“With an up-to-date facility, the academicians will be able to do research...and with all the research they will be able to produce (scholarly) books. One of the factors that will improve our ranking is (research) publications,” said Dr Annuar when met after officiating UTS Publisher Book Launching Ceremony at the university here today.

Dr Annuar, who is also Deputy Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister, expressed his confidence that with getting academicians to join UTS, the university would be able to succeed in terms of attaining a high ranking not only in Malaysia but in the world.

The university, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, has a long way to go in attaining world top ranking as the main universities are over 100 years old.

UTS vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Khairuddin Abd Hamid said in Malaysia, university rankings are determined by the university’s progress and there is a certain maturity period for a university to be ranked, normally after 25 years.

Within the past 10 years, UTS has become the only university in the world which was awarded the prestigious Platinum ratings in Green Building Index (GBI) for its campus design in promoting sustainability in the built environment and energy utilisation.

It has invested heavily in teaching-learning facilities, especially state-of-the-art laboratories equipment, ICT (information and communications technology) infrastructure and services, and other resources for R&D (research and development) which are very closely linked and collaborated with industry partners and government agencies.

UTS had also embarked in the internationalisation of its programmes to include student mobility, staff exchange, academic articulation arrangements, and joint research projects with universities from United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, India and ASEAN countries.

-- BERNAMA