Three Malaysian universities made it to the top 100 list out of the 300 universities in the Times Higher Education (THE) BRICS and Emerging Economies University Rankings 2017.
According to THE website, University Putra Malaysia ranked 89th, a climb of 14 places from its previous ranking, while the other two Malaysian universities that made it to the top 100 are Universiti Teknologi Petronas (91) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (100).
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh congratulated the universities who made the top 100.
“Congrats to our universities for achieving this. Keep it up, the hard work doesn’t end here – go for Top 100 and beyond. #SoaringUpwards,” he said on Twitter.
Some 50 countries were listed in the BRICS 2017 including China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.
Despite the improvements, public universities will still greet 2017 with a thinner purse as Putrajaya has cut operating budgets by almost 20%.
Ahmad Ibrahim, research fellow at the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, said research would bear the brunt of the funding cuts, which follow a 16% drop in funding to universities in the 2016 budget.
Putrajaya has reduced funding for higher education in 2017 to RM6.12 billion, down from RM7.57 billion in 2016, in a move to reduce the country’s financial deficit caused by a sluggish economy.
