2010 World University Ranking Results

The QS 2010 World ranking for universities are out and Malaysian universities are nowhere in sight in the world Top 200 ranking. Except for UM, which posted a huge drop of 27 places, the other traditionally prominent uni's fared an incremental improvement in world rankings.

                2010 World rank 2009 World rank       2010 Asia rank 2009 Asia rank
UM                       207 180                       42     39
USM 309 314                      69                   69
UPM 319 345    77                   90
UKM 263 291                      58    51

In case you don't know QS is a well-re-known multi-national education and career outfit. The full list of the world's Top 200 universities are released in the site here. Amongst Asian universities, Hong Kong's universities are worth a mention- coming up tops in Asia and number 23 (University of Hong Kong) in world rankings beating Singapore's NUS which came in at #31. The Asian rankings are here.
Criteria

Ranking of the universities are based on the following noticeable criteria:

(Source: http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings)

1. Geographical Balancing – acknowledging that universities have different priorities and characteristics in different parts of the world, the balance of institutions from given countries and regions is periodically reviewed
2. Academic Reputation
3. Employer Reputation- how employers rate the graduates in the job market.
4. International reputation- proportion of international students attracted to the universities
5. QS Classifications- basis for comparing the various universities which are different in terms of size, subject ranges, research intensity and different mission statements which mainly deals with 'apples' to 'oranges' comparisons.

Comments from the floor (or floored)

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, excerpt from The Star:

...“We do not want to be obsessive about world rankings,” he said.

The ministry, he added, had its own strategic plan which was benchmarked against world’s best practices, and would take note of the rankings.

“We also cannot be ‘ranked’ against other universities whose ‘conditions’ and ‘environments’ are different from ours. It is like comparing apples with oranges,” he said...


"Take note of rankings", I see. The QS rankings is an industry benchmark. Khaled Nordin should request for a detailed report of what was measured, identify the shortfalls and start putting in improvement plans for 2011- instead of giving excuses for the shoddy performance in the rankings. We do not need to teach him what to do? Hullo? His salary is definitely a waste of tax-payer's money.