KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — Public universities will need to show they have improved their performances before asking the government for more funds, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.

Amid Malaysia’s dismal scores on international higher education rankings, Najib said local universities should not expect automatic additional monetary endowments.

“If universities want additional budget, they must show better productivity and efficiency. Then only, we will give out additional budget,” Najib, who is also finance minister, said in his speech launching the Malaysian Higher Education Blueprint here.

The country’s public universities have repeatedly failed to be included in the annual Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings since 2011 even though some ministers have described them to be of international standards.

Najib also encouraged public universities to try raising their own funds before applying for additional resources from the government, by monetising their assets or reaching out to their alumni.

“There are universities with a land bank of 2,000 acres, you can monetise your assets. You can find your own endowments, ask from your alumni,” he said.

This comes after Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama in February that Malaysia’s institutions of higher education are on par with those in the United States, Germany and Australia as there are 135,000 foreigners making up 10 per cent of all students in local universities and colleges.

The minister also cited Universiti Malaya’s (UM) rise in the 2014 QS World University Rankings, from 167 to 151, as further evidence.

However, Malaysian universities have failed to register on the radar of other more prominent education listings in recent years, including the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2014.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities produced by Shanghai Jiao Tung University also placed UM in the bottom 100 of 400 universities worldwide last year, while UM barely scraped through the top 500 universities in the US News’ Best Global Universities at 423rd place.

In the Ranking Web of Universities compiled by Webometrics produced by a Spanish research group, Universiti Putra Malaysia ranked 420th, followed by Universiti Sains Malaysia at the 480th spot, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia at 552nd and UM bottomed out among local universities with its placing at 646th.

Malaysia’s education system has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years, with politicians and employers questioning the quality of its students and graduates, despite the government’s push to turn the country into an education hub.