Universiti Malaya (UM) has no reason to 'celebrate' its ranking in the Times Higher Education Supplement (Thes) since there is a drop from last year, said Deputy Higher Education Minister Fu Ah Kiow.

"The lower ranking of UM now is not something that we should be glad of," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

He said the ministry will discuss the matter before deciding whether UM should remove billboards and banners erected at its campus in Petaling Jaya.

"We will discuss the problem. We should take the ranking seriously. We should not be celebrating," he added.

The billboards and banners, which appeared two days after the Thes ranking was released, recognised the achievements of certain faculties.

Previously, UM vice-chancellor Hashim Yaakob said the university was ranked among the best 100 universities in arts and humanities, social sciences, biomedicine and science and technology.

However, its overall ranking stood at 169, a drop from its 89th spot the year before.

Promising to study the matter, Fu, a former UM student, said: "We should not be in a state of denial."

Losing battle

Meanwhile, Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said he told Higher Education Minister Dr Shafie Salleh in a meeting this morning that he was concerned whether UM would fall out of the list of the top 200 universities next year.

"I asked him why we should go on a carnival when the university's tanking has dropped from 89th to 169the," he told a press conference at the same venue.

He said Shafie agreed to raise his suggestion to set up a parliamentary select committee on higher education with the Cabinet.

In a related development, an emergency motion tabled by Lim to debate the Thes ranking was rejected by Speaker Ramli Ngah Talib on the grounds that it was not urgent.

In his motion, the opposition leader said the ranking reflected Malaysia's losing battle for international competitiveness.