The proposal for universities to abandon the global ranking system on the basis that it is commercial and profit-oriented is described as a simplistic view that risks misleading the direction of the country's higher education policy.

Ismi Arif Ismail, a professor at the Faculty of Educational Studies and the Institute of Social Science Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), said that criticism of the international ranking system deserves attention, but a complete rejection without differentiating between the functions and how the rankings are utilised is a hasty conclusion.