MMU President’s Response to SETARA ‘Excellent’ Ranking

Hot on the heels of MMU being named the top Malaysian private university in the recent SETARA ranking exercise, I received the following e-mail from MMU's Corporate Communications Unit (CCU) on Prof. Zaharin’s response (all emphases are my own):

Putrajaya, 12 July 2010 – The Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, yesterday announced eighteen top Malaysian universities. According to the rankings released to Bernama, topping the public universities was International Islamic University Malaysia. Leading the category for private institutions was Multimedia University. Professor Dr. Zaharin bin Yusoff, President of MMU, admitted his surprise at the news. “Like any university in Malaysia,” he said, “we’re just trying to do what is best for our students and our stakeholders.”

“Our strategies so far have included formulating the best academic programmes we could think of, and creating an environment to produce the most marketable graduates in the country. I am pleased that the people whose opinions we care for agree that we’re doing the right thing,” Prof. Zaharin said.

The ranking system categorized institutions into one of six tiers. “Tier-6” or Distinction, “Tier-5” (Excellent), “Tier-4” (Very Good), “Tier-3” (Good), “Tier-2” (Satisfactory), or “Tier-1” (Weak). MMU is in Tier-5, along with 17 other institutions. 25 universities are in Tier-4, and four in Tier-3. However, Prof. Zaharin is quick to stress that MMU must not allow this achievement to “get to our heads”, as other private universities in Malaysia are also extremely capable. He cautions, “If anything, this announcement will only spur others to try and knock us off the top.”

“We must pay attention to the fact that absolutely no university earned Tier-6, no one got Distinction. This means there is still room for improvement for everyone, MMU included,” Prof. Zaharin said. The ranking is formally known as the Rating System for Institutions of Higher Learning (Setara), and is outlined by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). 2009’s exercise was led by Prof. Muhammad Jantan of Universiti Sains Malaysia. The system assessed 25 criteria covering the input, process, and output of the universities. This is the first time the rankings covered both public and private universities.

Public universities in Tier-5 are International Islamic University Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Mara.

Private Tier-5 institutions are Multimedia University, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Sunway University College, Curtin University of Technology (Sarawak campus), Monash University (Sunway campus), Taylor's University College, International Medical University, Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak campus), Nottingham University (Malaysian campus) and Management and Science University.

I’m relieved that Prof. Zaharin’s response is a down-to-earth and realistic one. I was actually wincing when I first opened the e-mail (and my mouth itching to cynically form the words ‘jaguh kampung’, fearing that it will contain the usual blowing-our-own-trumpets, thumping-our-own-backs kinda of congratulatory spiel that we so often read in the local press. Thank goodness Prof. still kept his level head!