KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Malaya (UM) is shifting its focus to postgraduate studies by increasing the number of places for such courses and reducing the intake of undergraduates.
New vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Ghauth Jasmon said the move was in line with the university’s efforts to boost its rankings in the Times Higher Education Supplement in the next two years.
New vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Ghauth Jasmon said the move was in line with the university’s efforts to boost its rankings in the Times Higher Education Supplement in the next two years.
“We want more and better postgraduates, and to reduce the number of undergraduates so that we can improve the quality of research.”UM has slipped down the ladder since 2006, when it went from 169 in 2005 to 192 in 2006. It was in 245th spot last year but rose slightly to 230th this year.
Prof Ghauth, who was appointed on Nov 10, said: “I’m working to attract first-class honours graduates to come and do research and improve the quality of research. “We also want more people to be involved in research; this will be the key performance index for measuring their academic performance.” Prof Ghauth said that first-class graduates would be offered postgraduate scholarships immediately.
Prof Ghauth also said he was bringing experts into niche areas which he wanted UM to develop, such as in medicine, engineering, business and economics. On the decline in the quality of UM graduates compared to its heyday, he said it was a national problem. “People mainly attribute it to poor communication skills, but one method employed by UM to alleviate the problem is to teach more subjects in English as well as conduct course work and assignments in English,” he said.
According to him, the poor ability to interact affected the marketability of graduates. Prof Ghauth said this could be remedied with community work which was a good training ground for leadership and social skills. “For example, if they do community work, we must give them marks for these. If they do work for their kampungs, that must be recognised.” He said this could be done by widening the choices of co-curricular activities. He also called on the student affairs division to come up with ideas for student participation outside the classroom.
— Bernama (18 Dec 2008)
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