Yup. It's now confirmed. The tenure of Kapten Datuk Professor Dr Hashim Yaacob as the vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya ends this Friday. Interestingly enough, the Star reported it first, instead of the New Straits Times who has been a bit more on the ball with the happenings in the higher education circle.
As blogged a couple of days back, we will miss Kapten Datuk Professor Dr Hashim Yaacob for all the things he has done for Universiti Malaya. Some of us wouldn't be particularly displeased about it :).
Anyway, that was the "good" news confirmed by the Minsitry of Higher Education. The less pleasing piece of news is that there is still no independent credible search committee which we have been clamouring for in sight. Apparently, a shortlist has been drawn up and is being evaluated by a committee headed by Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Mustapa Mohamad. The shortlist includes:
1. Prof Dr Mahani Zainal Abidin
She is currently the Higher Education Department deputy director-general (management sector). Prof Mahani was formerly head of the National Economic Action Council's special team on globalisation and a lecturer in UM's Economics Faculty. She was also on the UPM vice-chancellor shortlist back in December.
2. Datuk Rafiah Salim
She is currently the International Centre for Leadership in Finance executive director. Rafiah has served as dean of the UM Law Faculty and was assistant secretary-general for human resource management at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 1997 to 2002. She was also a Bank Negara assistant governor before joining the UN.
3. Prof Datuk Dr Sharifah Hapsah Shahabudin
She is currently the National Accreditation Board chief executive officer. Prof Sharifah Hapsah was formerly a lecturer with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's medical faculty and head of the ministry’s Quality Assurance Division from 2002 to early this year. She is also president of the National Council of Women’s Organisations. She also made it to the shortlist earlier for the vice-chancellor of Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Existing Deputy Vice-Chancellors of UM are:
4. Prof Datuk Dr Razali Agus (Student affairs and Alumni),
5. Prof Datuk Dr A. Hamid A. Hadi (Academic and International)
6. Prof Dr Muhamad Rasat Muhamad (Research and Innovation)
Other Potential Candidates:
7. Prof Datuk Dr Hassan Said
He is currently the Higher Education Management Department director-general. Again, he is on the shortlist for the UPM vice-chancellor just last December.
8. Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin
He is currently the UM medical faculty dean and the University Malaya Medical Centre director.
The unfortunate thing is that there appears to be little attempt to scour the world for the best talents to truly bring about change to our university system. The same people appear on the shortlist of candidates for all the vacancies for vice-chancellors in all our local public universities. It's either someone at the top of the Ministry of Higher Education hierachy or someone who is at the top of the particular university with the vacancy. The mechanism for shortlisting hardly inspires confidence of "world class" standards which we seek to badly.
Tok Pa, you did the right thing by deciding not to renew the contract for Kapten Datuk Professor Dr Hashim Yaacob which he did not deserve. However, you should take it a step further by delaying the appointment of the new vice-chancellor for UM, and instituting the independent search committee to select the best vice-chancellor to lead the premier university in Malaysia.
Dr Azmi Sharom should have been shortlisted........Period!
ReplyDeleteno need to scour the world. just bring back our past academicians who are now doing oh-so-well overseas.
ReplyDeleteWell people, try not to be so pessimistic, at least TOk pA did something wise to let Kapten Hashim gone with the wind with his billboards and flyers, which is a good sign. We shoudnt forget that this is still Bolehland, and certainly there will be some hardship to change the system immediately. :)
ReplyDeleteAs usual our politicians are going to mess it up again. The only reason the 3 women candidates (Mahani, Sharifah and Rafiah) are in the running is only for the sake of satisfying the demand of Wanita UMNO to have a woman VC. Again we see political expediency being given precedence over academic merit and ability. Let us look at the track record of the candidates. Rafiah was the Dean of Law Faculty, UM in the eighties. Much has changed since then. Scientific research is being given priority with up to RM200 million in funding. It requires a person with scientific training to administer and manage such funds. With her being out of Malaysia for a long time, she will not be accepted easily into the academic fraternity. Sharifah Hapsah has a very poor academic research record in terms of publications apart from her much advertised expertise on Quality Assurance. UKM and UPM have rejected her in the past. Should UM accept something rejected by lesser universities? Mahani is totally unacceptable even to her former colleagues in the Economics Faculty. Her academic credentials apart from rubbing shoulders with political bigwigs is dismal. she does not have the administrative experience in academia. Her colleagues in the Economics Fac. shudder when they came to know that she is in the running for VCship. Even her promotion to professor was based on her contributions to NEAC. All these 3 candidates will cause more harm to UM than the outgoing VC. Razali Agus is utterly incapable of managing funds. The mess he caused in the UM Consultancy Unit is the talk of the university. UM academics will NEVER accept anyone from outside the university, even if they were former alumni or formerly worked in the university. A person out of touch with the university will take a few years to learn the ropes by which time the university would have gone to the dogs. There are excellent candidates with the appropriate credentials within the university but they do not go around kissing butts of politicians. Please appoint a candidate with the right academic credentials and integrity from within the university.
ReplyDeleteThe three women shortlisted for the post are in their fifties and undergoing menopause. Obviously they will have problems such as mood swings, hot flushes and short tempers. Obvious ingredients to mess up the university.
ReplyDeleteHip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!!
ReplyDeleteAs Azmi Shahrom has clearly put it, universities are established not as political rewards. Similarly selection of VC should not be restricted to aging bimbos with dyed hair just to fulfil the demands of the women's wing of some political party. Why not open up the selection to the most qualified candidate regardless of gender?
ReplyDelete"The three women shortlisted for the post are in their fifties and undergoing menopause. Obviously they will have problems such as mood swings, hot flushes and short tempers. Obvious ingredients to mess up the university."
ReplyDeleteThis is stereotyped...not good loh
At least one sensible thing done. Let’s hope too that Kepten Dato Prof Hashim Y’s many academically unqualified red guards, appointed by him when he was the VC of UM, will be expelled from UM.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the future of UM? Not good. The candidates mentioned above are not the best to lead UM.
The same old question: Why are there no nonMalay candidates? Are these the best Malay candidates available? Are we scrapping the bottom of the barrel?
We cannot keep changing UM VC every three years. We need a solid, impartial, academically sound visionary to lead UM.
C'mon, have the courage to do something right for once, if we are serious about improving UM.
Sad lah! Cry for UM.
Ai-yoh, so short notice to inform Kepten his term as the VC of UM is ending on 31.3.2006.
ReplyDeleteSo sayang, no time for Kepten to organise grand visits to individual faculties to say bye-bye to his beloved colleagues, just like when he was appointed as VC of UM, he visited every faculty to deliver his inaugural speeches, demanding submission from his subordinates, oops, colleagues.
Anyway, he is happy to go. His mission accomplished - his beloved wife is now a professor in UM, not lingering as an associate professor in UKM.
His dismissal is seen as been incompetent during his tenure, similar to the previous MOHE. There is no point to keep bashing him with so many allegations, which you yourself may not able to prove it is true, right. Let's just hope that the next VC will be of high calibre and able to catapult UM to glory again.
ReplyDeletequote : Sharifah Hapsah has a very poor academic research record in terms of publications apart from her much advertised expertise on Quality Assurance. UKM and UPM have rejected her in the past. Should UM accept something rejected by lesser universities? /unquote
ReplyDeleteWa.. die lor UM now if like this
Taken from The Star pg.6 (30.03.06):
ReplyDelete"Several Universiti Malaya academics have expressed their disappointment that their outgoing vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Hashim Yaacob’s tenure was not extended.
“I simply cannot understand this,” Electrical Engineering Department dean Prof Dr Mohamad Rom Tamjis told a press conference yesterday.
[..]
Dr Mohamad Rom said the vice-chancellors at universities in Thailand were usually given a six-year tenure, “some even have 12 years”.
“We’re not asking that he stays forever. But at least give him another term so that there can be a continuation of the work he started three years ago,” he said."
C'mon. Nothing to cheer about. It gives me heartache when I see the list. As expected, you can' find any non-muslim name. Life as usual in Malaysia.. substandard education system, smelly tap water, increasingly invasion of the human rights of non-muslim, corruptions in every stratum of society, list goes on. Nothing changes and will never change. Soon we will become a cheap labours/house maids exporter just like Phillipines and Indonesia.. or we have already become one?
ReplyDeleteI have read previous blogs saying that Dr Sharifah is a disaster too. So too early celebrate even if Hashim Yaakob is gone. The quality is going to spiral down even more.
ReplyDeletePur.Boy
It looks like mostly a political appointment again. Apparently she worked with Mustapha and the PM on the NEAC council.
ReplyDeleteSeems like many people who have come across her not impressed.
She has one big thumb up to me though: She is NOT Dr. Hashim. Any of the three stooges would have been better than renewing Hashim contract.
Wang Gung Wu!!!!
ReplyDeleteMalaysians love to recycle, especially garbage.
ReplyDeleteIf Hashim's reading this blog, he would be very happy that he is actually so well-known that everyone is talking about him! :D
ReplyDeleteThere is only one true way to sort this mess out! If only the public should be informed in a transparent way the achievement and publications of our "reputable' professors. Wah! we should be proud of our professors and the university should be proud to show to the world the publications of our famous professors. Dont hide2 lah...the more they hide the more people want to see...
ReplyDeleteI think Dr Sharom of Law fac is the best candidate as UM VC...we can really see UM moving....