ranking
where the UM was placed 167th in the world.

Arshad explained that UM's position in the list issued by the Shanghai Jiao
Tong University could be pushed higher if it engaged the services of
professionals who had received the Noble award, however, for the time being the
UM had not engaged such professionals, he told reporters after launching the
"Minggu Haluansiswa" (orientation week) at the University of Malaya, Tuesday.

Other universities listed by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University included the
Cairo University in Egypt; University of Zagreb in Croatia and the University of
Wollongong in Australia, while Harvard University was in first place.


Meanwhile, UM Vice-Chancellor Dr Ghauth Jasmon said more students
would be pursuing studies at the masters and doctorate (PhD) levels in the
2011/2012 semester after the university relaxed the entry requirement with a
minimum 3.3 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA).

"For students who have experience in the field of studies to be pursued, the
entry requirement is a minimum CGPA of 3.0," he said.

For the 2011/2012 semester, a total of 11,000 students enrolled for studies
for the masters and PhD programmes while 16,000 students, including about 4,000
international students, enrolled for the bachelors degree programme at the UM.