BETTER rankings should follow if fundamentals improve, says Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities president Datuk Parmjit Singh.
The next three years in higher education, he added, should focus more on strengthening the fundamentals that drive sustainable international competitiveness.
These include research quality and impact, teaching excellence, internationalisation, industry collaboration, innovation, graduate employability, and the ability to attract and retain academic talent.
He also emphasised the importance of Malaysia embracing the idea of a layered higher education system.
“Not every university needs to become a research-intensive global university. We need institutions with different strengths and missions, provided that each is excellent in what it is designed to do.
“The right approach is to pursue excellence first and rankings second,” he said, adding that the focus should be on building institutions that are genuinely excellent, internationally respected and relevant to the country’s needs.
Parmjit said rankings are useful because they provide an external benchmark and force institutions to compare themselves with leading universities internationally.
“They can also enhance Malaysia’s reputation as a higher education destination and help attract international students, talent and research partnerships,” he said.
He, however, said the Malaysia Higher Education Blueprint (RPTM) 2026–2035 target of achieving greater global prominence, including having more Malaysian universities enter the global top 200 and Asia’s top 50, is “quite ambitious”, although Malaysia has built a reasonably strong foundation.
“Climbing the rankings from a lower position is one thing, but it becomes progressively more difficult as institutions approach the upper tiers, where competition is extremely intense,” he said.
University of Southampton Malaysia chief strategy officer Prof Dr Ng Jo-Han said the RPTM 2026-2035 target of getting more local institutions into global university rankings needs greater focus on areas where Malaysia lacks in, mainly research citations, environment and impact.
“The new blueprint is smartly aligned with Malaysia’s strengths,” he said, pointing to its target of attracting 500,000 international students by 2035 and its graduate-employability focus.
However, he said the blueprint is placing greater emphasis on areas where Malaysia is already performing well.
“The actual constraint (research citations, environment and impact) needs a separate, better-funded intervention,” he said.
Overall, Prof Ng said Malaysia’s ranking climb is best understood as a signal rather than an end in itself.
It shows growing international recognition and trust, which carry real economic value in international student recruitment, transnational education, partnerships and talent attraction, he noted.
“Malaysia has built genuine strength in reputation, employability and international engagement, with the clearest opportunity ahead to improve research depth and impact,” he said.
“It is worth remembering that a rank is a proxy. It really does not capture how well universities teach, how effectively they widen access for B40 students, or how fully they serve national development.
“Pursuing rank in isolation could risk pulling focus from these broader responsibilities, so the healthiest approach treats ranking progress as one important indicator among several,” he added.
