By RICHARD LIM
PUTRAJAYA: Local private colleges will be rated this year through the Malaysia Quality Evaluation System (MyQuest), said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.
The move, he said, was necessary as universities and university colleges were already evaluated through the Rating System for Malaysian Higher Education (Setara) and it would be “incomplete” if Malaysia’s 402 private colleges were not rated.
“It is important to know where our many colleges stand and we cannot compromise on quality,” he said at a press conference.
“We hope to come out with the results at the end of the year as the rating will assist students when it comes to choosing a college.”
Mohamed Khaled launched MyQuest after delivering his New Year’s message to the ministry at the Putrajaya International Convetion Centre on Monday. Under MyQuest, private colleges will be classified into six tiers.
They are Tier 6 (Excellent), Tier 5 (Very good), Tier 4 (Good), Tier 3 (Satisfactory), Tier 2 (Poor) and Tier 1 (Very poor).
My Quest employs a 40-30-30 breakdown: 40% of a college's score comes from its Input (students and facilities); 30% from Output (Recognition of a college's courses and graduates); and 30% from a college's quality management system.
Developed since the end of 2009, MyQuest is able to generate three different evaluation reports - college-based, cluster-based and international student-focused.
To qualify for MyQuest, colleges must have at least one matured programme running, with at least one batch of graduates.
Mohamed Khaled said that polytechnics would also be rated under a system known as PolyRate and the results would also be announced at the end of the year.
He added that this year’s Setara exercise would include universities that offered open and distance learning programmes as they widened access to higher education and promoted lifelong learning.
Three new research grant schemes were also announced to complement the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS).
They are the Long Term RGS, the Exploratory RGS and the Prototype RGS.
Mohamed Khaled said that over RM700mil would be disbursed through the schemes over two years.
Explaining the move, Mohamed Khaled said that research was multi-faceted and the nation could lose out if everything was spent on fundamental research.
“Some forms of research may take a long time and if we lack this specific type of grant, few would be motivated to undertake such efforts,” he said
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