Developed under the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015–2025 for Higher Education, SETARA employs a rigorous assessment methodology to rate an education institution’s three core functions, namely teaching and learning, research, and services and income. Although measured against the same performance metrics, each institutional category is rated fairly to reflect its diversity and unique strengths.

The latest rating exercise under SETARA 2026 involves institutions with university, university college, and college status, which are rated and weighted as follows:

• Universities: All universities are now rated under a single category known as SETARA University.
• University Colleges: Institutions with university college status, regardless of their establishment history.

Malaysian Quality Evaluation System (MyQUEST) is an instrument developed by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education in 2009 to evaluate the performance of Private Colleges in Malaysia.

Designed to encourage quality improvements among the colleges, MyQUEST looks into 4 core quality assessment criteria, which consist of:

1. General
2. Teaching and Learning
3. Research
4. Services and Income

In line with the rebranding of MyQUEST and SETARA under SETARA 2026, the previous classification of Private Colleges into Large, Medium, and Small categories has been discontinued. Starting from SETARA 2026, all Private Colleges will be collectively evaluated under the SETARA College category