UniMAP Receives a 4 Star MyRA Rating

Putrajaya, 30 November – Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) received a four-star rating based on the Malaysia Research Assessment Instrument (MyRA) during the MyRA 2014 Star Ratings Award.

During the ceremony that was officiated by the Malaysian Minister of Higher Education Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, UniMAP and the International Islamic University Malaysia (UIAM) were two public universities (UA) given a four-star rating.

UniMAP Vice Chancellor  Brig. Jen. Datuk Prof. Emeritus Dr. Kamarudin Hussin said that five other Research University (RU)-classed UAs received a six-star rating, namely Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Malaya dan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

“To be at a four-star level brings great meaning for our university which is only 14 years old and will provide us a boost to increase our efforts to achieve our target of becoming among the top 500 best universities in 2020,” he said.

He said this after receiving the UniMAP Rating Award at the Dewan Zaaba, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia here today.

MyRA is an instrument to measure research activities, development, commercialisation and innovation at local Institutes of Higher Education and is categorised by six levels with the sixth level being the highest.

20 UAs and 38 private institutions of higher learning, consisting of 27 local private universities, six university colleges and five foreign campus universities participated in this MyRA rating.

Explaining further, Dr. Kamarudin said that this success also allowed UniMAP to receive Research Grants totalling RM2.3 million to continue the university's agenda of research, development, commercialisation and innovation.

“UniMAP's main focus is the research agenda which is in line with the seventh shift (Innovative Ecosystem) contained in the Malaysian Educational Development Plan 2015-2025 (Higher Education),” he said.

Meanwhile, Idris in his speech urged all universities to focus and put more effort into establishing a healthy innovative ecosystem on campus in line with the government's desire to have innovation be the main drive of national economical growth.

“The focus given by the government toward research activities, development and innovation to RU programmes from 2006 has been fruitful when five RUs received five stars,” he said.