Malaysian public universities should not opt out of Times Higher Education University Rankings

University Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's decision to stay out of the Times Higher Education University rankings needs to be reviewed by the government, says DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang.

He stated that the lack of funds, which UM claims is not enough excuse to opt out from the world's most popular varsity ranking system.

"If both of these institutions feel that they are underfunded, what about the other public universities including Universiti Utara Malaysia which is listed as one of the participating institutions (in the THES) in Malaysia with only a budget of RM260 million?", Lim said in a statement.

He added that such participation could help students and parents track how much they have improved over the years with the a given amount of budgetary allocation.

Earlier, UM vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin cited that its publications and citations in the Web of Science database is not yet ready to make an impact.

THES ranks the world's top colleges, universities & institutions.