BY LOOI SUE-CHERN January 20, 2014

Malaysian universities will automatically improve their ratings if they produce more researches, said Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan (pic).

He said universities here will have to focus on research and development initiatives to help them compete among their Malaysian counterparts and also other institutions of higher learning overseas.

"Universities are not just tasked with producing graduates these days. They must also have initiatives to compete with other institutions worldwide.

"If we conduct more researches, we will be able to do better in our ratings (internationally)," he said today in a press conference at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang.

It was reported in September last year that Malaysian public universities had continued to fall in the QS World University rankings with only Universiti Malaya (UM) still in the top 200.

QS said Malaysian universities had not been producing enough cited research although they have quality academics and produced employable graduates.

Kamalanathan said for universities to conduct more researches and develop products, the private sector also has to play a part.

He said partnerships between the universities and the industries will help generate more research and development activities.

The private sector, he said, can contribute by providing resources or funding for researches and to market the products developed.

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