Building Academic Excellence in Malaysia: Perspectives from an International Campus

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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!

6. The UNMC Experience

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Thank You! Questions and Comments please