Developed under the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2015-2025 for Higher Education, SETARA employs a rigorous assessment methodology to rate an education institution’s three core functions, namely teaching, research and services. Although measured against the same performance metric, each of the three categories have their own weightage so that their diversity, as well as unique strengths and challenges specific to their niche are fairly represented.
The last rating exercise was completed in 2017 involving institutions of university and university college status, which performance are rated and weighted as follows:
- Mature universities: Universities which are over 15 years old.
- Emerging universities: Universities which have been established within the last 15 years.
- University colleges: Institutions with university college status regardless of their history.
| Mature University | Emerging University | University College | |
|---|---|---|---|
| General | 40% | 40% | 40% |
| Teaching & Learning | 30% | 40% | 50% |
| Research | 20% | 15% | 5% |
| Services | 10% | 5% | 5% |
*Weight given for each performance area.
University colleges and emerging universities are expected to build their strengths in teaching and overall profile first, whereas mature universities are expected to engage in more research and expand services that they offer.
General: Institutional Profile
- Student quality and diversity
- Lecturer capability
- Academic staff recognition
- Quality management system
- Financial sustainability
- Institutional reputation
Teaching & Learning
- Capacity of academic staff
- Student satisfaction on teaching and facilities
- Quality of graduates
- Internationalisation of Academic programmes
- Program recognition
Research Capacity
- Critical mass of researchers
- Research income
- Quantity of publications
- Quality management system
- Quality of publications
Services and Income Generation
- Income from commercialisation of intellectual property
- University’s social responsibility and knowledge transfer programme
- Education and training programmes
- Other sources of income
*Detailed criteria employed for SETARA rating for each performance area.
