AFTER achieving the remarkable three-stars in the QS Star rating, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) has set its focus on producing more research journals related to current issues and social science.
The achievement is even more meaningful after it caught the attention of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who congratulated UniMAP while urging other local universities to emulate the achievement.
Vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Kamarudin Hussin says the move is imperative to meet the needs of readers and researchers at large, who in turn, can help to increase the citation of journals produced by UniMAP lecturers and academicians. In the effort to enhance the quality of its journals, Kamarudin says the university will also emphasise on increasing journal production.
“Starting this year, all of our 943 lecturers and academicians are required to come out with at least seven journals by 2017.
“They are advised to produce high-impact journals which suit the needs and interests of the majority of readers and research groups. By doing so, the journals can be widely used as reference by others, locally and internationally,” he said recently.
Kamarudin adds that besides aiming at contributing to society and the nation, he is also aiming to boost UniMAP’s star rating by the QS Intelligence Unit.
Saying that UniMAP, which was only established seven years ago after the upgrading of Kolej Universiti Kejuruteraan Utara Malaysia (Kukum), Kamarudin says he is proud that the young technology university has managed be the first public university in Malaysia to receive such rating.
“We are putting in enormous efforts to overcome what we lack, in quantity and quality of our journals, to achieve the goal of getting a 5-star rating during the next evaluation in 2017.”
Apart from the rating, he says UniMAP is also going all out to boost its performance in employability, research, internationalisation, facilities and accreditation, to place the university in the top 500 based on the QS World University Rankings and QS Asian University Rankings.