YOURSAY ‘For as long as Malaysia's education system is based on race and not on merits, there is absolutely zero hope of us being amongst the best.'

UM's world ranking has risen in past five years, says VC

Pemerhati: When a company is badly run, its stock price will plunge and take a breather and then the price will rise slightly. It is called a dead cat bounce.

What is happening in the case of the Universiti Malaya (UM) looks very much like a dead cat bounce. If UM is serious about improving its rankings , it will have to revert to the meritocratic practices of the 1960s when the staff and students were recruited and admitted entirely on merit.

We will get the first early indication that the authorities are serious about improving the standards in the universities when they announce that in future, all admissions into universities for Malaysians will be based on a single-entrance examination.

The statements made by UM vice-chancellor (VC) Ghauth Jasmon are just a public relations exercise to explain the poor ranking of UM. He is probably too ashamed to give the real reason for UM's dramatic fall in the rankings, which is that the recruitment and admissions in UM are mainly based on race and religion.

Quigonbond: The VC said UM has been doing some things to improve. Fair enough. But he ought to just say that there's obviously more to be done and they are not resting on their laurels rather than to try to justify why there's rise and fall.

A drop by more than 10 points is no joke. It should bring into question whether what they are doing is right. Blaming it on a change of focus on subject is just a convenient excuse.

Why then is National University of Singapore (NUS) the best in Asia? Why couldn't it be UM? It's not like NUS suddenly changed their focus to match the rating requirement. They must have been good for a host of structural reasons.

At the end, the VC does not dare to venture too far to explore the real reasons because it boils down to political interference in our education system, and the (lack of) quality of the education minister that we have.

Abasir: I'm sure Ghauth is trying to address the problems created and or concealed by his distinguished predecessors. But while appointing Nobel laureates and 'academic icons' to provide thought leadership and research direction is clearly an effort, the fundamentals are simply not there.

The university has been imbued with an overwhelming culture of mediocrity for 40-odd years - a culture that is not easy to eradicate; the bulk of students who populate the campus are not exactly scholarly in attitudes or thought processes; most of the highly political academic staff have shown little interest in actual teaching, distracted as they are by more alluring pursuits outside lecture theatres and seminar rooms.

It is a vicious cycle of negative reinforcement with a less than stellar faculty attempting to educate those who are barely coping and which in turn demoralises the few who genuinely want to excel. Time may help overcome the interconnected problems, but who knows?

Asitis: So basically the UM VC is saying it is not our fault. The fault lies with all these other people. Therefore there is nothing that we need to do to improve. We are already excellent as it is.

And you say that no university can continue to rise. With this Umno-BN attitude of yours, of course your university will not continue to rise. You simply do not see any need to improve.

You say that your ranking over the last five years has in fact risen. But this is not the case if you look at the table provided . You are in fact stagnating.

And with your complacent attitude of always finding this and that excuses to explain away your flaws when they are pointed out to you, is it any wonder? One who cannot acknowledge one's own failure will never succeed.

JG: Typical response. Denial, denial, denial! With this kind of attitude, UM will be forever left behind because instead of trying to rectify the problem, the VC seems happy with the current situation. So how to improve like that?

Wiser: UM is getting better? It may be from the bottom up. Even then, it will not get into the top 100, ever. Why? For as long as a university intake does not practice meritocracy, it will not have any hope of getting to be the best.

For as long as Malaysia's education system is based on race and not on merit, there is absolutely zero hope of us being amongst the best.

Those who still believe that the country is helping the Malays by promoting them without the need to compete with non-Malays is doing great harm to their race.

It's time to face reality after 50 years of make-belief and self praises.

Onyourtoes: I agree that year-to-year movement is quite meaningless. Efforts should focus on medium and long-term improvement.

UM has shown improvement, but I wish the rate was little faster, afterall, we are not exactly a poor country lacking in resources. Anyway, the Quacquarelli Symonds rankings are just overall indicators.

They probably can't explain why Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States is first while Oxford is sixth. Similarly, are they saying universities in France, Germany, Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland are all lesser than those in UK and US?

Cantabrigian: Dear VC of UM, I know that you have worked hard to make UM a world-class university (to be at least in the top 100), but there is only so much that could be done when the Education Ministry itself is not supportive in improving the quality of university lecturers, facilities and students. Keep up the good work.

No Eye To See: The only hope is for Singapore to appoint the education minister and VC like ours, so that we have a chance to have their universities at a standard on par with ours.

Ex-Wfw: I met a Malay friend after umpteen years. Both our daughters were in the same school and both were chosen as Asean scholars after Standard 6.

Since I didn't have any ‘saudara' (relatives) in Singapore, I decided against sending her there. Whereas my friend allowed his daughter to go there. Of course, she graduated and decided to stay put in that little dot.

Now she can afford to treat her parents to holidays. She told her mother who was against her going to Singapore that had she (daughter) stayed back, she won't be able to put the parents in five-stars hotels.

Though my daughter did not study there, but after LSE (London School of Economics), she decided to work there. She had the audacity to ask her mother if the father had ever earned RM625,000 before his 30th birthday!

That is progress for a society which believes in meritocracy and does not tolerate corruption.

RKR: Malaysiakini commenters should not criticise for the sake of it. I happen to know Tan Sri Ghauth personally. He is a very hardworking VC unlike many others who play second fiddle to Umno and perpetuate racism in this country.

If not for him, the ranking would have been even worse. So please be fair to him.

Oriole: VC Ghauth, please go ahead and assure the nation that UM does not practise preferential treatment in its intake, promotion, awarding of grants and scholarships and awarding of contracts.

Can you assure us that there is good diversity in recruitment and promotion of Malaysian staff and academics in the university? Does the so-called ‘premier' university in the nation have the guts to put a stop such regressive discriminatory practices?

Fair Play: This VC said that no university can continue to rise. I disagree with him. Only one university cannot continue to rise, that is, the one that holds the number one position.

Every other university can continue to rise until it reaches the number one spot. However, UM is light years away from the top.

Geronimo: If any of our universities yo-yoed somewhere within the top 10, I guess it is acceptable. But when you yo-yoed between 100 to 200, there is nothing to shout about.

If we cannot be in the top 10, at least in the top 20? Top 30? Top 40? Top 50? Perhaps you want the world university ranking body to provide special bumiputera treatment?

My dear Ghauth, welcome to the real world of meritocracy.

A race to the bottom for our universities

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