KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — The 11th Malaysia plan (11MP), which was tabled in Parliament today, aims to see two Malaysian universities ranked among the top 100 tertiary education institutions on the London-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University ranking scale.

In the RMK11 executive summary, the third core strategy outlined ways to improve the calibre of individual Malaysians in order to inch closer to developed country status, one of which was to improve the quality of education in Malaysia.

Currently, the top-ranked Malaysian university on the QS World University ranking scale for 2014 to 2015 is University Malaya at number 151.

Local universities fared better on the London-based ranking system by subject with UM ranked 32nd for Development Studies, a new subject to be ranked for 2015, while Universiti Sains Malaysia tied for 31st place in Environmental Sciences.

RMK11 also strives to be “at least on par with the global average for the Pisa and Timss evaluations”, which refers to the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss).

According to local daily The Star, Pisa 2012, which were released December 2013, saw Malaysia score below the global average on all three sections namely mathematics, science and reading, thus garnering the 52nd spot out of 65 countries.

Pisa is administered by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Develop­ment (OECD) every three years on 15-year-olds in both OECD and non-OECD countries, during which students are tested in their main language of instruction.

Local news portal the Malaysian Insider reported that the TIMSS 2011 results saw Malaysia scoring below the global average for mathematics and science.

TIMSS is an international assessment that is conducted every four years and evaluates a minimum of 4,500 to 5,000 students each time.

Putrajaya is facing huge pressure for serious improvement in its education policies following the constant failure of local varsities to make it to top global rankings in recent years.

The opposition had previously used the rankings to accuse Putrajaya of failing to make Malaysia’s education system competitive but the government insisted that Malaysian varsities were on par with top schools from richer economies like the United Kingdom and the US.