World rankings important, says UM vice-chancellor
By Stephanie Sta Maria, Free Malaysia Today
PETALING JAYA: Universiti Malaya (UM) vice-chancellor Dr Ghauth Jasmon has told the country’s oldest university that it has to take world rankings seriously if it wants to remain globally competitive.
His statement contradicts that of Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin who recently discouraged the public from being obsessed with world university rankings and comparing local institutions to international ones.
In the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2010-11, no Malaysian universities were ranked among the top 200 despite UM being placed 180 last year.
“UM should take a leaf out of Taiwan’s book,” he said during the launch of UM’s National Islamic Conference today. “I recently visited a few of its top universities and at least 10 of them are on par with Harvard University in the US.”
“The universities in Taiwan believe in world rankings. They also believe in getting published in the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) journals. Five of Taiwan’s universities outranked UM in the THE ranking and now I understand why.”
Ghauth added that all academicians in Taiwan’s universities also undergoes a stringent performance review and are dropped from their respective institutions if they fail to meet their Key Performance Index (KPI).
“Their salaries are lower than that of our academicians,” he said. “And yet their productivity is so high.”
Reaping the rewards
Gauth recalled that during his week-long visitthe local dailies had trumpeted two new Taiwanese inventions – one in the medical industry and another in the electric and electronics industry.
“These inventions will bring billions of dollars to Taiwan’s economy,” he said. “The universities invest a great deal in research and development, and now the country is reaping the rewards. We can and should be doing the same.”
Ghauth, who was also in Taiwan to attend the 2010 Presidents Forum of Southeast and South Asia and Taiwan Universities, said that the theme of the forum revolved around competitiveness.
“Our neighbours and friendly university partners are in top gear,” he said. “Even Indonesia is pushing its universities extremely hard. We must match their aggression to make sure that we too make an impact in the world.”
“Taiwanese academics are making their impact by publishing ISI papers based on their seminars and research. I’m not obsessed with ISI journals but this is the reality.”
An industry source told FMT that Ghauth is facing strong resistance from academicians in his push for them to be published in ISI journals.
