(Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): One Yahya emailed and asked why I had not mentioned that Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was ranked No. 17 in Asiaweek’s new list of 30 top specialised science and technology schools in Asia.
Yes, congratulations to UTM. The omission was an oversight. It shows however that Malaysians feel a sense of pride when Malaysian educational institutions are giving international ranking and grading. I hope UTM would not feel content with this ranking and aim to be recognised among the top ten specialised science and university schools in Asia by the year 2,000.
Malaysia aims to be at the cutting edge of information technology revolution but this is unlikely to be achieved if we do not have more internationally-recognised specialised science and technology schools.
Malaysia cannot become an international centre of educational excellence unless Malaysians are imbued and committed to excellence.
It is definitely more meaningful to be ranked among the ten best universities, ten best specialised science and technology schools or ten cleanest and least corrupt nations than some of the other quirky firsts that some Malaysian government leaders seem to be rather preoccupied about.
(27/5/98)