Published: Friday May 10, 2013 MYT 11:02:00 PM

Malaysian higher education sector rating moves up 9 rungs in U21 report

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's higher education sector moved up nine rungs in a Universitas 21 (U21) report, and is now ranked 27th from a field of 50 countries, with an overall score of 52.4%.

Malaysia was ranked 36th out of 48 countries surveyed, with an overall score of 50.5%, last year.

U21 made its study based on the elements of resources, environment, connectivity and output said the Higher Education Ministry in a statement here Friday.

The Ministry felt the U21 ranking was commendable as it showed the Government was committed in the development of the higher education sector.

Malaysia is also listed as the second best in Southeast Asia after Singapore, which placed ninth with an overall score of 76.6%.

For the resource criteria, which looks at expenditure in the sector, Malaysia obtained a score of 70.9% which was better than Australia, Korea, Japan, England and Germany.

In the environment element, Malaysia scored 87.2%, surpassing countries like China, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Korea, Switzerland and Chile while the output of research and commercialisation saw Malaysia getting a score of 19.2%.

Malaysia also recorded 40.4% in connectivity and international relations, which depended on the number of foreign students in local institutions of higher learning and production of journals, in the cooperation with international scholars.

U21 is a network of the world's leading universities with an emphasis on research, and is based on research by the Institute of Social and Applied Economics Studies of the Melbourne University, Australia. - Bernama

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