Malaysian academics not publishing enough

http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/41136
Malaysian academics not publishing enough
Researcher
Sep 30, 05 2:41pm



With regards to the to the debate on higher education, there may be some
truth to the claim that the undergraduate teachings standards in Universiti
Malaya are high. However it is also my pleasure to share with its academics
some issues which I thought have been overlooked and could possibly hold
answers as to why UM and other universities are not meeting public
expectations.

I personally do not think that the recent public outcry regarding local
universities standards is baseless. First, it needs to be made clear as to
why UM, USM and other public universities are losing out to those
universities ranked in the world?s top 20.

Today?s higher education needs and challenges are indeed very different
compared to decades ago. Quality research for one makes one of the biggest
differences. Being a nanotechnology researcher (based in Sydney), I realise
that universities in Malaysia rarely (if at all) publish their work in
renowned international journals.

I am not referring to regional publications or conferences which are poorly
regarded by the research communities, but rather top journals such as
Science and Nature or their equivalents. These two journals are the leading
science publications in the world and only original and top quality
cutting-edge researches are accepted for publication.

If quality of research is measured by the number of publications in such
journals, then it is a very sad fact that I very seldom come across any
publications form a Malaysian university. Unsurprisingly, UM scored a
dismal 0 out of 400 in terms of citations, according to the Times Higher
Education Ranking.

When I browse through the website of some local academics, it strikes me
almost immediately that some of these academics may have published in
quality journals while they were studying overseas.

Unfortunately only trivial conference papers and regional publications were
produced when they assumed academic positions in local universities. Local
universities are equipped with facilities of international standards, so
why are the researches not in line with this?

UM academics may also argue that they collected a handful of medals at
Geneva?s Exhibition on Invention and Innovation. But the general public in
Malaysia may not be aware that some exhibitions are regarded by many top
science researchers as trivial and not worth participating in.

I am not pointing all these out to undermine research efforts in Malaysia,
but rather to inform the public where we stand in terms of research and why
we fare poorly in world university rankings.

I sincerely hope that local academics would start to reflect on themselves
and be more constructive when handling opinions from the public.


Qualifications not everything in getting job done
01:16pm Mon Aug 29, 2005
University vice-chancellors a pathetic lot
03:12pm Wed Aug 24, 2005
UM's gross quality control violations
03:21pm Tue Aug 23, 2005
UKM?s Ramasamy vice-chancellor material
01:46pm Mon Aug 22, 2005
=========================================================
iirc all academains must produce at least one original research paper which
must be published in an acceptable world's journal every three years or he
gets the boot.

isn't this what is going on now?

afaik, whilst discussing with the dons and big wigs, researchers/lecturers'
primary duty is RESEARCH, NOT TEACHING !!

teaching is secondary and he would be happier to have his research
challenged in masters and doctoral defenses rather than the "dull" dronning
of lectures to the freshmen.


pluto
.

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