Malaysia’s ‘apex university’ has dropped 34 places to 335th spot in the QS world university rankings. Cambridge University tops the latest world ranking.

Universiti Malaya is the only Malaysian U in the top 200 coming in at 167th spot, up 40 places.

These rankings are by no means free of shortcomings but here’s the full ranking on the QS website all the same.

We are well behind other Asian universities. According to QS:

Hong Kong University repeats its 2010 performance by taking the top spot in Asia, moving up one place to 22nd and increasing the gap with University of Tokyo to three places. HKU is joined by fellow Hong Kong institutions CUHK and HKUST in the top 50, and with HKU, University of Tokyo and National University of Singapore cementing their places in the top 30, leading Asian institutions are now proving on a year-on-year basis that they operate at a comparable level to the world’s best.

Other Malaysian universities have also slid down the scale (previous year’s rankings in brackets), according to a report in The Star.

UM – 167 (207)
UKM – 279 (263)
USM – 335 (309)
UPM – 358 (319)
UTM – 401-450 (365).
IIUM – 451-500 (not ranked)
UTM – 601+ (not ranked)

 

The ‘apex university’ has done it again. An overflowing retention pond at USM has flooded neighbouring properties, causing considerable damage and knocking out power, after a heavy downpour that lasted only a couple of hours.

The flooded basement of an apartment complex near USM - Photo credit: The Star

Continue reading »

 

2330: Freed! The students have now been released. “The campus authorities probably realised that they would have as much difficulty in trying to justify the action against students for distributing leaflets as the cops did when they tried to detain under-age cyclists,” says one political observer.

2300: Three USM students were detained at 9.15pm while they were distributing leaflets in the campus. The three were bundled into a van apparently without any explanation and taken to the campus’ security department.

The leaflets provided an introduction to the “Pro-Mahasiswa” group and a bit of publicity about the group’s appointment to meet the USM Deputy Vice-Chancellor tomorrow.  The students are believed to be preparing for campus elections expected to be held soon and are seeking free and fair campus elections.

Bundling students into a van? Is this the way an “apex university” handles students’ affairs? Do they think they can rise up the THES global rankings this way?

Continue reading »