Why are our varsities so pathetic?

Kit Siang demands an explanation for Malaysia's poor performance in the Times ranking.

PETALING JAYA: DAP National Adviser Lim Kit Siang today demanded that Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin explain the failure of Malaysian universities to make it to the top 200 in the Times Higher Education (THE) global ranking.

In a press statement mocking Muhyiddin for once saying that Malaysia had “one of the world’s best education systems,” Lim said he should state why, during his entire tenure as Education Minister, he had failed in “all efforts” to restore the high international standing in “unversity repute and excellence” that Malaysia enjoyed in the 1950s and 1960s.

He suggested that Muhyiddin make a ministerial statement at the resumption of Parliament next Tuesday.

Lim noted that Singapore’s National University, which shared the same beginnings with Universiti Malaya, had “leapt” into the top 25 in the THE list.

He recalled that during Universiti Malaya’s centennial celebrations in 2005, the then Education Minister, Najib Razak, challenged the university to rise from its 89th position in THE’s 2004 list to Number 50 by the year 2020.

“Let Muhyiddin explain in his ministerial statement next week how he proposes in the next five years to meet Najib’s challenge,” he said.

“Malaysia is not only facing a serious and deteriorating higher education crisis, but a grave crisis in the entire education system, as witnessed by recent international assessments which place Malaysian students in the bottom third of international educational benchmarks and attainments.”