“YOU’RE UM-believable” blared the headline of a Malaysian daily last month, referring to the improved ranking of the country’s oldest university.
As per the QS World University Rankings: Asia (QS-AUR) 2024, Universiti Malaya (UM) now ranks 12th in Asia and remains the nation’s top university.
“With our new tagline, ‘Home of the bright, land of the brave’, UM will continue to strive for excellence into the future,” its head triumphantly added.
This obsession with ranking, now a global phenomenon, is a recent preoccupation. The good news is that this may soon become passe, but not before consuming scarce valuable resources from its victims – the universities. This burden is especially heavy on poorly funded campuses in the Third World, including Malaysia.
While American universities can afford the added expenses, many top institutions have already opted out of these meaningless exercise.
US News and World Report, the publisher of the most widely read Best US Colleges series, had long ago gone out of business with its newsweekly magazine. It is now reduced to publishing the best of this and that, reflecting the growing industry of ranking.
Ranking exercises are little more than parasites, draining precious resources that should be spent on students, institutions and the community.
Nothing demonstrates this silly misplaced obsession with ranking than when a Malaysian campus goes hog wild celebrating its “improvement” from 469th to 463rd position.
An even more pernicious consequence of this obsession with rankings is the explosive growth of predatory journals. This has become a major distraction for academics in the Third World as even the most “junk” articles require effort to produce. That energy could be far more productively directed elsewhere.
This metaphor best illustrates the futility of such global ranking exercises. If you are already a suave dresser, then it would be appropriate to compare yourself with others similarly well-dressed, contrasting their choice of colour, style and type of material.
However, if you are just emerging from the jungle or still living in it, your concerns are more basic, like the durability of the material and its ability to provide coverage and warmth. Style, fittings and colour schemes are not your priorities.
Accept the reality that no Malaysian university is likely to reach the top decile globally or within Asia in the foreseeable future. Having accepted that, focus on your basic mission – your primary responsibility towards your students, institution and community.
The critical measures of the quality of a university are its students, faculty and contributions to the community. Improve those and you are well on your way to improving your institution. Develop your own matrix, one that can be used over time.
A good place to start would be improving your input – your incoming students. Establish standards and criteria for incoming students that can be tracked over time, including language proficiency (both Malay and English) competency, as well as science and mathematical proficiency.
A university is an expensive undertaking; it should not be used to provide remedial or matriculation classes that can be provided better and cheaper elsewhere.
For example, accept students with a minimum score of four out of five in English and Malay, using the current Malaysian University English Test (MUET) as a template. This would be an excellent start.
Malaysian undergraduates should be fluent in Malay and English, and have some minimum competency in science and mathematics regardless of their majors.
With the glut of PhDs in the country now, the minimum qualification for new academics should be at least two years of post-doctoral experience, with demonstrated productivity as well as capabilities of conducting independent research.
As for the irrelevance of much local research, consider this: despite the glut of business schools in Malaysia, no one has studied such spectacular debacles as Bank Bumiputra, Perwaja Steel or the latest, 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Are Malaysian academics not curious?
Likewise, the ratio of coastline to landmass in Malaysia is one of the highest, yet few local universities have a marine biology department.
Paying attention to those areas critical to the nation is far better than gloating over your presumed ranking improvement.
M. Bakri Musa
