On Monday, 11 June 2018, Pergerakan Tenaga Akademik Malaysia (Gerak) accepted a kind invitation to meet Minister of Education Dr Maszlee Malik in Putrajaya.
In our meeting, we conveyed 10 key proposals that Maszlee and the Pakatan Harapan government could implement soon to help make our universities more vibrant, exemplary and progressive.
They are as follows:
- Restructuring of university administration;
- Repealing/amending laws that stifle academic freedom;
- Widening access to higher education institutions by increasing student intake in higher education (especially for Technical and Vocational Education and Training);
- Upholding meritocracy over ‘kulitocracy’;
- Introducing creative pedagogy and alternative assessment practices;
- Reviewing academics’ key performance index (KPI);
- Dissolution of the National Professors Council (MPN);
- Providing a safe and inclusive working environment;
- Ending unethical academic practices – plagiarism, cheating and academic bullying; and
- Establishing a committee on institutional reforms of higher education.
Gerak appreciates Maszlee and the new government’s awareness of the need for broad, meaningful and effective institutional change in higher education as promised in the PH government’s election manifesto.
We agreed that, where politicisation of public universities is concerned, the buck stops here. We also agreed at our meeting that political apparatchiks impersonating as university leaders, deadwood masquerading as academics, will have to go. And we were assured that they will, sooner rather than later.
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Gerak believes that with the adoption of the measures outlined in our proposal above, measures clearly supported and championed by Maszlee, Malaysian universities and academia generally can finally begin to reform and reclaim their autonomy and freedom.
This, we trust, will mark the first steps towards Malaysian universities attaining the academic standards necessary to help move our society and country forward into a challenging new era.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
I think the elephant in the room is the UiTM system which is larger than the rest of the public universities combined. It enrolls over 200,000 students. Unless it is opened up to all Malaysians, we are not addresssing a fundamentally flawed education system that openly discriminates based on nothing less race. This is South Africa under apartheid or the United States before the civil rights movement. How can this still exist in any country, let alone Malaysia?
Quality should take precedence over numbers.
Like the merit Base admission. ..i hope the ministry will also be transparent with the admission rates…
It is time to bring Malaysian standards up again! 👍
Please get rid of those political appointees as checellors too.