QS Asia University Rankings: UM at 27th spot, up by two positions last year

University Malaya (UM) scored 27th spot in the QS Quacquarelli Symonds University Ranking for Asia, up two positions from last year.

UM’s vice-chancellor Tan Sri Professor Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin said the new milestone achieved by the university this year is a result of better scores for the research output and impact indicators of the ranking measure.

“UM scored well for its efforts in promoting student exchange and mobility programmes which benefitted more than 2,000 students annually. Despite some fluctuations, the university’s drive for internationalization continued to deliver positive results on the ranking,” he said in a statement today.

He said the achievement did not come easy as several methodological changes were made by QS that included not only rescaling of weights assigned to ranking indicators, but also the introduction of a new criterion that measures the quality of training of academic staff in terms of percentage of staff with PhD qualification.

“Publications and citations were also weighted equally according to five areas of specialization, which were not taken into account in the ranking system before. These changes brought about a new playing field with considerable implications on the ranking results that may not be directly favourable if not systematically dealt with in future,” he said.

He said the reduced government funding have led the university to find new sources of funding and venture into income generating activities like internationalization efforts, push for high impact research and drive to increase the university’s global prominence.

He said the university’s focus on strengthening fundamentals has helped to cushion some of the immediate impact of these challenges, adding that the strong fundamentals built so far had helped the university to compete regionally and internationally.

“The multi-pronged strategies to intensify research and emphasis on publishing in high tiered journals has increased productivity in terms of both quantity and quality, as well as the impact of research output,” he said.

He said the university-industry linkages and collaborations with other regional and world renowned institutions have led to new synergies in teaching, research, commercialization and innovations.

“The university needs to ensure the continuity of the strategic efforts it has put in, and that they continue to produce better results within the new financial constraints that emerged,” he added.