University ranking system crucial to attracting international students

Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mohd Foad Sakdan said there are countries or foreign universities which emphasise this when it comes to sending their students to continue their studies in universities in other countries.

"For example, if we look at the admission of international students, either from Indonesia, Iraq or other Middle East (countries), they look at the ranking of the universities before sending their students there.

"For example, Indonesia encourages its students to attend universities that are ranked in the top 500, meaning indirectly there is an implication. If the ranking is below the stipulated target, most likely their students will not attend that university," he told a media conference here today.

He was commenting on a newspaper report today which stated that universities should not be obsessed over QS World University Rankings because that approach is no longer relevant due to contradictions and non-transparency in the benchmarks used.

However, Mohd Foad said that, in the future, local universities may not need to rely too much on international rankings, especially the ones currently relied on, namely the QS World University Rankings andTimes Higher Education (THE) University Rankings.

He said this could be implemented if the existing university ranking systems in the country, namely the Malaysia Research Assessment (MyRA) and Rating System for Malaysian Higher Education (SETARA) could be strengthened and empowered.

Commenting on the announcement by Minister of Higher Education Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin on Wednesday (Nov 15) regarding tuition fee waiver for Palestinian students in public universities, Mohd Foad said he welcomed the call.

According to him, Palestinian students studying at UUM have received fee subsidies introduced in 2017, where they are charged the same fees as local students to help and encourage them to come to Malaysia, especially UUM.

"We also provide other incentives based on the latest developments and student needs. For example, we recently provided computers to the students, including those from Palestine," he said, adding that there are now 64 Palestinian students in UUM.

Meanwhile, Mohd Foad said a total of 5,738 local and international graduates will receive their scrolls at the 36th UUM Convocation at Dewan Mu'adzam Shah from Sunday (Nov 19) to Nov 23.