Further cuts to Universiti Malaya’s (UM) research funds could risk its reputation as the country’s most prestigious research university.

The Star quoted an anonymous senior management staff from UM’s Faculty of Medicine who claimed that “there was no way” the university could retain its research rankings this year, let alone rise further.

She reportedly said the university was already facing constraints in terms of subsidising university fees, yet they were not allowed to raise school fees.

With a total budget of RM370mil for 2017, each of UM’s 20,000 students would approximately be allocated RM18,500 per year, the source added.

"That is, of course, a ridiculously low sum especially for expensive-to-run courses like medicine, dentistry and engineering," she said.

The Star also reported today that Universiti Malaya's RM100 million allocation for research in 2015 was slashed to RM40 million last year, and is expected to see further cuts this year.

The 60 percent cut to research allocations for 2016 was in line with a slash of RM174mil in its total funds last year, which led to UM getting only RM463 million.

Under Budget 2017, it was announced that UM now faces a further 20 percent cut to its overall budget this year.

In the past year, UM had improved its position in the QS University Ranking, moving from 29 to 27 among Asian universities.

The government had over the last several years requested universities to generate 30 percent of their income, but the source reportedly claimed that this was impossible to do in just two years.

"In most other countries, it is done gradually," she said.

Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh had in the past said that local public universities were 80 to 90 percent dependent on government funding, and that this was unsustainable.

He said there were plans in the education blueprint 2015 - 2020 (higher education) for universities to reduce their dependency to 70 percent by 2020.