MP SPEAKS The results of the latest Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings reveal a lot.
According to the report, Asia is projected to be the next “global higher education superpower” as a result of vast improvements in many Asian universities.
In particular, China has been singled out, as that country has now overtaken Japan with 21 top universities out of 100 in the list.
Besides China, traditional education powerhouses such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan continue to do well, though they now see their dominance increasingly threatened by newcomers.
For example, all six of Hong Kong’s universities are now ranked in the top 50, showing marked improvements from last year. Even Macau has entered the rankings, with the University of Macau at joint 40th place.
Unfortunately, Malaysia appears to be left out of this Asian education renaissance, without any representatives in the top 100. This is due to the fact that Malaysian universities have decided to opt out of the THE rankings this year.
The last time a Malaysian university made it into the list was in 2013, when UKM was placed 87th in Asia.
Selective statistics fudge the truth
Recently, Second Education Minister Idris Jusoh repeated his grand claim that Malaysian universities are on-track to becoming “world-class” institutions. Unfortunately, such a claim is nothing but a pipe dream when it is only backed up by selective statistics.
For example, the minister points to our progress in the QS rankings as proof that our universities are making great strides.
According to the rival QS University Rankings: Asia 2015 report, Universiti Malaya (UM) was placed 29th while Universiti Sains Malaysia improved to 49th in Asia. In the QS World University Rankings, UM managed a respectable 151st position.
The QS results are indeed a positive achievement, but the only way to prove the success of our universities in an objective manner, and without the bias inherent in any single methodology, is to compare the results with other international assessments.
Unfortunately, our universities don’t seem to be consistent in this aspect. For example, the latest Best Global Universities Ranking by Thomson Reuters placed UM at 423rd in the world, while the Center for World University Rankings had the same university at 492nd place.
This underperformance is actually consistent with the fact that UM has failed to make it into the top 400 of the THE World University Rankings since 2010, before it pulled out of the survey.
Therefore, the use of the QS rankings alone as proof of our “progress” is nothing more than cherry-picking.
Another example of selective use of facts is the boast in Parliamentby Idris Jusoh ( photo ) that Malaysian universities have done well because of the increase in number of academic publications in recent years.
In particular, he stated that Malaysian universities published 23,190 articles in 2013 alone, and this has seen us overtaking Singapore in terms of the number of publications.
Again, such a claim is disingenuous, bearing in mind that Malaysia has 20 public universities and 43 private ones. At 63, that is double Singapore’s total of 32, which consists of six public and 26 private institutions of higher learning.
We should not be afraid to compete
Based on Idris Jusoh’s narrow logic, we should be doubling Singapore’s output, and not merely overtaking Singapore.
However, a more nuanced assessment should not only take into account the number of publications, but the impact and quality of the research output.
For example, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore was recently placed first in Asia in terms of quality and impact of research, based on a study by Thomson Reuters and Elsevier. Being only 23 years old, this is a great achievement as it has outperformed universities from Hong Kong, Korea and Japan.
Would Idris Jusoh care to tell us how well Malaysian universities fared in the Thomson ISI Index and other barometers of quality and impact of research?
Unlike Malaysia’s selective use of the QS rankings alone, Singapore’s universities are consistent in showing sterling results across all surveys and rankings, including the latest THE Asia University Rankings, in which both NTU and the National University of Singapore are listed in the top 10.
Even our northern neighbour Thailand has managed to have two of its universities in the top 100, while countries like Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran have shown great improvements.
If Malaysia wants to be ‘world-class’, then we should not be afraid to compete with the rest of the world. If we are only able to rely on selective statistics and fudged truths, then we have no right to make such grand claims.
ZAIRIL KHIR JOHARI is the MP for Bukit Bendera and DAP assistant national publicity secretary.
