Universiti Malaysia Pahang is now #134 Best University in Asia

Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), once again celebrates its glorious moment by ranking at 134th at the 2020 QS World University Rankings: Asia that was just announced today. It is the achievement since 2015 and also marks the increment of 54 places in the same ranking for 2019. This proud achievement is consistent to the recent 2020 QS World University Ranking (announced on 19th Jun 2019) that placed UMP at world ranking record, for the first time. 

With this result at 2020 QS World University Rankings: Asia, UMP is the first university from Malaysian Technical University Network (MTUN) to be placed as one of the Top 150 best universities from Asia. Other MTUN universities are also ranked in the same ranking with Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) at 211th while Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) at 301-350th and Universiti Teknikal Melaka (UTEM) at 451-500. 

There are a total of 11 ranking indicators in QS World University Rankings: Asia, which are Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Faculty Student Ratio, Citation per Paper, Papers per Faculty, Staff with PhD., International Research Network, International Faculty, International Students, Inbound Exchange Students as well as Outbound Exchange Students. It is exciting to see UMP records the increment for almost all ranking indicators that are set by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) that is based in London. 

The 2020 QS World University Rankings: Asia full results can be accessed from the following link: https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-ra….
 

Industrial Collaboration Drives Graduate Employability

Many universities in the world produce graduates with the best academic achievement, but it is not a guarantee that they will be employed. It is interesting to compare the QS World University Rankings 2020 with the QS Graduate Employability (GE) Rankings 2020. 

Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) is only 17 years old, but we are committed to producing graduates who are constantly meeting the industry needs. Besides, the challenges of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 are closely related to the importance of information and data in the future. This situation requires the industry to stay tuned to keep up with the physical cyber system which involves new capabilities equipped with the latest technology. Therefore, it is crucial to have highly-skilled personnel to develop systems, applications and services such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis.

Other than that, skilled resources are among the priorities of UMP to prepare human capital to meet the needs of the country. UMP’s initiative to offer Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) within the Malaysian Technological University Network (MTUN) seems to complement the ecosystem of the Malaysia Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET).

It is a great milestone for UMP to be listed for the first time the QS Graduate Employability 2020 released today (19 September 2019). UMP is ranked at #301–500 alongside UKM, USM, and UiTM. The QS GE ranking evaluation was done based on 5 indicators, which are Employer Reputation (30%), Alumni Outcomes (25%), Partnerships with Employers (25%), Employer-Students Connection (10%), and Graduate Employability Rate (10%).

For the criterion of Partnership with Employer, UMP is ranked #71 in the World and Asia, and #1 in Malaysia. The measurements were done based on the Scopus Elsevier database in terms of research collaborations in 2013–2017 and the collaborations with 2000 renowned global companies listed in Fortune and Forbes. 

“UMP will continue to engage with the industries, in line with the aim to provide the nation with skilled and competent personnel in the future. For that matter, the needs of the industries will be the key agenda to develop the potential of UMP students in improving the UMP GE,” says Professor Ir. Dr. Wan Azhar Wan Yusoff.

UMP Named as Best University in Research and Innovation for Non-Research University

Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) received The Research and Innovation Excellence Award for Non-Research University category at the recent Malaysia’s Research Star Awards (MRSA) 2019. The Research and Innovation Excellence Award aims to recognise researchers and universities for their excellent scholarly and innovative outputs. UMP Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ir. Dr. Wan Azhar Wan Yusoff accepted the award from Secretary-General of Ministry of Education, Dato’ Dr. Mohd. Gazali Abas who represented the Minister of Education, Hon. Dr. Maszlee Malik. Malaysia’s Research Star Awards was organised by the Ministry of Education with cooperation of Clarivate Analytics to honour the most promising and influential researchers and institutions in Malaysia. The award ceremony was held at Putrajaya, Malaysia on 5 November 2019, attended also by Higher Education Director-General, Datuk Ir. Dr. Siti Hamisah Tapsir and Deputy Secretary-General (Strategic), Dato’ Kamel Mohamad.

In his acknowledgement Professor Ir. Dr. Wan Azhar expressed that the success was a ‘one-for-all’ effort and that the achievement was indeed a remarkable feat for UMP, considering it was only established 17 years earlier as one of the five technical universities (MTUN) established in the country. With the slogan “Moving Together”, he added that UMP would continue to enhance its strength in the fields of engineering, research and service with world-class standard. The effort would be executed in a more creative and innovative engineering and technology ecosystem which could benefit the community as well as empower high-level Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the country. 

In the same event, UMP added another impressive feather on its cap when Associate Professor Dr. Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah received two MRSA awards. Dr. Wan Azmi received Prominent Topics in Research for his outstanding research in the field of heat transfer, accumulating h-index of 27 with a total of 2,083 citations. Out of his 116 publications, 57 had been published in First Quartile (Q1) journals according to Clarivate Analytics. Aged 35, Dr. Wan Azmi was awarded the Young Researcher Award, an award for best researcher under the age of 40. Apart from research publications, he had also come up with several high impact products, results from his research works, which included nano-cooling liquid for vehicle radiator, nano-lubricant for vehicle air-conditioning system and the latest being nano-paint for automotive components.

Other awards presented by Clarivate Analytics were Hot Review Paper (one recipient) and Research and Innovation Excellence Researcher Award (seven recipients).

Elsevier also named 12 researchers as MRSA recipients for categories International Collaboration (three recipients), Prominent Topics in Research (four recipients), Citation Classic (four recipients) and Young Researcher (one recipient).