Stop chasing global benchmarks

MALAYSIA achieved the world’s highest improvement rate in the recent Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2026: 70% of our 32 institutions climbed global standings, with Universiti Malaya reaching 58th and Sunway University jumping 129 positions to 410th globally. Yet Malaysian families still spend RM6.1bil annually sending 75,000 students overseas – equivalent to our top five universities’ combined operating costs.

Malaysia’s best minds build foreign economies while outsourcing their children’s education – it’s a self-sabotaging cycle fuelled by rankings obsession. This “gilded cage” of global validation has backfired: local tuition now exceeds Australian/Canadian household affordability, burying our graduates under 1.33 years’ salary debt (outpacing Singapore’s 1.10 and Britain’s 1.18). We’ve surpassed the very systems we emulate in financial burden, yet still question our own excellence.