a minimum full-time residence of three years. degrees in engineering, health sciences, pharmacy, medicine and dentistry require minimum periods of study between four and five years. most undergraduate courses are taught in english, especially in science courses, except for humanities and social science. international students have to demonstrate a level of proficiency in the national language as part of the entrance criteria. however they will be taught as one of compulsory subjects once they enroll as a student. other study programmes usm has programmes for foreign students, and they can undertake one or two semesters. these students are considered full-time and enjoy the benefits of usm's academic and physical facilities. the school of distance education was established in 1971 to provide opportunities for local working adults to obtain a tertiary qualification. these students are able to undertake undergraduate courses while they are in full-time employment. at present four undergraduate degree programmes are available through distance learning: bachelor of science, bachelor of social science, bachelor of arts, and bachelor of management. collaboration with overseas universities the university and the university of indonesia (ui) collaborates with the singapore university of social sciences (suss) on suss's ba malay language and literature, university of glasgow, institute technology bandung (itb) and many more to come. departments library of universiti sains malaysia activities the football field on usm main campus usm has facilities for student accommodation, sporting and recreation. the university offers housing for approximately 75% of its students. they are known as student villages or hostels (desasiswa in malay), and they are on campus. cafeterias can be found all around the university area. usm provides sporting facilities such as archery range, cricket, football field, badminton courts, tennis courts, hockey ground, rugby field, softball, squash courts, and basketball courts. its ground was used for the 2008 u/19 cricket world cup. other activities include cultural activities, leadership programs, community service programs and excellence programs with the co-operation of the student advisory and development unit, the sports unit, the arts and cultural development unit, hostel management. activities are realised through societies, clubs, sports and cultural activities, motivation workshops and debate competitions. among others, usm has a jazz orchestra called the usm jazz band that is composed of student musicians from various schools in the university. there are annual activities such as forums, workshops and programs in conjunction with the national day celebrations such as the ambang merdeka night and the merdeka campus walk, and religious activities such as qur'an recitation and ramadhan appreciation month in the holy month of ramadhan. hostels the hostels known as student villages or (desasiswa in malay) under the property of the university of science malaysia are as follows: main campus aman damai fajar harapan bakti permai cahaya gemilang indah kembara restu saujana tekun the names of the hostels indicate a merger between formerly separate hostels. for example, "aman damai fajar harapan" was formerly four separate hostels, each having its own administration under a hostel warden ("penggawa" in malay) and assistant warden. engineering campus jaya lembaran utama health campus murni nurani ranking the university was ranked 111th in the world university rankings 2004 published by the times higher education supplement. however, it dropped out of the list of top 200 universities in the world in 2005. in 2019, however, the university placed 601–800th in the world university rankings. it also placed 49th in university impact rankings and 151 – 200th in the young university rankings. usm's then vice-chancellor prof tan sri dato' dzulkifli abdul razak said that the addition of new criteria such as the employer survey could have contributed to the sharp drop in the university's integrity: "our poor standing could also be attributed to the fact that we are a relatively young university compared to um which is 100 years old. they have built up a stable reputation in that time." prof. dzulkifli also cited the poor staff-student ratio in malaysian universities: "over the past years we have doubled our intake. usm now has 35,000 students including 28,000 undergraduates but the number of lecturers, about 1,400 has not increased in tandem." on 3 september 2008, universiti sains malaysia (usm) was declared the apex (accelerated programme for excellence) university by the ministry of higher education of malaysia. in 2010, usm achieved the position of 123 under the category of life sciences and biomedicine (times higher education qs world university rankings). for the 2010 qs asian university rankings, usm was at 69th place. for particular subjects, the rankings were as below: year subject rank 2010 arts & humanities 58 engineering & technology 63 social sciences & management 37 natural sciences 39 life sciences & medicine 20 on 2015, usm was ranked 87th in best global universities for engineering of u.s. news & world report college and university ranking. qs world university rankings year rank valuer 2012 326qs world university rankings 2013 355qs world university rankings 2014 401–500academic ranking of world universities 2015 309qs world university rankings 2016 289qs world university rankings 2017 330qs world university rankings 2018 264qs world university rankings 2019 207qs world university rankings 2020 165qs world university rankings 2021 142qs world university rankings 2022 147qs world university rankings notable alumni notable universiti sains malaysia alumni chow kon yeow, current chief minister of penang. yusril ihza mahendra, current general chairman of the indonesian crescent star party. the alumni of universiti sains malaysia include politicians such as tun seri setia haji mohd ali mohd rustam, current yang di-pertua negeri of malacca, chow kon yeow, current chief minister of penang, dato' sri wan rosdy wan ismail, current menteri besar of pahang, dato' seri haji muhammad sanusi md nor, current menteri besar of kedah and yusril ihza mahendra, current general chairman of the indonesian crescent star party. movies and television movies filmed on or near usm's campus include: ali setan (1985) soalnya siapa (2002) vennira iravuggal (2014) the sleep curse (2017) television shows have used usm's campus, including: layang-layang terputus talinya spektra