Let me elaborate my experience with MU or Malaya U. In the early 80s, I studied mechanical engineering in a Polytechnic in London. Later, I went on to study Law in a university in Wales. In the early 1990s, when I was back in Malaysia, I visited MU during an open day there. Out of curiosity, I checked out their engineering stand and talked to the students manning the booth there. I was shocked to discover that they had no training or access to CAD/CAM programs and worse still, no access to computers. They told me that they had to group together to buy a personal computer to be shared amongst the group and buy pirated CAD/CAM programs to learn on their own. 10 years previously, in a polytechnic (not a University mind you) in London, I was already proficient with CAD/CAM programs, with access to dumb terminals connected to a mini computer, where we learned to write programs in machine code and Fortran.

Surprisingly enough, a few months later, still in the 1990s, during a radio interview with the secretary of the Institute of Engineers Malaysia, I managed to get through and asked him why was it that our so called premier university, Malaya U, were so backward that they could not provide or train their engineering students in CAD/CAM programs, when 10 years earlier, I was already being trained to do so in London. That stupid secretary's reply was that MU was training their students for local Malaysian conditions and standard, which were not as advanced or required to be as advanced as Western countries!

When I informed an uncle of mine who was a London graduate from the 1960s and had had his own civil engineering firm in KL since the 1970s, he was shocked and said what absolute rubbish! All the main engineering firms during the 1990s already had computers running CAD programs and were hiring engineers who knew how to use them in order to stay on top! Our Malaysian engineering firms are quite capable and can compete on the international stage, given the opportunity. My uncle was absolutely pissed off and had a word with the secretary. Considering he was one of the senior civil engineers in the country, who had designed some of the iconic landmarks in KL, I think the secretary lived to regret his reply.

In the late 1990s, I applied to do a law PHD at Malaya U on a part time basis. Two things surprised me. Firstly, there were only 2 PHD students. Me and another student, who happened to be a law lecturer at MU. She went on to head the law department after obtaining her PHD at MU. Secondly, during my interview and subsequent time at MU, everybody, from the Deputy Dean of the Law Department who interviewed me, the librarian, my PHD supervisor and a few others, asked me why I didn't do my PHD at an overseas university. They said that overseas universities had better lecturers, research facilities and prestige, compared to MU. That was what they told me. 

In other words, they were running down MU even though they were worked there.  Shows you the confidence that they had in MU.  They were so surprised that I wanted to take my PHD at MU. I told them that I had a legal practice to take care and I couldn't spend 3 years overseas to do a PHD which I only wanted to do for interest.

So, you can see, my bias against MU. Things may have changed a lot at MU since the 1990s. Or it may have not. All I know is that MU during the 1990s were not as up todate as my poly in London, 10 years earlier in the 1980s. Further, their own staff considered their own qualifications, well at least at PHD level, to be inferior to those of overseas universities. Well considering, the consistent drop in ranking of MU in QS world rankings, I am not surprised!

U r lucky in the sense that u have the chance to compare between local U and foreign U/polytech.
Many ppl like me from poor family, going to the local U is the only way out.

It is not fair to compared the university of a developed country and a developing country. I am not happy with the student recruitment methodology in local public universities, there is no standard exam for student recruitment, some students take Matriculataion/ some take STPM.

But I think UM is improving, just that the speed of improving might not fast enough. Believe it or not, in terms of ranking in US, UM is better than 2/3 of Universities in UK/ Australia.

This year UM is going to have around 400+ Phd candidates (from various faculties) graduated on coming Monday, i.e. 30/9/2013. Compared to your time back in 1990s, only 2 students studying Phd program, it is considered a huge improvement.

You have to compare the universities because you have to rank them with the best in order to improve, not to go backwards.  Look at NUS, it was a branch of the University of Malaya in Singapore and look where it is now?  24 in QS World Rankings and the top University in Asia.

Do you know, when I was in school during the 1970s, my parents managed to get me a MU student to come and tutor me in Maths.  All my friends were envious because he was a MU student.  Up to the 1970s, MU students were the creme de la creme of students in Malaysia and Singapore!  Not just Malaysia.  They were the elite.  We used to look at them in awe?

However, due to the education quotas for Bumiputras, the dumbing down of the syllabus and the tertiary education system in general, in order to make it easier for Malays to qualify for local public universities, it all went downhill from the 1980s onwards.  Nowadays, we look down at MU graduates because they can't seem to string an English sentence together without killing it.  As for MU graduates, well, those that I've met always seem to tell me that overseas degrees are far better than theirs.  They seem to be good only for being hard working and diligent employees if they are non-Malays and nothing much else if they are Malays, and I've employed both.  Hell, kindergarten students during my time had better English than MU graduates!  I am angry because of all the wasted talents and opportunities!

How many people here know that when the medical course at Malaya University was first started in early 1970s, it was designed to be on par with those of UK universities. In fact, it was actually recognised by the British Medical Council ("BMC") so that it had equivalent status with British Universities medical degrees!  However, due to the dumbing down of Malaysian degrees by the government over the years, in 1989, it was de-recognised by the BMC.

Being typical Malaysian, the Malay dean of the medical faculty claimed that it was de-recognised because the course was being thought in Malay. An ex-MU medical student who wrote to the New Straits Times pointedly told the Dean that if that was the case, why did the BMC continue to recognise medical degrees from European and Japanese universities, which certainly weren't in English!

I understand from friends and relatives who qualified as doctors from local universities that they try to sit for the UK Royal College of Physicians professional exams in order to obtain professional qualifications which are internationally recognised, in case they want to join the Malaysian Brain Drain. Shows you the quality of our local medical graduates, now that medical colleges and degrees seem to be mushrooming like mad!

I have a cousin who graduated from UNIMAS 2nd batch of medical students.  I understand that up to now, that there seems to be problems with recognition from the MMA.  She was the one who told me that almost everybody in her year, including herself, were trying to pass the UK Royal College of Physicians exams.

I need to agree with you.
conclusion:quota system is the main problem here.
Merit system is the way to go if we want to improve I ranking.

Let me elaborate my experience with MU or Malaya U. In the early 80s, I studied mechanical engineering in a Polytechnic in London. Later, I went on to study Law in a university in Wales. In the early 1990s, when I was back in Malaysia, I visited MU during an open day there. Out of curiosity, I checked out their engineering stand and talked to the students manning the booth there. I was shocked to discover that they had no training or access to CAD/CAM programs and worse still, no access to computers. They told me that they had to group together to buy a personal computer to be shared amongst the group and buy pirated CAD/CAM programs to learn on their own. 10 years previously, in a polytechnic (not a University mind you) in London, I was already proficient with CAD/CAM programs, with access to dumb terminals connected to a mini computer, where we learned to write programs in machine code and Fortran.

Surprisingly enough, a few months later, still in the 1990s, during a radio interview with the secretary of the Institute of Engineers Malaysia, I managed to get through and asked him why was it that our so called premier university, Malaya U, were so backward that they could not provide or train their engineering students in CAD/CAM programs, when 10 years earlier, I was already being trained to do so in London. That stupid secretary's reply was that MU was training their students for local Malaysian conditions and standard, which were not as advanced or required to be as advanced as Western countries!

When I informed an uncle of mine who was a London graduate from the 1960s and had had his own civil engineering firm in KL since the 1970s, he was shocked and said what absolute rubbish! All the main engineering firms during the 1990s already had computers running CAD programs and were hiring engineers who knew how to use them in order to stay on top! Our Malaysian engineering firms are quite capable and can compete on the international stage, given the opportunity. My uncle was absolutely pissed off and had a word with the secretary. Considering he was one of the senior civil engineers in the country, who had designed some of the iconic landmarks in KL, I think the secretary lived to regret his reply.

In the late 1990s, I applied to do a law PHD at Malaya U on a part time basis. Two things surprised me. Firstly, there were only 2 PHD students. Me and another student, who happened to be a law lecturer at MU. She went on to head the law department after obtaining her PHD at MU. Secondly, during my interview and subsequent time at MU, everybody, from the Deputy Dean of the Law Department who interviewed me, the librarian, my PHD supervisor and a few others, asked me why I didn't do my PHD at an overseas university. They said that overseas universities had better lecturers, research facilities and prestige, compared to MU. That was what they told me. 

In other words, they were running down MU even though they were worked there.  Shows you the confidence that they had in MU.  They were so surprised that I wanted to take my PHD at MU. I told them that I had a legal practice to take care and I couldn't spend 3 years overseas to do a PHD which I only wanted to do for interest.

So, you can see, my bias against MU. Things may have changed a lot at MU since the 1990s. Or it may have not. All I know is that MU during the 1990s were not as up todate as my poly in London, 10 years earlier in the 1980s. Further, their own staff considered their own qualifications, well at least at PHD level, to be inferior to those of overseas universities. Well considering, the consistent drop in ranking of MU in QS world rankings, I am not surprised!

I need to agree with you.
conclusion:quota system is the main problem here.
Merit system is the way to go if we want to improve I ranking.

ummm... assuming we're still talking about PhDs (or postgraduates in general), there should be no quotas. this have been outlined in a circular by MoHE around 2004 i think. that's why there are non-bumis doing postgrads in UiTM.

ummm... assuming we're still talking about PhDs (or postgraduates in general), there should be no quotas. this have been outlined in a circular by MoHE around 2004 i think. that's why there are non-bumis doing postgrads in UiTM.

You are right, the quota system was actually lifted almost 10 years ago now.  Theoretically, there are no education quotas any more.  However, our universities seem to keep slipping in international education rankings.

It takes years to build something of worth and quality but only a day to destroy it.   

Yes, I've raised the point before and I will probably keep raising it to keep the debate on our education system.  The reason that I do so is because I am passionate about our Malaysian education system.  Something that was inculcate in me by my mother.  She was one of the last batches of teachers trained by the British and taught for some almost 40 years in some of the top schools in PJ and KL.

She and her colleagues, saw the deterioration of the primary and secondary education system, from meritocracy and quality, to mediocrity and quantity.  Finally, in the late 1990s, she and many of her colleagues, took early retirement because they said that they were spending more time filling in forms and dealing with administrative matters, than actually teaching, which was their reason for being teachers in the first place.

It wasn't helped that the new generation of teachers and headmasters seem more keen to toe whatever government line was going around, rather than to ensure that children were being taught and taught properly, regardless of race, religion or creed.

This year UM is going to have around 400+ Phd candidates (from various faculties) graduated on coming Monday, i.e. 30/9/2013. Compared to your time back in 1990s, only 2 students studying Phd program, it is considered a huge improvement.

wait till your mother sees PBS. she'll scream bloody murder.

i'm looking into the new non-exam based assessment system currently in place in schools. they amount of loading they put on the shoulders of teachers is a nightmare. no teachers, old or new, would ever wanna be in this situation right now. and all i can say is "good luck, dear children."

and i havent even begun to look at tertiary education.

You have to compare the universities because you have to rank them with the best in order to improve, not to go backwards.  Look at NUS, it was a branch of the University of Malaya in Singapore and look where it is now?  24 in QS World Rankings and the top University in Asia.

Wasn't it the other way around? The main campus of UM was in Singapore, and KL was the branch.

I'm just making a small correction. Not saying that NUS have not done a great job. They have.

It was 2 phd students in the Law dept. Not the entire university. There were probably more than 2 phd students in the entire university back then. The total number of phd students probably HAVE increase, but it's not as drastic as that (from 2 to 400+).

I know the numbers, just did an extreme comparison, number of PhD students have been increased tremendously.
UM's policy now is to cut down their undergrad intakes and increase the postgraduates intake.

For example for Faculty of Business and Accountancy, they have around 500 undergrads at peak, now they reduced to 100 BBA and 60 Accounting students only, the rest of the seats goes to their MBA/ Master of Management/ MSc or PhD students, in line with the KPT's aims to classifying it as a Research University.

Are they planning to benchmark it against Research Universities in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma or Bangladesh?  Or are they planning to benchmark against Research Universities in Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, China or Japan?

For your information, up to the 1970s and early 1980s, UM was at par or superior to universities in Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong or Japan.

Yes, at 1990s, UM was one of the top 100 in QS ranking,
In early 2000s it was dropped out of world top 200 in the same QS ranking.
After 2010s, it is in between 150-200.

Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): When Asiaweek recently ranked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as Asia’s second most powerful individual after the Chinese head of state, Jian Zemin, it was given front-page treatment in the local media.

In the Asiaweek’s second annual ranking of the 50 men and women who wield the most clout in the region, Suharto slides to the No. 3 spot from the No. 1 ranking in 1996.

In a press briefing on the May 30 edition of Asiaweek which carried the ranking, Asiaweek assistant managing editor Ricardo Saludo said Mahathir, who was ranked No. 4 last year, was now "arguably the most prominent spokesman for Asia and the developing world."

He also said: "At the same time, Dr. Mahathir’s vision continues to guide Malaysia, now towards a high-tech future."

This is the commentary of Asiaweek when promoting Mahathir from the fourth to the second position:

    "POWER SHIFT Dr. M is stronger than ever -- in part by putting loyalists in key posts of his dominant UMNO party. Despite stiff criticism, he pushed through initiatives to admit Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia to ASEAN. His Multimedia Super Corridor grabbed the attention of Hollywood and Silicon Valley moguls. Recently made his No. 2 Anwar Ibrahim acting PM and party chief while he takes two months' holiday. Now that's power."

Asiaweek admits that its choice of Mahathir as the second most powerful individual in Asia is "perhaps our most controversial choice", justifying it with the following argument:

    "To be sure, Dr. M. remains autocratic and prickly, and he runs a relatively small country. And yet he is a regional giant, a key mover in ASEAN, a hobnobber of global proportions. What other leader could pillory the West on one day and on the next rub shoulders with the most powerful men in Hollywood and Silicon Valley? In recent weeks rumors have flown that Mahathir plans to step down before long. And that is the true measure of a great leader, one who can hang on to power and relinquish it, too."

While the local media gave front-page treatment to Asiaweek’s ranking of the 50 individuals who wields the most clout in the region, the local media have completely ignored another Asiaweek survey reported a week earlier - a ranking of the 50 best universities in the region.

The reason can only be that Malaysian universities did not shine in the survey and there was nothing to boast about. In fact, Malaysians should feel ashamed of the poor ranking of Malaysian universities in the Asiaweek survey of the 50 best universities in the region.

There was not a single Malaysian university which could get into the top 10 best universities in the region, which comprised two universities from Japan, three from Hong Kong, two from Australia, one each from Singapore, China and Taiwan.

The top 10 best universities in Asiaweek’s ranking are:

    1. University of Tokyo
    2. Kyoto University
    3. University of Hong Kong
    4. National University of Singapore
    5. Chinese University of Hong Kong
    6. University of New South Wales
    7. Peking University
    8. National Taiwan University
    9. University of Melbourne
    10. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

University of Malaya was ranked No. 11 of the top 50 best universities in the region, while two other Malaysian universities which made into the list were University Kebangsaan Malaysia, which was ranked No. 20 and University Sains Malaysia, which was ranked No. 49.

Asiaweek’s ranking of the 50 best universities in the region is based on five criteria with different weightings, namely academic reputation 30%; faculty resources 25%; student selectivity 20%; financial resources 15% and value for money 10%.

The reason for USM’s poor ranking of being placed in No. 49th place could be that it did not submit adequate data or declined to participate in the survey.

However, what is very significant is that in the survey for the purpose of determining academic reputation, each university was asked to rate its peers on a scale of 1 to 5. In this specific survey on academic reputation, University of Malaya and UKM’s ranking fell lower to No. 24 and 37 respectively; while USM’s ranking was placed at No. 32.

All in all, Asiaweek’s ranking of Asia’s best universities show that Malaysian universities have still a long way to go to be universally recognised as of world-class quality and standards - without which Malaysia cannot claim to be an international centre for educational excellence.

The Education Ministry and all the university authorities should hold an urgent conference to consider how they could make a quantum leap to improve the academic quality, standards and reputation of university education in Malaysia, and ensure that Malaysian universities can be acknowledged as belonging to the top 10 best universities in the region as well as belonging to the top five per cent of the world’s institutions in terms of scientific research and information technology.  (28/5/97)

http://www.limkitsiang.com/archive/1997/May97/sg430.htm
It was in 1997, in Asiaweek and it was even then showing its slide to mediocrity.  Read Lim Kit Siang's statement: