Aiming for world-class

A GOOGLE search on the phrase “world-class university” yielded 166,000 results. It is a term that is becoming very widely used in higher education.  

But what makes a university world-class?  

According to an Australian academic, the most common yardsticks used are staff and student performance.  

PROF FAHEY: Universities must strike the right balance between academic, strategic and financial considerations.

“It includes research output and impact, and students’ academic results, graduation rates, and employability, among others,’’ said Monash University deputy vice-chancellor (International) Prof Dr Stephanie Fahey. 

She is just one of the many international academics from the United States, Britain and Australia who will speak at the The Star-ACMS conference on Globalising Higher Education in Malaysia.  

The conference will be held on Aug 18 and 19 at Hotel Nikko, Kuala Lumpur, and is organised by The Star and the Asian Centre for Media Studies (ACMS). 

Prof Fahey will speak on Attaining and Maintaining World Class University Standards.  

Monash is often considered Australia's most internationalised university.  

It has eight campuses, including those in Malaysia and South Africa, as well as centres in London and Prato, Italy and more than 53,000 students from over 100 countries 

How can a university aspire to world-class status? According to Prof Fahey, universities must set priorities and focus on them.  

“You can’t be all things to all people – even the world’s leading universities are not the top in everything they do. More generally, we should strive to foster a culture of intellectual excitement, and a drive to achieve. 

“At the national level, the challenge is to ensure that education is driven by academic values, that there is a focus on maintaining and improving quality, and that commercial considerations do not compromise the academic mission.”  

On rankings, Prof Fahey opines that while useful, they should be approached critically as different criteria will yield differing results.  

“In this regard, individual measures, for example, citation indices can be more informative than the consolidated ranking. We should not be captive to rankings,” she said. 

Other panellists who will speak on the same topic are University of Sydney deputy vice-chancellor (International) Prof John Hearn and Universiti Malaya law faculty deputy dean Dr Azmi Sharom. 

The Star-ACMS conference will discuss Malaysia’s drive to globalise its institutions of higher learning and how the country could reach its goal to be a regional education hub. 

It will be opened by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak while Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed will deliver a special address on Public-private higher education institutions partnerships. 

Director of the East Asia Institute in Singapore and former vice-chancellor of Hong Kong University Prof Wang Gungwu will give the keynote address lecture entitled What makes a university today really good? 

Exhibition booths and green rooms will be available for institutions keen to explore networking and collaborative opportunities with other participating institutions. 

Hotel Nikko is the official hotel for the conference while Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd is the event’s official technology partner.  

The registration fee is RM800 per participant, but groups of four and more from the same organisation need only pay RM700 per participant. Those wishing to attend can download the registration form at http://www.globalmalaysian.com/special/star_acms_conference 

They can also call Star Publications (M) Bhd’s marketing services department at 03-7967 1388, ext 1168/1243/1335/ 1123. 

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