Malaysian higher education sector improves 9 rungs in U21 report

Malaysia's higher education sector is now rank 27th out of 50 countries evaluated with an overall score of 52.4 per cent.

The evaluation by Universitas 21 (U21), a network of the world leading universities which stresses on research, is based on a research by the Institute of Social and Applied Economics Studies of the Melbourne University, Australia.

U21 made its study based on the elements of resources, environment, connectivity and output said the higher education ministry (KPT) in a statement here today.

Last year, Malaysia took 36th position out of 48 countries surveyed with an overall score of 50.5 per cent.

KPT felt the U21 ranking this year was commendable as it showed the government was committed in the development of the higher education sector.

Malaysia is also listed as the second best in Southeast Asia after Singapore which was in ninth position with an overall score of 76.6 per cent.

For resource criteria, which looks at expenditure in the sector, Malaysia obtained a score of 70.9 per cent which was better than Australia, Korea, Japan, United Kingdom and Germany.

In the environment element, Malaysia scored 87.2 per cent, surpassing countries like China, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Korea, Switzerland and Chile while the output of research and commercialisation saw Malaysia getting a score of 19.2 per cent.

Malaysia also recorded 40.4 per cent in connectivity and international relations which depended on the number of foreign students in local institutions of higher learning and production of journals, in the cooperation with international scholars.