Top 18 local universities last year named

Monday, July 12th, 2010 14:09:00
PUTRAJAYA: Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin this morning announced 18 "excellent" universities and private university colleges in the country, as outlined by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) six-tiered rankings for last year.

Of the 58 local participating institutions, 18 were ranked "Tier-5" or "Excellent".

Mohamed Khaled said among the top scorers were Universiti Malaya, Universiti Teknologi Mara, International Medical University and Taylor's University College.

A total of 25 universities and university colleges were ranked in Tier-4 (Very Good) and four university colleges received Tier-3 (Good) ranking.

None, however, were ranked Tier-6 (Outstanding), Tier-2 (Satisfactory) or Tier-1 (Weak).

Mohamed Khaled said results for the 2009's rating system of institutions of higher learning were based on 25 criteria, covering three generic dimensions which were the input, process and output of the universities.

"Compared with 2007's rankings, only 20 local universities were evaluated. For 2009, we have expanded the rankings to local and private universities."

Last year's exercise was carried out by an independent committee appointed by MQA. It was led by Prof Muhamad Jantan of Universiti Sains Malaysia.

"Through the rankings, we hope it could increase healthy competition in our higher education," said Mohamed Khaled.

The Tier-5 participants are...

1. Curtin University of Technology Sarawak
2. International Islamic University Malaysia
3. International Medical University
4. Management and Science University
5. Monash University Sunway Campus
6. Sunway University College
7. Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus
8. Taylor's University College
9. The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus
10. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
11. Universiti Kuala Lumpur
12. Universiti Malaya
13. Universiti Multimedia
14. Universiti Putra Malaysia
15. Universiti Sains Malaysia
16. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
17. Universiti Teknologi Mara
18. Universiti Teknologi Petronas