Public research university, University of Malaya, and the Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters jointly organised a conference on evidence-based research evaluation. The ‘Conference on Institutional Perspectives on Evidence-Based Research Evaluation’ is seen to have garnered debate on research performance metrics used by institutions around the world, and which were particularly relevant and important in Malaysia’s context
Metrics-based research evaluation is said to provide a pragmatic approach to ensuring consistency and objectivity, especially important in the pursuit of world-class research excellence. The multi-faceted challenges and issues that Malaysian universities face while seeking to measure their research performance in a meaningful way need to be addressed in a strategic and objective manner. These are some of the views presented and exchanged between delegates and guest panelists at the conference.
Held at the University’s auditorium, Kompleks Pengurusan Penyelidikan & Inovasi, the conference attracted more than 100 delegates comprising research administrators, research management, funders, librarians, vice-chancellors and academics, data analysts and policy makers from various government ministries.
There was a healthy exchange amongst the delegates and speakers on how best higher education institutions in Malaysia could foster sound scholarship, improve academic standards and determine a fair and consistent method to measure the quality of their academic research and its output. Institutions would also be able to communicate their research performance more clearly and objectively to their key stakeholders and peer institutions around the world as they comply with government mandates, review programmes, compete globally for faculty talent and students, substantiate accreditation and attract research funding.
Delivering the keynote, Prof. Jailani Mohd. Nor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research & Innovation at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM), spoke on strategies which could help Malaysia boost its education system to meet the needs of the people and become a world-class educational hub.
A workshop on ‘Finding Meaningful Performance Measures for Higher Education’ is to be conducted by Thomson Reuters on July 6 for delegates looking to learn more about indicators of institutional research performance.
