KUALA LUMPUR: The government will make it mandatory for all private institutions of higher learning (IPTS) to be rated.
Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching said that the ministry wouldl make it compulsory for IPTS to go through the Malaysian Quality Evaluation System for Private Colleges (MyQuest) and Rating System for Malaysian Education (SETARA) rating systems, which were set up last year.
She said that MyQuest was established to rate private colleges while Setara was made to measure the achievement of universities and university colleges.
“What we are looking into is to make it mandatory for all IPTS and IPTA (public institutions of higher learning) to participate in either SETARA or MyQUEST so that we can have a more comprehensive rating.
“It would make it easier for (prospective) students to make the best decision in choosing quality IPT (institutions of higher learning) to further their studies,” she said at the Dewan Rakyat today.
She was answering a supplementary question from Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali (PH-Bersatu-Bagan Serai) on how the government could measure the quality of newer IPTS, among others.
Teo noted that around 206 IPTS took part in MyQuest and 71 universities and university colleges took part in Setara since last year.
Earlier in reply to the main question from Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh (BN-Umno-Besut) over the global ranking of Malaysia’s IPT and how the achievement is measured, she said that the QS World University Rankings 2019 showed that Universiti Malaya’s ranking had risen from 114 to 87.
She pointed out that Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) rose from 230 to 184, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) rose from 229 to 202, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) from 264 to 207, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) from 228 to 253.