HELP University has set a new standard of excellence by becoming the first private university in Southeast Asia to achieve 5 Stars in all 9 categories of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Star Rating System for international higher education institutions in 2020.
The 9 areas of global excellence are Teaching, Online Learning, Internationalization and Employability as well as Academic Development, Facilities, Social Responsibility, Inclusiveness, and Programme Strength for its Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme in the ELM Graduate School. And the university’s overall score was 843 out of 1,000.
In the area of Inclusiveness, HELP University obtained a perfect score of 50. HELP Research Management Centre director Prof. Geoffrey Williams says their perfect score is mainly thanks to the education funding for the low-income students, which is more than just handing out scholarships and bursaries.
Inclusiveness is about diversity in the student and academic staff population, says Williams, adding that this includes differently abled people (OKU), minority groups and international students. HELP also collaborates with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to assist the refugee communities in Malaysia.
In the Internationalization category, the world-class diversity and international outlook of HELP University was recognized through full marks for international collaborations with 116 global partners, students and faculty hailing from 62 different countries and an active student exchange programme with regional and global universities allowing hundreds of inbound and outbound student exchange opportunities each year.
In terms of Teaching, HELP University achieved full marks for student satisfaction with teaching and further study, with almost one third of HELP graduates opting to continue full or part-time study after graduation.
“We are particularly proud that our faculty inspire our students to continue to study,” says Williams. “We aim to nurture a desire for life-long learning and enquiry which empowers our students to enrich their lives by finding out more about the things that interest and challenge them intellectually.”
For the Online Learning Award, the QS Stars Ratings team provided a formal, independent audit of HELP University’s performance across 14 indicators in the Online Learning category. This is benchmarked against international standards of excellence. Liz Quah, Director of HELP University’s Management Information Systems (MIS) department said, “We have invested in the development and implementation of our online learning management system over the years using our expertise to meet the needs of the university’s online learning. The achievement of this award is the result of the teamwork of the people at HELP. We are inspired to broaden the application of online learning concepts and technologies to excel in the delivery of quality education to our students under the Transformation Task Force on Digitalization and Technology.”
HELP University’s programmes for Social Responsibility were also benchmarked as world class with almost 100 hours of volunteer hours for each member of the HELP community, and more than RM48 million of social value created each year. Moreover, the university’s monetary contributions to society are equivalent to 46% of the university’s income.
In the area of Employability, HELP University’s 5 Star rating was supported by full marks for the career empowerment services of CAREER Sense, the university’s own in-house one-stop career support and development centre. In terms of gender balance HELP University plays its role with women making up most of its students and staff, including among senior managers.
Shiloh Rose, Product Manager for QS Stars at the QS Intelligence Unit in the United Kingdom commented, “QS would like to congratulate HELP University for their outstanding performance in QS Stars, achieving the maximum 5 Stars in all eight categories and 5 Stars overall. These results show that HELP University is truly a world-class university and excels in areas such as teaching, graduate employability, and internationalization.”
In 2019, VNU-IS and HELP launched the Bachelor in Marketing program which was designed by both parties in 2018 under the dual degree model. In this program, the Bachelor in Marketing will be awarded by VNU and the Bachelor of Business (Marketing) (Honours) will be awarded by HELP University. This is the first international joint-training program with the degree awarded by VNU and its foreign partner university.
Students of the program will have an opportunity to study the 6th semester of the program (covering 8 semesters) at HELP University with the same tuition fees. In addition, they will be offered great opportunities to take part in study tour or exchange programs between two institutions as well as to attend a Convocation Ceremony in Malaysia.
Congratulations on the new achievement of HELP University in the world university rankings. We do hope that HELP University will gain more success in the near future.
Top
