PUTRAJAYA: Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik has given his assurances that universities would not be abused by anyone, including himself, for political mileage.
“This is a new era. I will make sure that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government will never misuse universities for political interests... this includes me.
“We will neither control and dictate to them (the universities) nor force them (to do anything). We really want the universities to enjoy their autonomy and cultivate academic freedom in their territory,” he said.
Maszlee reiterated his stand that he wanted to make universities into an open intellectual arena, allowing them to conduct forum and discourse as how they did at the Oxford University and the Cambridge University.
On Universiti Malaya’s achievement of securing a Top 100 position in the World University Rankings, Maszlee said UM had been showing consistent performance with seven of its subjects had been ranked in the Top 50 QR Ranking by Subject 2018, early of this year.
The oldest university in Malaysia is now ranked 87th in the world, from 114th last year.
Maszlee said UM’s success had proven that universities in Malaysia had strong reputations at the international level and his ministry would continue supporting and helping local researchers to secure cooperations with international researchers.
“We want universities in Malaysia not only known for their rankings, but through citations and academic publication in various fields,” he said.
It was reported that the fifteenth edition of the QS World University Rankings, released by global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds, sees all Malaysian universities rise in the ranks, except one which remained in the same spot.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (184th) joins the world’s Top 200, an achievement only narrowly missed out on by Universiti Putra Malaysia (202th).
Two other universities which rose in the ranks were Universiti Sains Malaysia which made it to 207th position from 264th, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, which jumped to 228th from 253rd in the world.
Additional reporting by;Meor Ahmad Nasriin Rizal