Stop defending ‘world class’ claim, DAP tells education minister

Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh’s claim that Malaysian education is world class has invited ridicule considering that not a single institution of higher education made it to the list of top 200 universities in the widely used rankings. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 25, 2015.Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh should stop defending his “Malaysian education is world class” claim by continuing to refer to ranking statistics that has been challenged, DAP said today.

The party's publicity chief Tony Pua said that apart from being ranked by British firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Malaysia was not listed anywhere near the top 200 in all other widely cited world university rankings.

Pua added that even after being ridiculed by the public over his world-class claim, Idris, who is education minister II, continued to cite the various overall and subject rankings produced by QS which has been widely criticised for its lack of consistency in methodology.

Pua urged Idris to stop his liberal interpretation of “world class” and instead be more honest about the actual standard of education in Malaysia.

The minister had said that Universiti Malaya (UM) was in 151st position (up from 167) in the list of 400 top institutions in the world in the 2014 QS World Ranking of prestigious universities.

He also said that Malaysia's higher education was deemed world class based on achievement in subjects, where 11 institutions of higher learning were among the top 100 universities in the world.

Idris had said that based on QS ranking by subject, Universiti Sains Malaysia was at No. 28 in the world for environmental science while Universiti Putra Malaysia is ranked 54th in the world for agricultural science, based on the Best Global Universities Rankings.

But Pua said there was nothing “world class” about UM being ranked 151 in the world, adding that none of the other 19 local public universities, 36 private universities and 30 university colleges ranked in the top 250 in the world.

"Even if Malaysia chooses to define the 151st ranking as being ‘world class’, one swallow certainly does not make a summer.

"And while all ranking methodologies are imperfect, why did Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh choose to cite only the QS rankings out of several reputable global university rankings tables out there?”

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said in 2009,  Times Higher Education (THE), the leading publication on higher education in the United Kingdom, which had partnered with QS to come up with the university ranking since 2004, ended the partnership after rejecting the latter’s methodology.

Pua added that all other widely cited  university rankings tables in the world do not rank any Malaysian institution of higher learning anywhere near the top 200.

For instance, no Malaysian university made it into the top 400 list institutions of the THE World University Rankings for 2014 while the Academic Ranking of World Universities produced by Shanghai JiaoTung University placed UM in the 301-400 bracket in 2014.

For the US News “Best Global Universities” listing, UM again was the only Malaysian institution that made it into the top 500 at number 423.

And in the Ranking Web of Universities compiled by Webometrics, UPM was best ranked at 420, followed by Universiti Sains Malaysia (480), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (552) and UM (646). While qualifying that no ranking system was perfect, Pua, however, said that they provided an indication of comparative quality for universities in the world.

"The question to ask is, why is the Education Ministry only selectively interested in the QS rankings, and has failed to cite any of the other studies?

"Is it because all of the other studies rank Malaysian universities badly?"

He added that while Malaysia was not in the grouping with many Third World countries, the country's universities could not be deemed world class without attracting sniggers from the academic world and the public. – February 25, 2015.