Malaysian universities have failed to make the Times Higher Education (THE) list of the world’s seven fastest-rising young universities in the world, even as neighbouring country Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) debuts at first place despite being just 24 years old. The list features institutions of higher learning under the age of 50 which have risen the most number of places in the annual top 400 THE World University Rankings since 2011, as well as the forthcoming THE 100 Under 50 Rankings.

Fran Langdon, a representative of THE, told The Malaysian Insider not a single Malaysian university made the cut, this was partly because many Malaysian institutions refused to submit their data to be ranked. "However, looking at the Malaysian universities which have submitted data to us (although, unfortunately, they did not perform strongly enough to be ranked), in general, Malaysia's universities receive quite low scores for reputation and also for citations," said Langdon, adding that these were the most important indicators in THE's World University Rankings.

British Council commentary:

Two top Malaysian institutions, Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), did not submit data for the annual World University Rankings 2014-2015, effectively missing out on the opportunity to be assessed against other universities in the world. Four other Malaysian universities submitted their data but none made it into the top 400 of the rankings, which was released by Times Higher Education (THE) October last year. Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia (UKM) have defended themselves for not taking part in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2014-2015, citing the use of indicators that were not suitable for Malaysian universities younger than their western counterparts.

In the recent announcement of the new Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education), one of the new targets set for year 2025, which is to have one university in Asia’s Top 25, two in the Global Top 100, and four in the Global Top 200 in the QS global rankings. Many believed that all public universities should join all surveys regardless of the methodology used to measure their rankings and quality of education provided. In fact, there were public comments saying that the Education Ministry should end the boycott of UM and UKM in the annual THE world university rankings to demonstrate the seriousness in wanting to restore the international reputation and academic excellence of Malaysian universities.