The high Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) imposed on public universities would remain in place, said Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh, despite calls to reconsider following the discovery of cases of research fraud at Universiti Malaya (UM).

He said the KPIs had nothing to do with the alleged fraud.

“Everyone can see that our universities are improving, that’s why the KPIs are being raised as well.

“This issue (research fraud) happens anywhere, but we are taking it seriously. We will take action against whoever who has no integrity.

“We will not change the KPIs. It was not because of the KPIs,” he told reporters in Putrajaya today, after hosting the flag handover ceremony for the Malaysian Asean University Games sports contingent.

He was asked to respond to calls by the Malaysian Social Science Association (MSSA) to reconsider the KPIs, which the group said is high and sometime unrealistic.

“With universities putting a high priority on ISI-indexed publications in order to boost their rankings, KPIs on research and publication have sometimes been set at unrealistic levels, thus putting pressure on academic staff and researchers.

“While this does not justify or mitigate the seriousness of such offences, it should serve as a reminder to our universities that setting unrealistic targets will draw desperate responses,” the group said on June 21.

The NGO was referring to a case of fraud discovered early this month, where a group of UM Faculty of Medicine researchers was subsequently found in an investigation by the university to have falsified and/or manipulated its data.

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The group had reportedly published the papers using the fraudulent data in four peer-reviewed journals, at least three of which had retracted the papers, while the status of the fourth paper is unknown.

Two days ago, Bernama reported that University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) managed to claw its way into the Top 100 of the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2016, placing 70th.

No Malaysian university featured in the Top 100 of the rankings last year.