Building Academic Excellence in Malaysia: Perspectives from an International Campus Christine Ennew Provost and CEO, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus

Some generic context World Class versus Excellence –What is the right sort of aspiration? –There will always be a limited number of “”world class” universities and they are likely to be dominantly defined in terms of research outputs –Excellence is both more inclusive and more adaptable to purpose (but more difficult to measure and validate) Institution versus (eco) system –Where does control and responsibility lie? –Is the (eco) system the underlying foundation or can institutions be excellent/world class despite the (eco) system? –Intuition and evidence say it’s both

The system does matter! (System Score and Reputation (a)) QS – country’s share of Top 200 Better system associated with more universities in Top 200 Affected by system size

But system doesn’t fully determine performance (System Score and Reputation (b)) QS – share of country’s universities in Top 200 Not affected by system size Positive link but more variability

The International Campus Perspective Building academic excellence or reproducing academic excellence? Challenges of a different system UK – private institutions with significant public funding (both core and competitive) and significant philanthropy Malaysia – private institution wholly funded by teaching, no formal FEC for competitive research funding UK – relatively light touch QA regime with significant institutional autonomy (but regular audit) Malaysia – even with self accrediting status, there is much greater degree of bureaucracy surrounding academic operations (with associated costs) UK degree awarding powers overseen by two regulatory processes!

The UNMC Experience

Talent Staff –Good mix of domestic and international – some diaspora –Reputation is an attractor –Research support is a disincentive –Attracting research leaders –Creating a post-doc culture Students –Highly qualified students, highly employable graduates –Impact of visas on international talent –Graduate stud%+ Operating in English is an enabling factor

Resources Financial Resources Research –Competitive research funding regime –Only funds direct costs for PHEIs –Stronger focus on applied as opposed to fundamental research –Restrictions on applicants and grants held Philanthropy –The legacy of newness Research informs teaching and teaching income contributes to research

Governance Institutional Governance –Robust but supportive – as in UK JV Board Governance –UoN and Partner, but largely focuses on the “business” (financial, legal, risk) System Governance –Private institutions have greater flexibility than public –Regulatory processes are time consuming, often duplicate and heavily rule based –Domestic benchmarking could be more effective for both teaching and research

Thank You! Questions and Comments please