What can Malaysia learn from other countries about autonomy and accountability in Higher Education? There is much that is distinctive about every national context, perhaps especially the Malaysian one, but in the era of globalization tertiary sectors around the world face many similar challenges.

In this paper author Sean Matthews argues against dominant Western influences in higher education in Malaysia and challenges externally-conceived global rankings by universities and policymakers. Instead, he provides alternatives in evaluating performance through the examples of Ghana and Mexico – which offer many interesting points of comparison with Malaysia as developing and middle-income postcolonial nations with relevant and robust higher education sectors.