UPM reveals secret to higher ranking

One of Malaysia's most accomplished universities has made an unprecedented leap in its global ranking. But how did they do it?

Last year, UPM's global ranking was 331. That number isn't bad. In fact, it is an accomplishment in itself. But this year's ranking shows that UPM has moved up the ranks to 270. That is 61 spot leap. Additionally, UPM made it higher to the 17th place globally for universities under 50 years old, moving up from 38th place last year.

What was it that UPM did to make such an astounding leap? Universiti Putra Malaysia revealed to NST how this was possible.

The university's vice-chancellor Professor Datin Paduka Dr Aini Ideris says that it didn’t happen overnight and that it takes years of dedicated hard work within the entire team.

The current position is the result of 6 years of backbreaking labour and continuous planning. Over the period, the university introduced many initiatives to turn UPM into an international name.

“The QS rankings help UPM to gauge its status as a university of international repute. The rankings [helped] us benchmark [ourselves] against the best universities in the world and to improve, particularly in the aspects of teaching and learning, research and innovation,” she said.

The validation that comes from the QS ranking is important because the criteria of other rankings are similar. If the university's QS ranking goes higher, the position of the university in other rankings will also move up.

But it wasn’t always like this. The attitude towards ranking wasn't always in UPM's sight. However, the university recognised the importance of ranking as it allows the university to compare its performance with their international peers and competitors. The QS ranking also allows the university to evaluate its research and contribution to the fields of study offered by the institution.

Dr. Aini said: "Through the ranking results, we know where we stand among other universities in the world in terms of citation impact, number of publications and internationalisation, for example."

She noted that not all types of ranking is suitable for the university. However, QS World University Ranking covers a broad range of performance indicators, rankings by location, rankings by field of education, and ranking by faculty. Their key indicators are comprehensive and are suitable for UPM's interests.

Based on the understanding of how QS rankings works, the university formed a group of corporate strategists to analyse the areas of strength and identify weaknesses and develop strategies to improve the university's position internationally. The university identified which areas need to be prioritised and take an immediate action to improve. They found that the following areas should be priorities: teaching and learning, research, and professional and community services. The investment into the improvement of the university seems to be distributed well.

The university then pushed for more research publications by the university's postgraduate students. With concerns that this might delay the graduation of students, the university prepared guidance and training to teach and help students plan their research papers and not interfere with their thesis. Additionally, the university had invested in research material, facilities, and qualified research advisors to aid the process.

Students' mobility and participation in the exchange programmes was also identified as an important aspect of improving the situation. As a result, UPM ensured that a selected ilk of their students take part in such programmes.

Another aspect UPM took a hard look at and improved is the commercialisation of research produced in the university. For instance, research in agriculture, medicine, veterinary sciences, biotechnology and other areas have significantly contributed to Malaysia's economy.

The university has accelerated its innovation initiatives through allowing the market to validate the value of products that were produced due to research efforts in UPM.

UPM has to maintain its current status and climb higher up the rankings. Dr. Aini hopes to instil the sense of ownership and sincerity in the academic staff, administrative staff, and students because the sense of belonging and ownership pushes people to excel and aim for better quality in their work.