research publication as a strategy to improve international academic ranking

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Hong Kong Libraries] On: 03 April 2013, At: 21:05 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tedl20 Research publication as a strategy to improve international academic ranking FATT HEE TIE Version of record first published: 04 Sep 2012. To cite this article: FATT HEE TIE (2012): Research publication as a strategy to improve international academic ranking, International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice, 15:4, 437-450 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2012.696707 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and- conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

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Page 1: Research publication as a strategy to improve international academic ranking

This article was downloaded by: [University of Hong Kong Libraries]On: 03 April 2013, At: 21:05Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

International Journal of Leadership inEducation: Theory and PracticePublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tedl20

Research publication as a strategy toimprove international academic rankingFATT HEE TIEVersion of record first published: 04 Sep 2012.

To cite this article: FATT HEE TIE (2012): Research publication as a strategy to improveinternational academic ranking, International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory andPractice, 15:4, 437-450

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2012.696707

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representationthat the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of anyinstructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primarysources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Page 2: Research publication as a strategy to improve international academic ranking

Research publication as a strategy to improve

international academic ranking

FATT HEE TIE

Many universities in Asia are now focused on enhancing their global academic competi-tiveness. Various strategies are implemented to restructure, reform and transform universi-ties aimed at improving ranking in the global university league. One significant strategy isto encourage academicians to place priority on publishing in high-impact internationaljournals. This article examines how a public university in Malaysia strives to strengthen itsranking by increasing its research publication to enhance its position in the internationalacademic ranking. The strategy has resulted in an increase in the number of publicationsat the international level.

Introduction

Contemporary discussion on international academic ranking focuses onwhy and how universities compete to climb up the greasy slope in theacademic ranking league. For some proponents, international academicranking has become a popular and useful means to compare universitieswithin a country and around the world. Universities use it to benchmarkthemselves and compete with their counterparts around the world forprestige and for commercial purposes. A demand for more comparativeinformation from parents and students has also increased the importanceof international university ranking such as the times higher education(THE)–QS, QS and the Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking.

University presidents and vice-chancellors at a number of universitiesin East Asia such as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are now focused onimproving their institutions’ ranking in the global university league (Loand Weng 2005, Mok 2005b). Consequently, the governance of someuniversities in Asia is now influenced by an intensified effort to competein international academic rankings. The universities’ management per-ceives international benchmarking through international ranking as anindicator of the quality and reputation of the universities.

The QS World University Ranking lists citations per faculty as one ofthe measures used in its ranking. Citations of research by other academicsin high impact international journals often reflect the quality of the research.

Fatt Hee Tie is a professor at the Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya, in Kuala

Lumpur, Malaysia. His email address is [email protected]. He teaches educational governance, edu-

cational leadership and education law to postgraduate students. His research interests include educa-

tion law, educational leadership and policy, citizenship behaviour and organizational behaviour.

INT. J. LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION,

OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2012, VOL. 15, NO. 4, 437–450

International Journal of Leadership in EducationISSN 1360-3124 print/ISSN 1464-5092 online � 2012 Taylor & Francis

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journalshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2012.696707

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Other measures used to calculate the 2010 QS World University Rankingare: academic peer review; employer reputation review; international facultyratio; international student ratio and student faculty ratio. Generally, theworld’s highest ranking universities in the QS table are closely associatedwith the quality of research and publication in high impact journals.

This article examines how a public university in Malaysia strives toimprove its international ranking. The discussion consists of three parts.The first part of this article discusses the background of this university.The second part of the article examines policy reforms, specifically,academics’ publication in high impact journals as one of the means toimprove its international ranking. Publication in these journals is nowclosely associated with the ability of a university to compete in the globalhigher education environment. Finally, the third part of the articlediscusses some issues that emerge from the initiatives that the universityhas implemented to focus on research and publication. The ultimate aimof this publication initiative, amongst others, is to position the universityin the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings by 2015.

Background of the university

The University of Malaya began as the King Edward VII College of Med-icine in Singapore in 1905. The University of Malaya was formed throughthe amalgamation of King Edward VII College of Medicine and RafflesCollege in Singapore in 1949. The University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpurwas established in 1962 (University of Malaya 2011a).

The University of Malaya has a total of 2660 academic staff and 656international academic staff. The university has 12 faculties——namely, sixfaculties in the sciences and six in the arts, social sciences and humanities.The mission statement of the university states that the university is toadvance knowledge and learning through quality research and educationfor the nation and for humanity. The vision of the university is to be aninternationally renowned institution of higher learning in research, innova-tion, publication and teaching (University of Malaya 2011a).

The federal government provides nearly the total funding of the uni-versity. As a result, the government and the Ministry of Higher Educa-tion exercise almost complete and absolute control over the university.This is similar to countries such as China and Taiwan, where educationis employed as an instrument to promote political ideologies, such asnational integration (Mok 2005b). Thus, even though the university haspassed through the process of corporatization (1996–2000), marketiza-tion (2001–2005) and decentralization (2005–2008), the Ministry ofHigher Education continues to play a significant role in setting thefuture direction and policy of the university. On the other hand, there issome autonomy being gradually afforded the university in order that itmay compete in the global ranking in line with the government’s aspira-tion to increase the number of matriculating international students inorder to become an international centre for higher education.

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Policy reforms to improve the international ranking ofthe university

Generally, research productivity among the staff has been low. In 2009, astudy of the research productivity of the academic staff at the universityrevealed that only about 10% of the staff published at least one researchpaper a year (Lim and Kulasagaran 2011). In addition, the Malaysianresearch assessment instrument (MyRA) scores also showed that the uni-versity ranked behind two other public universities in the country. TheMyRA focused on the fundamentals of a university, including researchand development, commercialization of research and development andthe number of staff with doctoral qualifications. As a result, the universityintroduced a number of reforms to overcome the low research productiv-ity and publication among the academic staff. Immediate steps were takento address this issue in order to uphold the image and reputation of thecountry’s oldest and premier university.

One crucial strategy adopted to revitalize the university was the estab-lishment of a transformation plan (University of Malaya 2011b). Thisplan consists of three phases. Phase One lists the initiatives namely, set-ting a Standard Academic Performance Target; research culture work-shops; Thomson institute for scientific information (ISI) journal paperwriting seminars; ISI journal submission as requirement for thesis submis-sion; reward for ISI journal publications; reward for staff and student forearly completion of doctorate; an alternative doctoral award scheme byway of ISI journal publications; a commercialization scheme to allow aca-demic staff to set up companies from their research findings and seeking abalance of the postgraduate to undergraduate ratio of 1:1. Phase Two setsout further measures that include——strengthening departmental core divi-sions; fortnight departmental research seminars; the Bright Sparks Pro-gramme; a review committee to check performance of research centresand institutes; transparency in the progress report for all research centresand clusters; setting requirements for Tier Types in ISI journal publica-tions; requirements for thesis examiners to have ISI publications; counsel-ling for laggard staff and increasing the number of students and staff inexchange programme. Phase Three include——a review of the standardacademic performance target; establishment of an academic icon head-hunting unit and more collaboration with universities in Asia and South-East Asia (University of Malaya 2011b).

The policy to reward academics who publish in high impact journals,such as the ISI journals, consisted of financial reward and merit towardpromotion. The ISI is set as a benchmark for quality in publication as itis used by the THE World University Rankings and the Shanghai JiaoTong University Rankings, while the QS World University Rankings usesthe Scopus database of academic publishing.

Rewards depend on the impact factor and the tier level of the jour-nals. The reward increases if an article is published in high impact factorjournals. The reward is substantial when an article is published in a highimpact journal such as the journal Nature. The Thomson ISI consists ofcitation databases that cover thousands of academic journals, such as the

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Science Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index and the Artsand Humanities Citation Index. By strengthening the research capacityand increasing the number of publications, the university aspired toimprove its international status. The University of Malaya’s vice-chancel-lor, Prof. Ghauth Jasmon, at a press conference, expressed that:

The National University of Singapore is always in the top 100 and Thailand has two varsi-

ties——Mahidol and Chulalongkorn——in the top 100–200 band under QS. There is no reason

for us to be behind these varsities as University of Malaya (UM) and NUS started on equal

footing at the same time. As vice-chancellor, I am saddened that we are lagging behind and it

is my responsibility to bring UM up. (Lim and Kulasagaran 2011: 8)

In the past, scholarly publishing at the university tend to concentrateon local and international journals that were non-ISI in nature. Theuniversity is now focused on increasing the number of publications inhigh impact journals like the ISI journals, as such publications have a sig-nificant impact on the ranking of the university. The possibility of beingcited by other researchers appears to be higher if research is published inan ISI journal. As a result, the university has set publishing in ISI-indexedjournals as an international benchmark of research quality and for the per-formance of its academics as against other well-known universities. Fur-ther, the Ministry of Higher Education also acknowledged that localuniversities obtained a very low score in the citations per faculty (Chap-

Table 1. Promotion criteria for science discipline

2010–30 June 2013 1 July 2013 and beyond

Number of

publications

required for

promotion to: Books

ISI/Refereed articles in

top tier journals

(Category A & B)/

Chapters in books Books

ISI/Refereed articles

in top tier journals

(Category A & B)/

Chapters in books

Professor A 6 50 6 50

At least 16 must be in Tier 1 & 2

ISI journal

At least 16 must be in Tier

1 & 2 ISI journal

Professor B 4 40 4 40

At least 10 must be in an ISI

journal

At least 10 must be in an

ISI journal

Professor C 2 30 2 30

At least 5 must be in an ISI

journal

At least 8 must be in an ISI

journal

Associate

professor

1 15 1 15

At least 2 must be in an ISI

journal

At least 4 must be in an ISI

journal

Senior lecturer – 10 – 10

At least 1 must be in an ISI

journal

At least 2 must be in an ISI

journal

Lecturer (for

confirmation)

– 5 – 5

At least 1 must be in an ISI

journal or ISI proceeding

At least 1 must be in an ISI

journal

Source: University of Malaya.

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man 2011a). Research and publication in the ISI journals has nowbecome the critical yardstick in measuring the university’s performance asthe ISI–Essential Science Indicators (ESI) (ISI) data bank providesresearch output measures (Williams and Dyke 2007). At the initial PhaseOne, publication in ISI-indexed journals is one of the key Standard Aca-demic Performance Targets for the academic staff. Later, in Phase Threethe stakes are raised to a higher level where the Standard Academic Per-formance Target involved the citation and H-index factor. The aim of thepolicy is to strengthen the quality of research and publication in order tocompete with the finest universities in the world.

Another new policy reform relates to the mechanism for promotion.The new policy established a completely new set of criteria for promotionwithin the university. Academics who aspire to be promoted to the posi-tion of senior lecturer, associate professor or professor must meet the newconditions. The new criteria require academics to publish a certain num-ber of articles in the ISI journals. The number of articles that is requireddepends on the position for which one applies. The emphasis on publish-ing in high impact journals is similar to other universities such as in HongKong, where academics are concentrating on publishing in the Interna-tional Social Science and Science Citation Indexed journals (Mok 2005a).Table 1 shows the criteria for promotion for the Science discipline

Table 2. Promotion criteria for non-science discipline

2010–30 June 2013 1 July 2013 and beyond

Number of

publications

required for

promotion to: Books

ISI/Refereed articles

in top tier journals

(Category A & B)/

chapters in books Books

ISI/Refereed articles

in top tier journals

(Category A & B)/

Chapters in books

Professor A 6 50 6 50

At least 16 must be in Tier 1 &

2 ISI journal

At least 16 must be in Tier 1 &

2 ISI journal

Professor B 4 40 4 40

At least 10 must be in an ISI

journal

At least 10 must be in an ISI

journal

Professor C 2 30 2 30

At least 5 must be in an ISI

journal

At least 8 must be in an ISI

journal

Associate

Professor

1 15 1 15

At least 2 must be in an ISI

journal

At least 4 must be in an ISI

journal

Senior Lecturer – 10 – 10

At least 1 must be in an ISI

journal

At least 2 must be in an ISI

journal

Lecturer (for

confirmation)

– 5 – 5

At least 1 must be in an ISI

journal or ISI proceeding after

appointment to lecturer post

At least 1 must be in an ISI

journal

Source: University of Malaya.

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whereas Table 2 shows the criteria for the non-science discipline at theUniversity of Malaya.

Table 2 shows that the university’s management is aware of the diffi-culties that academics from the non-science discipline face in publishing,especially in the ISI journals. The criteria for promotion for senior lectur-ers, associate professor and professor at level ‘C’ is less strict, as there is alimited window of opportunity for promotion among the non-science dis-cipline academics until 30 June 2013.

The policy reforms indicate that the university is strongly committedto enhance its research capacity, output and quality to increase its globalcompetitiveness. Further, it strives to transform the university into one ofthe best and most prestigious universities in Malaysia. Although for thepast 10 years, the university has dominated the national university rank-ing, the focus is now on improving its position to among the top 100 inthe world.

The governance and core activity of the university is now influ-enced by the drive to publish in high impact journals and improvementin the university’s position in the international academic rankings.There is more attention, resources and energy allocated towards achiev-ing this aim. There is strong support provided to academic staff topublish in the ISI journals with a system to assist and monitor the pro-gress of the academics. The setting up of a Scholarly Publishing Unithas alleviated some of the pressure that academics faced in the questtowards enhancing research capacity and academic standards. The pres-sure at the university is similar to the observation made by Deem et al.(2008) that studies have repeatedly shown that universities in East Asiaare increasingly under pressure to compete internationally and researchoutput in terms of publication has become one of the major yardsticksin measuring the performance of the university.

The demand for more accountability in the way that research grantsare used is another factor that drives the need to publish in high impactjournals. Each year, the federal government provides a substantial amountof money for research. The research output is assessed by publishing inresearch journals. The university seeks to ensure that the output is pub-lished in journals of international standing and reputation, as rankingsdepend on such measures and research productivity.

Effects of the policy

The new policy to encourage academic staff to increase the number ofpublications has achieved some success, despite certain dissatisfaction.The number of publications has increased along with an improvement inranking. From 2006 until 14 February 2011, the total number of publica-tions indexed in the Web of Science and total citations of the universitywas 9053. In 2005, researchers at the university produced 250 ISI journalpapers. In 2009, they produced 1300 ISI journal papers (Chapman2010c). In 2010, the total was 1800 ISI journal papers (Lim and Kula-

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sagaran 2011). The new policy has resulted in tremendous improvementin the number of ISI publications at the university. Nevertheless, thenumber is still behind those of one of the top South-East Asia universi-ties, the National University of Singapore, whose faculty produced 5000ISI journal papers in 2009. In 2007, based on the ISI Index Journal Pub-lications, University Malaya had a citation index of 600. In 2009, the cita-tion index increased to 1145 from the 2200 academic staff. The numberof citation index almost doubled within three years. (Chapman 2010a).The ISI database showed a threefold increase in 2010 in ISI publicationscompared to 2008 (Lim and Kulasagaran 2011). In addressing theurgency to increase the number of publications, the vice-chancellor of theUniversity of Malaya, Prof. Ghauth Jasmon expressed that:

We have to maintain this to improve in the rankings as the citation index out of a total of 4200

staff members from the National University of Singapore (NUS) was 5000 … If every aca-

demic at UM contributes at least one paper, then we will be almost on par with the NUS.

(Chapman 2010a)

In the 2011/2012 QS World University ranking, the universityimproved its international ranking and made it to the top 200. It movedup 40 places to 167 in 2011 compared to 207 in 2010 (Table 3). Inaddition, the university managed to be placed in the top 500 in theShanghai Jiao Tong University’s 2011 academic ranking of world univer-sities for the first time in its history. The improvement in both these twointernational rankings showed that the university has enhanced its publi-cations. The University of Malaya’s vice-chancellor opined that the policyto have academics and postgraduate students improve their research out-put that was eventually published in the ISI journals had been successful(Chapman 2011b).

The new policy provides clear criteria for academics who apply forpromotion. It is transparent in nature. All academics fully know andunderstand the number of publications that are required for promotion.The new criteria represent a significant move to promote meritocracy. It

Table 3. The university of Malaya’s ranking in the THE–QS World University

Ranking

Year Ranking

2004 89

2005 169

2006 192

2007 246

2008 230

2009 180

2010 207

2011 167

Source: University of Malaya.

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addresses allegations of favouritism and ‘backdoor’ promotion practices.It works to abolish unethical and unprofessional practices such as postur-ing and office politics. It diminishes some of the animosity among thosewho fail to be promoted. It also mutes allegations of victimization, biasand discrimination. To a large extent, the requirement to publish in ISI-indexed journals settles questions of journal quality, as the indexingsources become the arbiters of such quality.

The new policy serves to remove the element of permanency or tenurein office. According to the Prof. Kurunathan, the Deputy Vice-Chancellorof Development ‘the new policies eradicate notions of permanency butstress that performance determines one’s rise——or stagnation——in thehierarchy’. (Lim and Kulasagaran 2011: 8).

Emerging issues from the international academic rankingof universities

Rankings remain contentious. Issues such as the accuracy of the statisticsemployed, the selection of the measures to represent academic qualityand the negative impact of the ranking on the overall performance of theinstitution will not go away (Bowden 2000). A case in point is the THEWorld University Rankings editor Phil Baty’s allegation that the THE-QSWorld University Rankings, which has been published since 2004, hadsome serious flaws. Phil Batty expressed that:

last year we took the first opportunity for a full review of the rankings. We did not like what

we found, and we took the chance to act. (Chapman 2010b: 18).

In November 2009, THE ended its partnership with the companyQuacquarelli Symonds Limited (QS), which supplied and owned all thedata for the rankings between 2004 and 2009. The managing director ofQS, Nunzio Quacquarelli, stated that Phil Baty incorrectly criticized theresearch conducted by his company in producing the World UniversityRankings. He acknowledged that rankings are controversial and that QSseeks to overcome them by working with its advisory board to developmethods which reflect the diversity of models in higher education,through regional rankings and other new initiatives (Chapman 2010b).

The methods used in ranking are diverse and subject to differentinterpretations (Gora 2011). The methods, meaning and even the useful-ness of rankings are contentious (Williams 2008). The University ofMalaya did not participate in the World Reputation Rankings as the THEestablished a new set of criteria after it separated from QS. The formerconsider research citations from the ISI database during a 10 year period.The University of Malaya started to focus on high impact research andISI publications recently, about two years ago. The vice-chancellor, Pro-fessor Ghauth Jasmon stated that the university could not participate inthe THE rankings for about 10 years, because its high impact researchwill not bear considerable citations sooner (Chapman 2011b). He saidthat the THE second criteria related to research funding is a limitation

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because the university will lose out to universities that receive substan-tially more research income. He further expressed that:

It is because of this that we have decided to venture seriously into developing sustainable large

income streams for UM like the Health Metropolis, Commercial Development and the private

education arm. We will be able to compete effectively in THE when these large income sources

become fully developed in about five to seven years. At the moment, we do not want to partici-

pate in THE yet, but will focus on the QS World University Rankings as the criteria is more

within our reach. (Chapman 2011b: 18)

Generally, rankings must be rigorous, balanced and made transpar-ent. They should be used with caution. Rankings cannot be compre-hensive enough to cover all the characteristics that make for areputable university. Furthermore, ranking represents only one of themeasures of a university’s global recognition. Other than participationin the global international academic ranking, universities have otherimportant roles to play, nationally and internationally. Yet, the engage-ment of the university with its local community and its contribution tothe social economic development of the nation are not shown in therankings. In addition, the purpose of universities in some developingcountries may be different from those in the developed countries. Indeveloping countries, research might best be locally oriented in orderto seek solutions to local problems. In most circumstances, academi-cians face difficulty publishing research conducted on local and nationalissues in international journals. The incentives and rewards providedby, in this case the University of Malaya, for those who publish in theISI journals may lead to academicians to concentrate on internationalissues. The tendency to ignore research on national history and localhealth problems exists and, eventually, may result in the loss of thedistinctive local culture due to a lack of interest (Altbach 2008). Thus,research is increasingly oriented towards the international audience atthe expense of the local or national audience, as the prospect for pro-motional and career advancement is enhanced when researchers focuson international or global issues over local ones.

English is the dominant language in most of the prestigious interna-tional US and UK journals. Many countries, including Malaysia, use thenational language as the medium of instruction. In other countries,French, German, Russian and Spanish were used for academic and scien-tific publications until the mid-twentieth century, while Mandarin, Japa-nese and Swedish were used in scholarly communication (Altbach 2008).However, the domination of the English language in the reputable inter-national journals creates difficulties for scholars and universities that donot use English. At the other extreme, academics worldwide compete topublish, in particular the ISI journals (Altbach 2008). There is a perpet-ual concern among local policy-makers and to nationalists that there willbe less commitment to the use of the national language and to publicationin the less prestigious local journals as researchers conform to the interestsof prestigious English dominant journals in order to want their work pub-lished. According to Altbach (2008: 57),

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the power of the English language scientific and scholarly journals means that the research par-

adigms and scholarly interests of the journal editors, editorial board members, and indeed the

majority of the readers control journals and to a large extent the research agendas and method-

ologies in most disciplines.

Traditionally, the top ranks of the international global leagues arefilled with Anglo-American universities. Gora (2011) observed that morethan 18 of the US and British universities dominate the top 20 positionof the THE ranking while the first Asian university, Hong Kong Univer-sity, is in 21 followed by six other Asian universities in the top 50. He fur-ther noted how over half of the universities in the top 50 are USuniversities. The US has 72 universities in the world’s top 200, whilenone of the African, Middle East and Latin US universities are amongthe top 100 THE universities.

The ESI data tend to be biased towards the sciences and two-thirdsof the journals listed are in the sciences (Williams and Dyke 2007). Thisindicator does not include books. A university with strong natural sciencedepartments in countries whose lingua franca is the English languageappears to have a distinct advantage. Conversely, universities that special-ize in the social sciences and humanities tend to score poorly in the indi-cators that have been selected. There is a clear bias against the arts,humanities and social sciences in such rankings.

The university’s fixation with publishing only in the ISI journals couldlead academic staff to focus on writing and publishing only in the ISIjournals out of consideration for their career advancement. The editorialboards of the local academic journals consequently face difficulties in get-ting university academic staff to submit articles. Over the long term, thiswould probably lead to the gradual demise of local academic journals,especially those that do not publish in English.

The position of universities in the international ranking, with theexception of established universities like Harvard and Yale, does notremain static. Fluctuations in ranking are normal every year and univer-sities’ vice-chancellors and presidents wait eagerly in anticipation of theresults. The Minister of Higher Education in Malaysia pointed out thatuniversities should not be obsessive about world rankings and universitiescannot be ranked against other universities whose conditions and envi-ronments are different from Malaysia (Chapman 2010b). He added thatthe ministry has its own strategic plan which was benchmarked againstthe world’s best practices, but would, nevertheless, consider the rank-ings.

The results of ranking sometimes have an impact on the reputationof a university, student recruitment, government research funding andeven the job of the vice-chancellor and president. The leadership of auniversity is a factor in improving its global ranking. In Malaysia, avice-chancellor is appointed for a term of three years. Sometimes it isextended for another three years. In the Malaysian context, universityvice-chancellors often change and, in many cases, a change in policyfollows. Since 2000, the University of Malaya has had four differentvice-chancellors. A change of too many vice-chancellors, within such ashort period of time, affects the university. This raises the issue of

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whether the policy to publish in high impact ISI journals will continueshould there be a change in the university’s leadership.

Research capability is one of the determinants in the global rankingsof universities. Government funding is vital to support costly research.The government plays an important role in a university’s internationalranking. Governments that wish to have internationally prominent univer-sities must provide support and funding (Horta 2009). The top two uni-versities in China, Peking University and Tsinghua University, received aspecial research budget of 1.8 billion yuan for the enhancement of teach-ing and research activities. Harvard University has a tremendous financialendowment of 27.4 billion USD (Gora 2011). Besides government fund-ing for research, universities go to extraordinary lengths to recruit leadingacademicians by offering high salaries and benefits. Such recruitment ofreputable academics, even though short term, adds prestige and helps toimprove the international image of the university. Nevertheless, theopportunity cost is high.

In addition, higher education institutions and academics must con-sider to what extent the good practices identified in the West can be inte-grated into non-Western educational systems (Deem et al. 2008). Anothercritical issue that emerges is whether ‘internationalization’ is akin to ‘west-ernization’ or even ‘Americanization’ of the local universities? In the questto be a world-class university, policy duplication from the Anglo–Saxonenvironments results in numerous problems, especially when the policy isadopted without careful contextualization (Deem et al. 2008).

Governments are influenced and conscious of how rankings can beused to drive institutional behaviour. Ministers of Higher Education insome countries often refer to their institutions’ world-class standing as amatter of national pride, an attractive selling point. When the ranking ofMalaysia’s two top universities fell by almost 100 places in 2007, politi-cians attempted to compel the government to establish a Royal Commis-sion of Inquiry to investigate the reasons for the decline (Salmi andSaroyan 2007).

Ranking and quality

Whether a country’s ranking in university research is an indicator of thequality of university classroom instruction remains unresolved. Rankingdoes not capture the quality of teaching and learning. Some universitiesfocus on teaching, research and service rather than on ranking position.Ranking does not consider the quality of supervision of research students.Lin (2011: 4) stressed that:

Relentless competition for research excellence has produced a university system optimised for

research. Of course, this brought untold prestige and prosperity through scholarly discoveries

and scientific inventions. But, I think, at a price to underlying student quality. For example,

there are no KPIs [key performance indicators] for effectively imparting knowledge and incul-

cating habit of mind to make students wiser and productive 20-somethings. University struc-

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tures don’t consciously promote responsible citizenship. Professors are rewarded for academic

excellence. But no marks for helping students find meaningful lives.

Ranking and human capital development

Human capital development represents the key to Malaysia’s economictransformation. It is a prominent feature in the Malaysia’s New EconomicModel. Developing good character; building resilience; inculcating com-passion, integrity, honour and producing responsible citizens are some ofthe qualities of an educated person. Williams and Dyke (2007: 838)observed that:

our survey results indicate a common view held internationally, that the measurement of stand-

ing should not be confined to research performance. Indeed the general consensus was that the

international standing of academic staff as measured by research performance should have a

weight of less than 50%.

These authors believed that the personal attributes of academic staff,along with excellent teaching and supervision, are reflected in the qualityof the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Reaction from the academic staff

A number of academics disagree with the university’s focus on rank-ings. In a letter to The Star newspaper, an individual alleged thatsome academic staff are demoralized due to the tremendous pressureto produce ISI publications and by the fixation on an inappropriatelyrigid one-size-fits-all policy (Chapman 2010c). A medical lecturer sta-ted that academia involves more than just publishing in journals, asthe ability to stimulate intellectual discussion, mentor students, thequality of patient care, locally relevant research and the six years ges-tation period for clinical research are factors that are important. Ablanket requirement for promotion to be a professor regardless ofone’s area of specialization is inappropriate (Lim and Kulasagaran2011).

Lecturers who are near retirement find it difficult to meet therequirements. Data collection, data analysis and writing require timeespecially in the social sciences. The review of the submitted manu-script takes time and even if the article is accepted by the editorialboard, there is a waiting period for the article to be published. Thecomplete process may take two years. Junior academics that retire in10 years time have an advantage. Nevertheless, the university’s manage-ment has considered this issue and as a result, has accommodated theview of this particular group with the criteria for promotion been lessrigid between 2010 to June 2013.

Overall, the University of Malaya will continue to participate inthe international ranking as it seeks to benchmark itself against the

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world’s renowned universities. According to Professor Ghauth Jasmon,there must be continuous improvement in the university’s perfor-mance:

We want 200,000 foreign students by 2020 but how do we sell Malaysian education if we

don’t have a top university? This is why it’s important to continually improve the university’s

performance, and although we have seen some impact, it would take some years to see the

results. (Chapman 2010c: 1)

Conclusion

International rankings seem to have tremendous power to transform uni-versities. There is intense worldwide attention paid to international rank-ings. When the updated list of university ranking was posted online bythe THE Supplement in October 2004, it generated more than one mil-lion hits to the publication’s site (Labi 2010).

At the University of Malaya, the number of publications in the ISIjournals has increased as a result of the efforts to encourage the staff topublish in the high impact journals. The strategy to benchmark the uni-versity against the top universities in the world in terms of quality interna-tional publications is ongoing. In a few years, the quantity and quality ofoutput from research publications may be able to achieve internationalcompetitive standards. A further strategy to encourage staff to publish inthe higher tier ISI journals would further improve the university’s interna-tional ranking.

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