01.08.07
Ranking Woes for UM
Next article is an excerpt from The Star on Friday December 29th, 2006. I am a loyal Star reader, so I think I am doing my part to promote it… Not only help me increased my vocab over the last few years, it also helps me developed my confident in using oral English as a second language… My grammar is still at a level of WYH(ear)IWYG… yes, I am trying my best here… Hopefully, one fine day, one cute teacher will help me on that…
One thing I’ve learned form my study is the need to duly acknowledge the original writer/publisher of an article we want to reproduce either in full or in part… I think I’ve done that for this one…
Just for your info, someone told me that the name of the newspaper was derived from the name of the late first Prime Minister… Suratkhabar Tunku Abdul Rahman (S.T.A.R.)… who happened to be the columnist of ‘As I See It’…
Here it is…
“…It was shake-up time for Universiti Malaya as it lost ranks to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Times Higher Education Supplement’s World University Top 200 Rankings (2006) in October.
UM continued its downward spiral, dropping 23 places to 192 from 169. Its ranking fell from 89 in 2004 to 169 in 2005, causing a national debate on the status of the premier university and the validity of the criteria used for the rankings.
UKM, meanwhile, broke into top 200-ranked universities for the first time, climbing 105 places to 185 from 289 last year.
Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia also improved in this year’s standings - UPM rose by 102 places from 394 to 292, while USM climbed from 326 to 277.
The Ministry (higher education ministry) has set a target for two public universities to break into top 50 by 2010, but at this rate, many feel that the odds are stacked against them…â€
Nowadays, everybody is looking at world standard… in a way, Mawi is right in promoting the word itself… Not to forget the achievement of Nicol David in sport… Don’t waste time on comparing the price of fuel between countries (we should talk about comparing the cost of living) or making assumption that the current disaster (flood) in Johore is expected and predicted to happen in every 100 years. To be in Vision 2020, we need to be professional and objectively provide information based on real data…  (Ops… I am not supposed to get carried away with policies and political issues).
I think UKM is making a right decision by introducing a multi-language curriculum - to put it on world map and achieving Mawi’s World status… Anyway, it is to our advantage to be excellent in both Malay and English languages…
So, you see, I think I’ve made a right decision on my study, after all…
Back to down memory lane, during the long Hari Raya Qurban and New Year holidays, I managed to revisit my old primary school… new block has been built… but the shade of the big bougainvillea I used to play around it has long gone… there is a red carp pond where my Ixus failed to capture… but I managed only this one…
 Looking for human face…
 Kampungku - my first Ixus 60 photo