Lack of autonomy, continued political interference and lack of academic freedom are fundamental problems that have produced uncompetetive Malaysian Universities, says Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari.
Referring to the barring of former Bar Council President Ambiga Sreenevasan from University Malaya (UM) in an event organised by the UM Law Society, he questions the ability of universities to develop critical thinking students if leading practitioners are barred from speaking to future practitioners.
“Meanwhile, when former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad visited only weeks before, he was not only allowed to speak but also accorded a hero’s welcome at the very same university. Clearly, there is political interference at play, which does not bode well for an institution that is meant to cultivate future leaders,” he said.
He added that public universities also lacked autonomy in governance, evident in the appointment of key personnel such as Vice-Chancellors that appears to be decided at the political level rather than by the university’s Board of Governors.
“On top of that, students continue to be shackled by the draconian University and University College Act (AUKU), which limits their freedom of association and expression,” said the Bukit Bendera MP.
Under Section 15 of the UUCA 1971, university students are not allowed to form an alliance, support, empathise with or oppose any political party, labour union or any organisation or group without prior permission from the university vice- chancellor. Offenders face a jail term of up to six months or a fine of RM1,000, or both.
Zairl Khir Johari also highlighted the deterioration of quality of the teaching faculty in local universities. He said this in relation to the inability of local universities to attract foreign talents like it used to.
“In the old days, our local universities attracted many international academics and leaders of their fields, such as John Funston, Harold Crouch, Clive Kessler, James C Scott and Arndt Graf. Today, there are hardly any great foreign names still plying their trade in Malaysia,” he said, adding that homegrown talents have left the nation for greener pastures.
“Names such as KS Jomo, Syed Farid Alatas, Wang Gung Wu, Johan Saravanamuttu and Azly Rahman have all but deserted Malaysia to serve at institutions overseas”
“Clearly, we have not only lost our pull factor, but even the push factors have amplified, thus resulting in severe academic brain drain”
In 2012, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) had previously made the Times Higher Education (THE) Top 100 Universities under 50 years old list at 98thplace in 2012 when the rankings was first published, contrary to this years lists, where no Malaysian universities were selected.
“Young universities from Saudi Arabia, Iran and even India have also made tremendous progress, with the latter making the list for the first time. This proves that adverse socio-political and economic situations are no barrier to academic improvement,” he said. -The Rocket
