Higher/Tertiary Education Of Malaysia

[chenchow]

With the creation of the new Ministry of Higher Education, and with the minister has listed down some of the main target, it would be great if ReCom members can get down and share your opinions and lets have a good discussion.

http://recom.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1404

http://recom.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1396

Among the main points raised including too much root learning, non-marketable of graduates, lacking industry and education institution connection, english language etc.

[kIdd0]

Yup, i agree that the Malaysian education system lacks far behind when it comes to industry connection and stuff. Most graduates in Malaysia almost never got any hands on experience prior to graduation and i believe that this is the utmost factor on why Malaysian graduates lack the 'marketable'-value...

[DecentMerson]

YUP... i agree :!:

most graduates are not qualified for the job without special training after their degrees....which is why they are lots of local graduates are unemploy and or under paid...

[USSDefiantNX74205]

If you ask me, the main reason Malaysian graduates are often unemployed is the combination of the lack of job opportunities and the fact that our local unis are mass-producing graduates like factories. It's not a good thing really - too many local grads make local degrees worthless. There's no real prestige in having a local degree if every Tom, Dick and Harry down the street has one too.

Also, in times of economic uncertainty and limited employment opportunity like now, employers often favour grads from foreign unis as they have the skills that local grads don't have, mainly critical thinking and practical experience. From what I hear about students at local unis, most of the are of the 'telan dan muntah' variety - all they ever do is stick to their books 24/7 and memorize the facts in them and then spit it all out during the exams.

[morpheous]

repost this old article from malaysiakini....perhaps the answer is already answered by this article??

When quality is absent, meritocracy matters not: educationists

Yusof Ghani
5:04am Wed May 29th, 2002

news feature Prof Khoo Kay Kim?s answer was a shocking one. Coming from someone who has committed almost all his life towards greater education for Malaysians, his words when met last Thursday were certainly hard to believe.

?I don?t think that I can teach anymore,? said Khoo who quit teaching three years ago.

?Our students these days are not the same as in the past. Their quality is way below par,? added the historian whose disappointment was obvious.

Even top scoring students have no idea what they are learning, most of them just memorise instead of understanding the subjects, lamented the professor emeritus at Universiti Malaya?s history department.

?So, what is all the debate about meritocracy now?? he pointed out. ?It is just a matter of statistics, like how many points one scores... but it does not tell anything.?

After almost 40 years in the university, Khoo knows well what he was talking about. To him, there is a larger issue to address, rather than just who and how many students from which ethnic group should qualify to enter government-run public universities.

?The question is, are we producing quality students? If our graduates are not capable of competing at international level or making themselves marketable, let?s not talk about meritocracy for now.?

Reinvent system

Khoo is right. Some 40,000 graduates, including master?s degree holders are currently jobless. Competition is extremely stiff that, on average, 300 to 400 candidates are vying for the same job in the private sector, and even more for the public sector.

?Rather,? he continued, ?we need to reinvent our education system.?

He contrasted the situation today with that of Universiti Malaya?s earlier days, when a mere 25 percent of its students who had come in as freshies would walk up the stage to receive their degree on convocation day, four or five years later.

But now, the passing rate in the university is so high, exceeding 90 percent, said Khoo.?This is even more apparent in the private universities because failing the students means shying away potential customers,? he added.

University education now tends to produce as many graduates as possible, perhaps to meet the demand in job markets, especially in the last decade which saw Malaysia?s economy grow by an average of eight percent a year till it was thrown off track by the 1997 economic crisis, he said.

Unexposed lecturers

While he admitted that it was good to see the growing number of public and private universities, poor monitoring on the part of the government has led to the decline in quality.

According to Khoo, if students refused to read either textbooks (which should prepare them for examinations)or other materials, it will reduce their analytical skills almost next to nothing and lecturers should also share the blame.

?Some of our lecturers are not even exposed to the outside world. They come to the university just to teach and hardly do any research or write any journal.

?How could these lecturers prepare their students to compete on a global scale if they themselves were never exposed internationally?? asked Khoo.

?Most of our lecturers are not capable of debating with the westerners, even on issues in our country or in the region. That?s why, for example, we keep inviting westerners to give talks about Southeast Asian studies and other related issues that we ourselves should have mastered.?

If this problem persists, how can we talk about meritocracy? Khoo reiterated. ?I don?t care about the system but only for quality,? he insisted.

?Study like a parrot?

The lacklustre environment in the lecture halls also contributes to Khoo?s frustration.

Students, he said, refuse to ask questions or give their opinion when they know that the lecturer is offering something which is not quite right.

?Malaysian students should learn not to study like a parrot, which has been our tradition all this while. If the subjects are technical ones, the students may learn in a mechanical manner (so that they can pass the exam)... even dogs can learn in a mechanical way.?

To claims that students with Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) are more ?superior? than those who attended the Matriculation programme, Khoo begged to differ.

?We found out that even those who got As in their STPM may not really know what are they doing in university,? he said.

Therefore he suggested that there was no point in debating the merit-based admission for public universities.

?At the moment, everyone should think about improving the quality of education, right from primary school to university.?

Khoo called upon policy and decision makers to think hard about revolutionising Malaysia?s education system as soon as possible to produce analytical minds.

?When this is to be done, input from all parties must be taken into account. Normally those who have the knowledge are not equipped with authority to make the decisions,? said Khoo.

Stakeholders? input

Fellow educationist Prof P Ramasamy, who teaches political science at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), insisted that when a new policy is formulated, inputs from various stakeholders are of utmost importance.

?Like in the implementation of the university admission based on merit, the government should have called for feedback from relevant parties before implementing it,? said Ramasamy, who is also a political commentator.

?If all inputs had been considered earlier, and the policy implementation based on them, then problems would not arrive later,? he added.

The idea of a merit-based intake was suggested by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad last July and implemented this year.

Like Khoo, Ramasamy also admitted that the quality of public universities is declining because they are unable to attract the cream of the crop, who would rather study overseas despite the higher costs.

?Only the second, third and fourth echelon would come to the public universities... and normally this is because they have no other choice due to financial difficulties.?

This ?second-best? factor may explain somewhat the reason local graduates are finding so much difficulty in securing jobs.

For instance, in a letter to the editor published in a Malay daily yesterday, a reader, apparently a graduate in mechanical engineering from a local university, claimed that she has applied for more than 200 jobs in the past three years, only to be called for a couple of interviews which in the end got her nowhere!

That, said Khoo, also reflected the failure of our universities to produce students who are able to be on their own and not depend on others for jobs.

This focus on the quality of local universities is the first part of a four-part series on the controversy that arose out of the newly-implemented ?merit-based? admission into local universities. The next article will focus on the politicisation of the system.

[chenchow]

That article is a good one, morpheous. It has clearly showcased the bottom line of the problem.

I would say that many of Malaysians, are still too used to spoon-feeding. Everything is being spoon-fed. Perhaps, there should be an overhaul of system, where students are expected to learn on their own, make their own progress checks. I would look at this as a regional problems. Many other countries in Asia is facing the same problem.

But looking at our case. Prof Khoo has mentioned an important point. It doesn't matter what we are achieving, but how good is the quality of our graduates? Is the quality of our sponsored-students to be proud of? Is the flow of expertise, knowledge etc, from students who have the opportunities to learn overseas, to channel back to Malaysia?

[wwhong]

that is really a big obstacle in the development if the problem continues. when i compare myself to the american students, i really see the huge differences. yeah, i might got a better result than them but in real life they are doing way better than me. for eg, i have a friend who's now doing a research project for NASA and he just went to NASA center in houston last month to conduct the flying experiment. and yeah, i did better than him in the exam but still he's way smarter than me.

another problem i think is the mentality of the students. here in US, u go to university to learn something that you are interested in and learn how to live a life. but i think in m'sia, people just go to university to get a degree and hope with that degree will guarantee them a job. i have another friend who is majoring in music took calculus and physics which has nothing related to music at all. he said he just want to learn more and yeah he's a talented guy in music and he compose his own songs. i think in m'sia, people will only study what they need to study and that's it. the point here is to gain more exposure and improve your thinking skills, you gonna forget most of the materials u learned in your freshmen calculus class anyway.

in US, the professors really encourage students to learn. they won't feel embarassed even if u point out their mistakes and they are willing to share with u their knowledges.

i think those are what local universities lack of. if the situation continues, our local u will only become no more than the degree paper producer.

of course, solution is more important as this is not a new issue anymore but how to do it i hope we will be able to count on the newly formed higher education department. let's hope it won't be a dept which do no actual jobs.

[chenchow]

In fact, I would say that it is also the limitation of public/private institutions in Malaysia. I know of some students who wish to learn extra, but they were typically got very restricted. For instance, I have friends who besides the common requirements, only get to take very few extra courses, because they are not allowed to do, and they have lots of free time and have easy semesters. Although not every student may find it easy, I would hope that local institutions will allow students to have greater flexibilities.

So, I would say that it is both the students and institutions problem.

[thesoothsayer]

Well, as someone who did his basic degree in a local public university, I can say that you are very right there on the issue of inflexibility. Once you are accepted for any course or major, there's no way that you'll be allowed to change courses or even choose the subjects that you want to major in.

Most students who apply for a place in a local uni have no idea what the course is all about due to lack of information and even if there is information in the prospectus, it's often out of date or subject to change without any prior notice.

Case in point, one of the classes that was forced on to me was not compulsory for my major previously. What happened was that there was only one lecturer who taught the subject and the students in the major who used to have to take the class increased so much that he couldn't handle it. What the faculty authorities did was to change the subject from being a compulsory subject for that major to an elective one and made it compulsory for my major!

I also agree with some of the comments about the spoon feeding culture and "study for the exam" mentality of students in Malaysian universities. I have some friends who have near 4.0 GPAs who have no idea on where to start on a simple microcontroller project. However, to put up a meagre defense of this mentality, you must realise the reality of the situation here is that grades are not always given on merit (anyone surprised by this?). The only way to make sure you Aced the course would be to know the exam material (text books, notes, etc) inside out since maybe half of the exams tested your memory rather than your understanding. I remember one exam that had questions right out of the textbook examples. They gave very limited time to answer them so those who memorised the complete examples were the only ones who could finish them. Even if you understood the questions but didn't memorise the examples, you wouldn't be able to solve them in time.

Unfortunately, students in local public universities have very little recourse. The UUCA (AUKU) has left us toothless to do anything. I would love to see one day Malaysian students being able to do what their foreign counterparts are doing in terms of influencing the political and social climates of their countries. Coming to the US for a job assignment really opened my eyes to how different college/university life is for those of us stuck in Malaysia and the lucky ones (yes, you are lucky in some ways even if you have to pay much, much more for your education) overseas.

[chenchow]

thesoothsayer, thanks a lot for your sharing.

I fully agree with you about the lack of dissemination of information about the particular information/courses to be taken in various majors in IPTA and IPTS. It is something that those institutions should work hard on.

I think in terms of inflencing in political or social aspect, I am not too sure about it, since I have never studied in IPTA. However, I would say that with the current pace of technology, there are various avenues for someone to share their idea/opinion on that matter. I think one thing that should be encouraged would be for students to not only point out what is to be improved, but how to be improved. That is a very crucial point.

[noneedname]

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Public universities and institutions of higher learning are set up and run using public funds. In other words - taxpayers' money with all races being taxed on the same rate.

Therefore every citizen should have the fundamental right to enjoy the same benefits provided by these public-funded institutions.

In private colleges and universities, local or overseas, students pay a hefty sum for the tuition fees.

Except for some privileged few from wealthy families who do not even consider the local universities as an option, most are from middle- or working-class families who have to take a study loan or use their parents' life savings to pay for the fees.

And there are some who do not even have such avenues.

The declining standard of universities in Malaysia is so glaring that everyone knows about it but does not wish to talk about it.

Every educated man on the street knows about the double standards in our education system. We hear the Education Ministers comparing matriculation and the STPM stating that they are comparable in standards.

Most educationists know that they are not of the same standard but the question most people would ask is if they are of the same standard why not have a common entry examination for all Malaysians?

When quality is sacrificed at the altar of quantity, this is what will happen.

But instead of learning from these mistakes, our Education Ministry announced that it wants more substandard students to enter local universities so that we will have more graduates. What we will have in the end is a perpetual dependence on foreign labour.

The prime minister was moaning about the attitude of always waiting for subsidies and handouts. He shouldn't blame anyone but the government.

The Umno-led government's folly of spoon-feeding for the last 35 years means that they now cannot change the 'subsidy mindset' without risking losing seats in a general election.

They wanted to help the bumi but they went about it the wrong way and for far too long. In the process the non-bumi has become more resilient and hence more sought after by the private sector which unlike the government, is not inclined to pay fat salaries for dead wood.

There is a saying, 'As you sow, so shall you reap'.

All we can do is pray that those in power will arrest this dangerous problem in the education system immediately.





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[cquayhl]

An article from Malaysiakini and a link to the committee referred to.

http://policystudy.uitm.edu.my/en/home.jsp

Ready-to-roll plans for world-class higher education
Nurul Nazirin
Jun 1, 05 6:45pm

The Committee to Study, Review and Make Recommendations Concerning the Development and Directions of Higher Education in Malaysia is ready to get down to work - to recommend plans for the creation of a world-class tertiary education in the country.

Former education director-general Dr Wan Mohd Zahid Mohd Noordin, appointed by Higher Education Minister Dr Shafie Salleh, is helming the 12-member committee comprising of representatives from public and private institutions.

?We will come up with ready-to-roll recommendations. We want to point out to the government the things we should and must do,? Zahid told malaysiakini when met in Putrajaya today.

The formation of the committee on Jan 17 aims to prepare a comprehensive report of its findings and recommendations to improve the quality of higher education.

The committee is scheduled to complete the report by July 17 which will be presented to Shafie.

The terms of reference of the committee include to survey the current growth and development and identify issues and problems related to the higher education sector, polytechnics and community colleges.

The committee will also study and review higher education policies that could become instruments of integration of national unity.

On recommendations, Zahid said they have been formulated by conducting dialogues with leaders from public and private institutions, academicians, student and women non-governmental organisations and the Bar Council.

Match dreams with deeds

An official website has been set up to gather feedback and suggestions from the public on tertiary education to enable the committee to study their observations in depth.

?Our task is to match dreams with deeds. Dreams can also come true if we put our hearts in it,? he urged.

?What is new (from compiling the report) is the feedback from the bench marking visits that the committee has made,? he explained.

He explained that the committee has been making visits to other countries and comparing - in terms of facilities, types of investment made by the industry, among others. Citing out China, Japan, Korea, Europe, United States of America and Australia, he said that, ?we deliberately choose to go to the best in class because we want to be world-class.?

Zahid emphasised that higher education should be sensitive to what other countries have put into, as ?what they do will affect us.?

He was confident with the approach the team has applied and this will be justified with the recommendations in the report. ?We (the committee) believe to make a stab on it with the information available to us.?

?Let the public judge...we (the committee) hope that we don?t disappoint them (the public),? he said, adding that he is looking forward to the completion of the report and hoping to fulfil the public?s expectations.

He highlighted that the committee he is leading, is not a commission - unlike the royal police commission that was formed to improve the police force.

Besides the committee members, there are four representatives from the Higher Education ministry who are working closely with Zahid. Currently, they have compiled about 200 pages of the report.

[Jia_Hong]

higher education in Malaysia, investing in Nation's future as a whole
Personally I would say that it's a continous cycle - administrators (politicial linked ppl, rather than academians) want to show more results, without properly thinking, hence it produce more students who learn without knowing what they are doing.

Yet, as I believe many of the Recom members are studying overseas, why not just take a look at how the Government is encouraging education?

I was wondering about this when the DPM came to visit Imperial College, when he seem to have a tendency to ask:"Are you on a scholarship?"

I may be wrong about this - because it is really a one-sided view on things, my thoughts after pondering over:

Students who are on JPA, MARA, Petronas etc. scholarship,
how are these students making the best out of their education - are they doing what they have been sponsored to do? To make the best of their time, to participate in the wealth of knowledge in these universities of their choice (I wonder if most are admitted into the top-rated ones).

It seems sadly that many do not compete rigorously, and don't seem to realise that those scholarships are not a gift or a privilege - but it's hard-earned taxpayers money for the nation's future.
(to be honest, we are not in a such a bad situation - for instance, I have a friend from UAE saying that the tonnes of money poured out for students to go overseas - are merely wasted because many of the students just go overseas and play, with half of them failing to even get 2:1)

This mindset does not just prevail among the students, I believe most people as well...

Although the quality of selection has been increased especially after the 1997 financial crisis.

Selection of students are one criteria, but I'm pondering very much about whether the students are encouraged to do their very best, and those who slack be reprimanded. A scholar can become a bad investment for the nation when he become submitted to ignorance, and just merely going overseas as a form of merely enjoying.

I'm just wondering whether if there is really a quality standard or assurance among the scholars? Let say, 1st class, and GPA of 3.8 to maintain the scholarship? or perhaps in an example set by GE in Malaysia: involving in a certain amount of community service?

In a way, I felt that the scholarship seems to be a political tool, rather than an investment on the youth and future of the nation.

Back to the Local Higher Education,
these millions of dollars - if properly invested in nations future, can be then redirected to the local universities, at least have a few top-rated institutions in the nation.

If providing scholarship is education for the citizen, then how about improving the quality of local universities? Isn't such a move more worthy - as it provide more opportunity for all?

If a country's (so-called) best students are not well maintained and nurtured to be their best (and to do this, is making policies and push for a paradigm shift - as compare to building a strong reputation of academia, sourcing out funding, international collaboration, which is much harder), how do you expect the local universities to become world class?

Or is our country so sad that even that the malaysian mentality problem has cloud us all...?

I have nothing against scholarships (as it really do provide opportunity for those who cannot afford but are worthy of a good education to go), but I feel sad that many of the students are not taking the scholarship seriously, because it is after all the nation's money.


[/b]

[reign226]

I don't know if anybody had read the Higher Education in Crisis series at Jeff Ooi's blog. Go do so if you haven't.

I am increasingly discontented not with the quality of the education given, but the way the whole system is being run. Since when did a country's higher education professors have to be subordinate to the politics? The situation where pissing off a minister can get you fired is absurd.

Not a lot of Malaysians are aware of this problem, or not a lot of them care because it's us the students who are suffering and there's nothing constructive we can do about it. Criticizing education has become somewhat of a taboo in our society.

[coolstudy]

Here is the statistic from my own experience……….

Of the same batch of students graduated during the same semester in my college in USA, only 3 of the 12 students returned to Malaysia so far. None of them intend to return in the near future.

Right after graduation, my friend went to Melbourne to do her masters, with one objective on her mind, she wants to get a PR there.

Of the 100000 or more Malaysians who have emigrated to Australia, most are professionals. Their off-springs more often than not, are some of the best performers in schools here (Australia).

Someone mentioned that two-thirds of the community of practicing doctors in Singapore is Malaysian Chinese.

Don't forget Singapore's Netwater - that is founded by Olivia Lum, and presently also a nominated member of parliament in Singapore who made it only because she left Malaysia for Singapore!

Our Malaysia country is so lucky to be blessed with abundant of very best quality resources including human resources. I leave it to you yourself to go and find out who is who.

You name it and we have it. We just have a lot of very talented people from all fields, be it finance, IT, R&D, and etc. These people are highly sought by not just first world countries but the developing ones as well. They willing to offer everything they could even citizenships and needless to say about monetary rewards.

I am pretty sure they (from Mahathir to Pak Lah) know about these very well and they even know more than what we do. But question is, why nothing could be done to curb the losses?

NEP is the key, from the past until today, no Umno leader dare to bet on their entire political career by abolishing the NEP and revoking malay special rights.

Our Malaysia competitive edges like better educated workforces, better financial and legal systems, better infrastructure etc, are no longer better. It is either being offered or better by other Asian countries which are hungrier than us.

The developed countries like Australia know this and continue to pursue brain-gain policies which partly resulted in their 5% economic growth. Malaysia has not even reached there in its economic development and we are struggling with the current growth rate.

For them to survive, they have to be global citizens. I am making sure they master global languages like English and Chinese. The world will compete for the brightest to maintain their edge.

If one's parents continued here (Malaysia), it would have been such a waste of talent. Look around us, everyday you see such wastage in our human resources.

It is not a loss to Malaysia, as Malaysia simply does not have a culture and material to nurture genius brains, due to its "non-competition policies" so to take care of fools……….

Some person is lucky to have parents with a foresight who would be able to get him out from the black box on time. The right type of soil will produce right type of fruits. In Australia, he becomes a sweet orange, if he were to be in Malaysia, he would turn into a sour lime.

I agree that has nothing to do with the Bolehland.

If he were to be in Malaysia at this present age, our Malaysia leaders would simply tell him: "Oh! Sorry, actually English is very important, let us start all over again to teach English in mathematics and science subjects beginning from primary school."

The current Malaysia education system still incapable of maximizing the full potential of the younger generation (even the older ones). A revamp is needed!

Go to the local premier university, see for yourself how the professors recruit research assistant, to help them prepare journal and PowerPoint. Then you will realise how the professors get the title. Afterward, you expect this kind of environment can nurture talent?

Yes……….another Malaysia Boleh!

Because Bolehland university got a quota to meet……….Because Bolehland lost all the talents with no regret……….Because Bolehland got double standards for everything……….

What a sad, sad loss to Malaysia and its economy.?!