History and New Scheme of the University of Malaya
　The University of Malaya (UM) is the oldest university in Malaysia and was first established as the King Edward VII College of Medicine in 1905 in Singapore before it moved to its present location in 1949. Since then it has undergone rapid development and also includes the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), which is the largest teaching hospital in the country.
　As the premier university in Malaysia, UM is a comprehensive university with 22 academic schools occupying 428 blocks of buildings, spread over 922 acres. It has a student population comprising of 13,133 domestic and 857 international students in its undergraduate programs while the post graduate programs has 9,221 domestic students and 2,263 international students. The total academic staff population is over 3,000 of which 2,613 are local academic staff while the remaining 590 are international staff. UM has been designated as a Research University (RU) by the Government since 2006.
　In order to bring the university forward, the management has developed new strategies to attract, retain, motivate and develop staff and to enable the university to compete globally and position itself amongst the top 100 by the year 2015. Some of the strategic schemes which have been adopted are:

(1)　The Bright Sparks Program

　The Bright Sparks Program (BSP) was established by the university on the 9th of September 2009. The objective of the program is to recruit outstanding students and scholars with deep interest in research and academia to join UM’s academic workforce. This will ensure that UM will gain a sustainable pool of excellent academics and researchers who would help UM spearhead into a world class centre of research and learning. Under the BSP, bright, enthusiastic candidates are offered various academic and research incentives to pursue their PhD and extend their careers in UM.

(2)　International Recruitment of Excellent Staff - The Academic Icon Programme

　The international recruitment of excellent staff is a crucial part of the development of the university as it aims to bring world-class talents right to its doorstep so that these top notched researchers can then work closely with the academic staff in conducting cutting-edge research. This will also give them the opportunity to publicize their findings internationally via publication in top-tier ISI indexed journals, books and patents. In order to bring this forward, the university has embarked on a program of actively identifying and recruiting international and world renowned scholars through its Academic Icon Programme where top researchers and academics in the world are identified and recruited for the university. Typically, Academic Icons are those having an H-Index of 25 and above, as well as being of international standing in their respective fields. The program also looks towards the recruitment of Highly Cited Researchers, which represent the top 1% in terms of number of citations in ISI/WoS, and with significantly high H-Indices.

(3)　Implementation of the Standard Academic Performance Target (SAPT) and Remuneration Scheme

　In order to ensure that UM will achieve its target of being one of the top 100 universities in the world, academic staff have a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) as a guide and targets are set for the purposes of appointment, promotion and annual appraisal. The SAPT is focused on measuring and assessing staff performance based on international benchmarking. Together with this, a new remuneration scheme has been put in place in order to attract high achievers as well as to maintain and reward top performers.
Outstanding Achievements
　UM has been in the forefront of research and this has been confirmed through the various national and international awards given to our academics. In 2010, two of our academics, Prof. Harith and Prof. Yong Hoi Seng were recipients of the Merdeka Awards - the country’s highest award for research excellence; and Prof. Looi Lai Ming was one of the three recipients in the country to be awarded the nation’s prestigious Distinguished Professor Award for Science. Other recent awards won by our academics include the 2010 Asia Pacific Frost &Sullivan Niche Company of the Year Award in Molecular Diagnostics (Prof. Shamala), the Women's Inventor Award 2010 (Prof. Norhayaty Abu Kassim) and most recently, the Leading 50 Current and Emerging Female Leaders Living in the Asia 2011 which was won by Prof. Adeeba for her work in AIDS.
　In addition, our academics also publish extensively in high impact ISI indexed journals and one of the papers published by our researchers (Prof. Noorsaadah, Prof. Norzulani and Prof. Halijah) was identified as 50 Top Most-cited paper for 2007-2009 in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letter. In recognition of the research excellence of our academics, two of our academics are also holders of prestigious Chairs - the Siti Hasmah Chair 2010 is held by Prof. Nik Meriam and the Tun Ali Ismail Chair 2010 is held by Dr. Ajit Singh.
　In the field of electronics, communication and technology, the Electrical Engineering Department at UM is the only Electrical Engineering department in Malaysia which has been ranked (by field) by QS ranking and is among the top 100~150 in the world. In addition, UM has also set up UMPEDAC (Centre of Research for Power Electronics, Drives, Automation and Control) which is one of the six pioneer National Centres of Excellence in Malaysia.
　UM is also proud to have achieved the MS ISO 9001:2000 Certification and more recently we have also been given self accreditation status by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency. These certifications are recognitions given by accreditation bodies which recognize that the University of Malaya has in place, mechanisms which ensure that we deliver high quality education and research that meets international standards.
Global Collaborations and Internationalization Programs
　In UM, our academics and the individual faculties collaborate globally with their counterparts in research and publication and a number of global collaborations are also carried out through our Research Centres. For example our Centre for Natural Products Research and Drug Discovery (CENAR) has collaborations between natural products researchers and institutions like the Strathclyde Institute of Drug Research (SIDR) Glasgow, Nationale des Recherches Scientifiques (CNRS), France, Aga Khan University, Pakistan, the Pharmacology Department, National University of Singapore, Ghent University, Belgium and Hoshi University, Japan.
　In order to increase our international collaborations in the field of electronics, information and communication technologies, UM has two research clusters - the research cluster for ICT and Computational science and the research cluster for Advanced Engineering and Technology. Currently the focus of research for ICT and Computational Science is on artificial intelligence, software engineering, Computer System Networks and Technology, Information System, Library Science Bioinformatics and Multimedia applications. On the other hand the Advanced Engineering and Technology (AET) cluster has the specific goal of creating an internationally recognized centre of excellence in Engineering and Technology, which, by its research and related activities, will constitute a major resource for the generation of knowledge and the training of new engineers, scientists and technologists. The AET cluster comprises of 1 Higher Institution Centres of Excellence (HICoE) which is UMPEDAC, and 13 Research Centres, one of which is the Centre of Research in Applied Electronics (CRAE). The clusters’ panel members consist of senior Professors with proven track records in research and industry leaders as advisors, and headed by the Chairperson. Internal members come across from all faculties in UM and external members are from universities or companies outside UM.
　UM also collaborates through its international affiliations as it is a member of such global affiliations like the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), ASEAN University Network (AUN Board Member), Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning (ASAIHL), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), World Association for Cooperative Education (WACE) and Asia-Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE). As a member of such networks, the university participates actively in the seminars and conferences organized by the associations and the Vice Chancellor also interacts with other Presidents /rectors during the annual meetings to discuss how UM can work with our international partners.
　As part of the university’s efforts to be internationalized, UM has established an active student exchange program in 2010. This program is monitored by the International Students Centre (ISC). To date, UM has received 986 inbound students and simultaneously 1,750 students from UM have taken this opportunity to spend time in institutions outside Malaysia. The majority of the inbound students are from Korea, China, Indonesia and Thailand.
　In addition to the international students who are here on exchange, there are also 3,100 full time international students who are here mainly for post graduate studies. The fact that in total there are students from over 120 countries in the campus at any one time is a reflection of the university’s globalization efforts and the success of its internationalization programs.
　In recent years, UM has also embarked on developing joint post graduate degree programs which have been proven to be very successful. UM students have benefitted from the joint supervision which they have received through these joint programs and the supervisors have also had the opportunity to collaborate with their international counterparts. Some of the joint /split PhD programs are with the University of Sydney, Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Melbourne, Imperial College London, the University of Nottingham, Consortium of French University Presidents (Conference des presidents d'universite), Queens University Belfast and University of the West of England, to name a few.
　As part of the university’s efforts to promote globalization and internationalization, UM has also established a Kyoto University Office and Queen’s University Belfast Office in the campus to assist researchers who are collaborating with academics in these institutions. UM is also host to the Kong Zi Institute established by the Government of the People’s Republic of China to promote the learning of the Chinese language in this region.
　The 21st century is indeed an exciting time for UM and with the steps that have been taken to put UM on the road map for globalization, UM is moving towards being a truly internationalized institution of higher learning in Malaysia. 　

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