PULAU PINANG – The USM Vice Chancellor Prof. Dato’ Dzulkifli bin Abdul Razak expressed his sincere appreciations to the USM campus citizenry who had strove assiduously to ensure that USM attained a five star rating that enabled the university to top the rankings in the recently concluded Academic Reputation survey conducted by the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) initiated in 2005.
News reports quoted the Minister of Higher Education, Dato’ Mustapa Mohamed, as saying that the selection of USM as the best university amongst the 17 local IPTAs was made on the basis of the university’s excellent achievements in the academic arena and its contribution to the advancement of research in the country. He further added that these factors had enabled USM to be the sole university to be accorded five star status and be categorized in the excellent category and consequently be ranked as the most reputable IPTA in Malaysia.
``USM’s achievement is subsequent to its success in topping the Likert scale in 4 of the 10 aspects surveyed in the study.USM also led the other universities in attaining the most excellent academic staff reputation ratings with the International Islamic University (UIAM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) performing creditably,’’ he said.
He disclosed this in a press conference after attending the launching ceremony of MQA,previously known as the National Accreditation Board (LAN), in Putrajaya yesterday.
Dato’ Mustapa further remarked that USM was the preferred tertiary institution of many students who cited Universiti Malaya (UM) as their second choice.
Prof. Datuk Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, in commenting on the achievement, attributed USM’s latest success to the impact of a variety factors including the recent announcement listing the institution as one of the four research universities in the country. More importantly, the success was the culmination of the support, commitment and dedication of the campus citizenry who collectively aspired and strove to place USM on its current pedestal as the nation's premier university.
Prof. Datuk Dzulkifli added that 70% of lecturers in USM possessed doctorates (PhD) and this factor played a key role in enhancing the credibility of a university.
The seminal study, to be conducted annually, was implemented to evaluate the perceptions of local and regional academia, the corporate world and employers regarding local institutions of higher learning (IPTAs).
MQA and several lecturers from UKM and UM were tasked with the responsibility of conducting the research and the evaluation of the 10 question listed was based a six point Likert scale with one point classified as "weak" and six points classified as "outstanding".
No comments:
Post a Comment