Focus on students, not research

KUALA LUMPUR: In pursuit of higher international rankings, Universiti Malaya seems to have left undergraduates feeling neglected.

While most of them agreed in principle with their vice-chancellor, Tan Sri Prof Dr Ghauth Jasmon, that the university needs to improve significantly, they sported a different view of the vice-chancellor's statements about its international rankings and also his quip that the university was "never good".

The students want the university to measure success through the "quality of students" and "quantity of achievers", not its research papers and international rankings.

"We believe the university should be measured by its personnel quality – the kind of students produced and not on research alone. We are aware research is vital in international rankings, but undergraduates shouldn't be neglected in their pursuit for rankings," a law faculty student told The Malay Mail.

According to the students, the university had focused much on research of late, so and more seats were being allocated for postgraduates rather than undergraduates.

It is also understood the university's lecturers would only have their contracts renewed if they produced a number of research papers annually.

"The thing is, not all good researchers make good lecturers, and vice versa," said another linguistics student.

"Since lecturers are asked to do more research, they do not have enough time to communicate with students, hence the concentration is not on nurturing undergraduates."

The students believed the university did have its glory days, which is what contributed to them feeling excited when they were awarded seats to study at the university.

"UM did have its glory days. For example, it is UM that did the research that helped shred mysteries about the Japanese encephalitis virus," another student said. But now, they said, the students felt the university was "just like any university out there".