Having made many visits to countries such as Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, Malaysian academic Morshidi Sirat was well aware of the overwhelming challenges facing universities in developing countries. He knew they struggled to gain institutional autonomy, and to find adequate research funding and talented people with experience in university administration, research and teaching.
What he didn't expect to hear was that some of these universities had set themselves a new goal - to make the list of the world's top 200 universities.
'I was very worried when senior administrators of the universities were talking about the Times rankings,' Professor Morshidi said.
'So many universities spend so much money trying to be in the top 200 ... they will never be near those rankings. They are just throwing resources down the drain.'
Securing a top-ranked place has become the holy grail for universities worldwide. With competition for the top students, academics and funding intensifying, many are placing greater emphasis on external rankings to market their programmes.
Education commentators, however, are increasingly questioning the validity and relevance of the most popular rankings, and various groups are now devising alternative methods to assess universities.