Political Universities

As reported by the New Straits Times and the Star on August 7th, the Wawasan Open University (WOU), offering degrees for working adults, will start operating in September 2006.

For those who are not familiar, WOU is another one of Malaysia's political party sponsored university, this time by Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM). I am quite happy with the set up of this new university, as I believe that an open university (or institute of higher education) will offer opportunities for mature students in Malaysia.

Funded by philanthropists and corporate bodies, the WOU will offer distance- learning degree courses for about RM17,000. This will give the country’s five million working adults with SPM qualifications the chance to further their studies.

He said the university would have study centres in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru and Ipoh, with the headquarters in George Town. Professor Emeritus G. Dhanarajan, an international expert in open learning and distance learning, has been appointed chief executive officer of WOU. He is now the director of the Open University of Hong Kong. Once the university is running, Dhanarajan will be its vice-chancellor.

WOU will commence operations with three faculties: the School of Business and Administration, School of Science and Technology and School of Foundation Studies. Dr Lim said the university was recruiting staff and expected students to pay RM300 a month for courses.

However, I'm concerned with this apparent trend in Malaysia whereby all the various political parties are interested in setting up their own universities. As it is, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, which commenced operations 3 years ago, as well as Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) is sponsored by Malaysia Chinese Association (MCA). Less well known will be the Advanced Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AMIST), sponsored by Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC).

Not wanting to "lose out", an UMNO delegate has during the past UMNO general assembly advocating that Universiti Tun Abdul Razak should be renamed UMNO university. In fact, our Minister of Higher Education himself, has on the 20th May this year stated that he supported the idea of an UMNO university as it would be "a symbol of the party's strength and struggle."

Once again, I find myself in agreement with the Parliamentary Opposition leader, Lim Kit Siang's argument that:

[t]he proposal for an UMNO University is the latest sign of unhealthy higher education development in Malaysia as there is not a single first-world country where political parties compete to establish universities. It is further evidence that Malaysia is not yet ready to fulfill the call of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, for a First World Infrastructure, First World Mentality to join the ranks of the fully developed nations in the
world.

An institution of higher learning should never be politically sponsored. This is because the political influence exerted on the university and its academic as well as administrative staff will result in a deviation of what a university's ultimate objectives should be. Some of these political objectives could be:

1. In the interest of garnering popular support, student enrolment will be increased and entry criteria will be lowered so that the number of students (and hence their families) who could enjoy the "benefits" of a university education will increase. This may be detrimental to the university as it may result not only in the lowering of standards at the university to cater for the higher intake, it'll also place unnecessary stress on the academic and administrative resources of the university. The tutor-student ratio will fall, and if it doesn't fall, the likelihood that due to a limited supply, the quality of tutors recruited will also fall accordingly.
   
   
2. The independence of the academic and administrative staff of the university may be compromised. Instead of being focused on achieving university excellence as well as the student's welfare as the number one priority, the top priority may become "pleasing" the political masters, who are the de facto "owners" of the university. This may affect anything from promotion prospects of academic staff - for e.g., a tutor who has contributed significantly to the political parties' mission, whether in cash or in kind, will he or she be treated equally to someone who is apolitical?
   
   
3. In addition, the inherent nature of certain subjects such as History, Political Science and other related subjects require a certain independence of thought, which should not be impaired by the fact that one, whether the academic or the student needs to put the political sponsors in a better light in their analysis.
   
   
4. Finally, because these institutions are politically sponsored, the "chiefs" of these institutions are likely to be political appointees or politicians themselves. For e.g., the proud chancellor of UTAR is Dr Ling Liong Sik, the former MCA president himself. This will often ensure that the political interest is held with the greatest importance over other more important priorities.

PGRM did the right thing by appointing a Vice-Chancellor who is experienced in the academia, and is not politically affiliated. However, to ensure that there is no undue political influence in the future, it is important that WOU loses the tag of being a PGRM sponsored university and that the Board of the University comprises entirely of academic professionals and no politicians.

It is critical that the Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Shafie Salleh be motivated by the right set of priorities - to ensure that Malaysians receive top quality education, and to ensure that our universities achieve world-recognised and reputable standards - instead of higher education being a vehicle to garner (his) political support.

As it is, the local public universities are already under plenty of political influence. Imagine the amount of "meddling" may be expected in an outright "politically-sponsored" environment. As I've mentioned many times in my earlier posts, Datuk Shafie needs to realise that he is more likely to be able to retain his position as the minister in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle if he were to make the right decisions, instead of being perennially defensive and political in his actions.

Higher Education Ministry in More Hot Soup? (II)

Just two months ago, University Malaya (UM), and particularly its vice-chancellor, - invited scorn by "forcing" the resignation of a prominent academic, Dr Terence Gomez who was invited to join a United Nations research agency for a two-year term. Dr Terence Gomez was reinstated to his position, with his 2-year leave approved by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi. The action by the honourable prime minister was a tight slap on the face for the vice-chancellor (who, I'm surprise continued to hold on to his position). Read the fall-out from the epsiode here.

Now, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia is inviting scorn by terminating the contract of another prominent academic Prof P. Ramasamy, allegedly because of his criticism and outspokenness on various social issues. Read the full article on his dismissal as reported in the Sun here.

The university terminated his contract with effect from Aug 26 in a letter dated July 27. No reasons were given for the termination. This followed his mandatory retirement on May 10, after which he was given a month-to-month contract for two years, ending May 9, 2007.

Prof Ramasamy is clearly disappointed with the decision for he has served the university for a loyal 25 years. Read his long statement at Malaysiakini here.

"I have my dignity and feel humiliated at the kind of appreciation one gets after so many years of service to the government. The problem stems from the fact that we have bureaucratic leadership of universities instead of academic and intellectual leadership."

Apparently, his termination was also not consistent with the university's practice and policy, which provides for a two-year contract for professors who have completed their inaugural address. What made the termination an even more bitter pill to swallow is the fact that many professors have been retained despite not completing their inaugural address. Clearly, this appears to be another case of "favouritism" in the university's administration, an issue voiced by Dr Terence Gomez. Prof Ramasamy claimed that:

"Academic excellence [at UKM] is judged not by sound teaching and academic or intellectual output, but how well lecturers and administrators cultivate personal friendships and ties to seek promotion and extension of contracts.

There are many cases in the university where even non-professors are given two year extensions. So basically it is whether you like the person or not, whether he is a member of Umno or if he plays golf with you. These are the citing criteria that operate."

It is difficult not to agree with the Parliamentary Opposition leader, Lim Kit Siang's statement that:

The Prof Ramasamy episode is further proof that there is a sore lack of vision and leadership among those entrusted with the management of public universities to chart out a strategy of academic excellence, as instead of attracting the best of Malaysian and international talent they seem more interested in petty and small-minded pursuits to ensure conformity and mediocrity among the academicians and the student population.

As he rightly pointed out, our Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak has during his address at Universiti Malaya's centenial celebrations, urged public universities to develop a system to retain professors and intellectuals who are due to retire to ensure such individuals can continue to contribute their knowledge, expertise and ideas.

What UKM is doing in the Ramasamy case is the exact opposite to Najib’s call. The Higher Education Minister, Datuk Shafie Salleh should intervene to ensure that UKM continue to retain Prof Ramasamy’s services.

In another statement by Lim Kit Siang, I share his sentiments of disappointment that the creation of the new Higher Education Ministry do not seem to have significantly improve the performance of the local public universities.

It is most unfortunate that the creation of a Higher Education Ministry and the appointment of a Higher Education Minister has not ushered in the reform of the higher education system where intellectual creativity and academic excellence are given the highest premium but instead there has been a deepening culture of fear, subservience and mediocrity universities when there should be academic freedom and autonomy.

During the entire episode of the Dr Terence Gomez saga, Datuk Shafie Salleh attempted to stay silent and let the drama end in a quiet death. However, the fact that the Prime Minister intervened to reinstate Dr Terence Gomez also placed Datuk Shafie Salleh in a bad light. Datuk Shafie should learn from his recent lesson and intervene positively in this current affair.

Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi has stated clearly to Dr Terence Gomez and to the public, that when he asked his countrymen to "speak up, he meant what he said". Prof Ramasamy has done that diligently and he should not be unjustly punished for that. Will Datuk Shafie wait for the Prime Minister to intervene on his behalf again?

What's a Degree Worth Today?

The Star last week had an interesting article which claimed that many degree and diploma holders are "hiding" their qualifications to secure low-paying jobs in the public sector.

Fire and Rescue Department deputy director-general Datuk Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim said many graduates only submitted their PMR and SPM qualifications when applying to become firemen, a job only requiring a PMR certificate.

“I think many of the graduates may not want to reveal their tertiary education background until they have joined the department after completing their basic four-and-a-half months' training. Most of them are worried that their applications may be rejected if they reveal their educational background in their application forms,” he said, adding that this year some 23,250 applications were received for 533 vacancies for firemen.

So, from this little piece of evidence, is it true that degrees today are "worthless scraps of paper" sufficient only to qualify one for low-paying jobs?

Well, of course not, at least not totally true anyway. I will hazard a guess that these candidates who were desperate enough to apply for the above positions were not sufficiently qualified in their fields of study, and hence their difficulty in being able to secure a position in their preferred choices. The reasons could be many, and I've discussed some of them in my previous posts here, here and here.

However, I will attribute this to a direct result of the lowering of standards in the local universities in order to meet the application and political demands of the country, as well as the inability to attract sufficient quality lecturers and tutors to all the mushrooming universities and colleges (private and public) in the country.

1. Firstly, it has become too "easy" to enter a university in Malaysia. Many of the students who entered the local universities would have SPM aggregates in excess of 25 (that an average of 6 B4s or C5s for the best 6 SPM subjects) and STPM grades (or equivalent) of 2Ds (or worse). Putting it bluntly, the theory is simple - barring exceptions, you will get rubbish in, rubbish out. There is a large pool of students who should not have been admitted into unversities, in our local universities - when that happens, the standard drops.
   
   
   
2. Secondly, the universities are then put in a bind - they can't possibly fail all these students, can they? That wouldn't be the politically correct thing to do. Hence as a results, the standards to "pass" and obtain their degrees are intentionally or unintentionally lowered, in order to enable many of these candidates to graduate from the university.

The end result of the above - unemployable graduates. It is hence not surprising at all that these graduates are "forced" to apply for low-paying civil service jobs available in the market. As quoted above, that's more than 23,000 applications for less than 550 positions, which in all likelihood pays approximately RM600-800 per month.

In my case, where I have stringent requirements for strong programming foundations for my application developers, I'm forced to largely recruit computer science graduates from the top 5-6 local universities with CGPA scores above 3.3 (out of 4.0) to ensure that I get quality. For some of my maintenance and support staff, I will recruit those above a score of 3.0. For those with CGPA between 2.0-2.6 (or worse), these candidates should never have taken up the Computer Science degree - because I really don't think they learnt anything much during their 3-4 year courses.

It will really be too inaccurate to attempt to generalise the measure the value of "degrees" today. There are indeed many factors involved - particularly the quality of the institution attended and the grades obtained. If you are a first class honours graduate from University Malaya - I will more likely than not, snap you up immediately, while you are likely to be immediately rejected if you have a second class lower degree from say, TAR College.

Ministry to Probe Latest UPU Debacle

In my earlier blog post - Higher Education Ministry in Hot Soup - I commented on the article by the Star which highlighted the fact that confidential information on students (who failed to obtain a place in the local universities) were "sold" to private colleges.

On Sunday, both New Straits Times and the Star reported that an investigation will be launched immediately by the Higher Education Ministry into the claims.

I have however, some advice for our Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Shafie Mohd Salleh in his investigation process:-

1. I'm pleased to hear that he "assured the public that action would be taken as such confidential information should not be leaked out to anyone." I hope that he is sincere in his words as I fear there may be "cover ups" in order for him to not look too bad from the debacle, particularly since Datuk Shafie's position as the minister appears to be in question in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle. I would argue that it would be in Datuk Shafie's best interest to take firm action against the culprits, as it will show his immediate boss that he is up to the task of rooting out bureaucratic inefficiencies and corruption within the Ministry.
   
   
2. He has requested the co-operation from the private colleges for help in his investigations.
   

   [He]called on colleges to co-operate with the ministry in its investigation. “I would like to ask private college operators or administrators who have bought such information or have been approached to come and see me. If you have any evidence, come and see us at the ministry.”

   For goodness sake, why should these colleges report on the culprits in the Ministry, when they are clearly the "partners in crime", in which they benefited by having received the list of candidates who failed to find a local public university. This list in itself will save the college hundreds of thousands, as it will save the college from having to invest heavily to attract students via media advertisements.
   
   Or, dare I skeptically suggest that the attempt to put the private colleges together is to enable the Minister to execute a "damage control" plan and ensure that all parties will be singing the same song?
   
   
3. Don't be defensive. We need to get rid of the constant rapid fire denial syndrome. The deputy director has in the earlier article by the Star, denied the Ministry's responsibility. The Minister has himself, in his statement attempted (very weakly) to deflect responsibility to "con men".
   

   “We have to ascertain if the lists the colleges allegedly bought are really from UPU. They could be just the work of a con man. There are many con men around. We have bogus doctorates and degrees. These, too, may be bogus lists.”

   Sigh. Some perverted logic must have linked the two cases together. In this latest UPU debacle, detailed, accurate and factual information must have been divulged to the private colleges for them to send out these "invitation letters" to the prospective students. How would a "con men" obtain these information, if not for a major leak at the Ministry?
   
   The sooner the Minister accept that someone within the Ministry or UPU is the prime suspect in this debacle, the better it will be for the Minister. Learn the lesson from your colleague at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Attempting cover ups or being economical with the truth will likely result in a deepening crisis.
   
   
4. Finally, by not being defensive, Shafie should be open to the suggestion to involve an "independent" party such as the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) to assist with the investigations. Datuk Shafie has said that "for now the investigation was enough and it would not bring in the Anti-Corruption Agency."
   
   If there is really nothing to hide, the ACA will just decare an "all clear", which will be more credible than, say the Ministry itself declaring an "all clear". If however, there is hanky panky in the works, then the Minister himself can claim the moral high ground, having dispensed his responsbilities righteously, ensuring that the guilty are rightfully punished

Go on, Datuk Shafie, do the right thing.

Bogus Universities? (II)

In my earlier post with regards to "Bogus Unviersities? (I)", I've highlighted how a certain politician seems to have fallen "victim" (whether intentionally or otherwise) to unaccredited institutions, or worse, bogus universities.

Well, it looks like politicians are not the only ones, in their pursuit for status and recognition, who have damaged their integrity in the process. It appears that the practise is also found to be prevalent among the Malaysian clergyman.

In a report by the Star on the 6th August 2005, Christian organisations are following in the footsteps of the Cabinet in banning the use of unverified "honorific titles". The Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) has actually called on the public "to help churches by reporting to CCM anyone who goes around carrying bogus titles at official fuctions." The statement from the CCM came in the wake of allegations that several prominent pastors in the Klang Valley and Johor had bought their doctorates from unrecognised universities.

“The CCM holds in disregard those in spiritual office who use or print titles on name cards that have not been verified or recognised by the respective churches,” said Rev Shastri (CCM General Secretary).

National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) secretary-general Rev Wong Kim Kong, said that the movement was against the use of bogus doctorates. He said pastors and church leaders must ensure that their titles were obtained legitimately from reputable institutions or organisations.

This clearly puts a stain on the reputation of the relevant churches as well as the guilty "prominent" pastors - as their moral authority is severely diminished. I would go to the extent of suggesting that the Christian organisations suspend, demote or even sack these pastors, should they be found to have wilfully obtain these "qualifications" to mislead as these individuals will bring disrepute to the churches and the Christian community.

To obtain a list of some of these dodgy institutions of "higher learning", read my earlier post.

Drug Testing @ Varsities

In a commendable move by the Ministry of Higher Education reported by the Star today, the local universities have agreed to comply with the Ministry's plan to conduct random drug tests on undergraduates.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Salleh announced on Saturday that random drug testing would be conducted at all public institutions of higher learning as early as next month.

This was part of the ministry's anti-drug campaign jointly organised with the Youth and Sports Ministry. Random testing for drugs is among the many measures proposed over the last few years to eradicate the problem of drug addiction among undergraduates.

Let's also hope that the university authorities will not take a defensive stance on the move, for some have appeared to have reluctantly agreed to the plan:

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) vice-chancellor Prof Dr Salleh Yassin said although drug abuse was not a concern at the university, he supported the plan.

“I have yet to see the details but whatever it is, we will comply. Drug abuse is not a problem among students here at UKM.

The authorities are apparently "concerned" that any students caught with drug abuse will give the university concerned a bad name. The students welfare should be the varsities' overwhelming priority of concern. Students getting caught for drug abuse should not affect the reputation of the universities, as they are often acts of individuals - there's no way we will say that the university "encouraged" drug abuse amongst its students.

Let's hope that the universities, in their potentially over-zealous attempts to protect their "good name", will not resort to actions and measures which will render the drug tests ineffective. This will in turn result in the initiative failing to meet its noble objectives.

Overwhelmed

When I first started blogging on this site (not so far back in April this year), I was actually inspired by the work that Jeff Ooi has done on his blog, Screenshots. However, my expectations were pretty modest. I was hoping to write once, or maybe twice in a week - motivated by some of the issues I see with regards to our education system which needed some public airing.

I was however, concerned at that point in time with regards to whether there will be sufficient "issues" or topics for me to cover in a blog strictly relating to educational issues and their impact in Malaysia. Without sufficient "interesting" topics to write about, the blog will one day, die a natural death.

However, I've come to realise that my concerns were completely unfounded. From an initial frequency of 1-2 posts per week, I've now been posting an average of 4-5 posts on a weekly basis, often more. This of course, becomes a taxing exercise for me, who actually keeps a rather busy day job! :) On top of that, I'm finding that I'm very much "behind schedule" in the various posts which I intend to write about - which adds to the "pressure" to write more frequently. Some of these topics can be fairly time consuming too, as they require a certain amount of research as well as reading to ensure balanced viewpoints - otherwise, I may end up with embarassing mistakes in my reports (which has indeed happened, and was kindly "corrected" by my readers).

Without taking into consideration some of the "long term" posts which I intend to write, there's at least 8-10 posts on current on-going issues which I would like to add my opinions on - which will take me probably 2 whole days just to write it! The problem of not writing them immediately will of course, risk the issue becoming stale and outdated. Instead of being concerned about lack of issues to comment on today, I'm worried about where I'm going to find time to write all my thoughts and whether I'm going to suffer from writing fatigue! :)

Anyway, I've definitely been encouraged to write on, given the response I have to the blog, the mails I've received and the interest which has been shown on the relevant issues. I suppose there'll always be a feel good factor whenever you know that the writing effort is not "wasted".

OK then, I get back to blogging on the topic of Education in Malaysia. I just thought that I can release a bit of "steam" of my chest, after being overwhelmed by the entire blogging experience. Thanks for reading :)

Higher Education Ministry in Hot Soup?

Following a Star report on August 3rd, and my corresponding post, the Star in a front page article publicised the fact that confidential student data is being used by some private colleges to solicit potential students who failed to get places in public universities.

These private colleges claimed to have obtained the names, contact details and other personal information of students from the public universities’ admissions unit or UPU, which comes under the Higher Education Ministry. A full-time mother from Kepong was quoted:

“My son received at least six such letters a week after the university admission results were out. We were very surprised by how they got his details. One college actually said in its letter that it would like to offer my son a specific course as he had failed to obtain a place in a university.”

Apparently, some colleges have been receiving this privileged information while, others have actually been offered the student information at a price:

One private college operator said a “ministry officer” offered him the list in June with an asking price of more than RM1,000 per student. “We were told that we had to buy the list in a batch of over a thousand students which means we had to fork out over RM1mil for the information. I told them I wasn’t interested,” he added.

Claimed another private college marketing manager: “We were offered the list through a third party for RM8,000. This is nothing new as the UPU list has been on sale for a few years now.”

Of course, as per normal, the Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Salleh said he "was not aware of such incidents." And almost in a knee jerk response, the deputy director-general in-charge, Prof Datuk Yusuf Kassim declared that the UPU information is protected under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and denied that such as thing was happening (sigh).

“This is all under OSA. Don’t play the fool. The penalty (for leaking the information) is 20 years in prison.” He said he was aware of the allegations but denied that such a thing was happening. “We have never given the information out. This is all a business gimmick. The college operators will be the best people to ask.”

Almost certainly, there will be some admission of "individual mischief" at some stage but will the responsible (or rather irresponsible) elements be duly punished? As it is the parents of these students are calling for repercussions as reported by the Star on the same day.

A letter from a private college read: “We know that your application for entry into local universities had been rejected by the Unit Pendaftaran Universiti (UPU) and we can offer you a place and loan so that you can further your studies.”

A parent, who declined to be named, said his daughter had received about 20 letters from private colleges inviting her to take up an offer to study at their college.

Another parent complained that private colleges, in some cases, were misleading the recipients by using envelopes of public universities to send letters.

What then will be the repercussions on the Ministry of Higher Education, and for that matter, the Minister himself? Watch this space!

Bogus Universities? (I)

One of the topics which have cropped up recently is the issue of "bogus universities", where many Malaysians apparently obtain their unaccredited and dodgy diploma and degree "qualifications". I've been planning to blog on this topic, and it has taken a while because the issue required a certain level of research. Not to mention the fact that the issue has many angles to which it could be tackled.

I'll start off which an interesting one, which was just highlighted in Jeff Ooi's Screenshots as well as Aisehman. There's also an interview with him by the Sun available here.

UMNO has recently set up a new political organisation, UMNO Putera for boys aged 18-25. The UMNO Youth chief, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has appointed 37 year old Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim as the head of UMNO Putera.

Datuk Abdul Azeez has an apparently fairly impressive resume. While he education did not extend beyond his SPM initially - he became a self-made millionaire when he was 21, within 3 years after starting his second-hand car sales business. He did however obtain his Masters degree in Business Management and Administration from a Preston University in Wyoming. I would be very impressed if not for the fact that there is clearly controversy as to the manner in which his Masters degree was obtained.

The state of Oregon in the United States, being well aware of the latest developments in dodgy degrees has this to say about Preston University (which by the way, has branches in Wyoming, Pakistan, Dubai and Netherlands), in their list of unaccredited universities:

[The Office of Degree Authorisation (ODA)] has no evidence that this is an accredited or otherwise acceptable provider of postsecondary education meeting Oregon standards. Recently added an operation in the Netherlands called Universiteit Preston Russel Hobbes. Note: undergoing ODA review at the school's request, summer 2005.

The website has further added that:

Degrees from all of these suppliers are invalid for use in state or licensed
employment in Oregon and the use of such degrees can result in criminal
prosecution or civil penalties depending on the circumstances of the
use. In addition, it is illegal to use such degrees or credentials for any
purpose unless the user discloses in writing to all persons to whom the degrees
is presented that the supplier is unaccredited and unapproved by ODA.

Preston University is similarly listed as unaccredited in the state of Michigan's list of unacceptable degree suppliers.

In fact, even Pakistan has classified Preston University as a diploma mill and “classified all 15 Preston campuses in that country as ‘illegally operating'". Read blog article by an English professor, Margaret Soltan dated May this year. Read also an article in Chowk (a South Asian socio-political commentary forum) entitled "Fake degrees for the big boys in Pakistan".

Preston University was also cited as an example in the report by The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled "States Struggle to Regulate Online Colleges that Lack Accredition":

Even in states that have tried to regulate the unaccredited institutions, they continue to thrive. In sparsely populated Wyoming, for example, at least four such colleges have a presence, and a fifth, Rushmore University, is considering moving its office there from South Dakota. But Wyoming students are not flocking to the universities, which instead rely heavily on students from the Middle East and developing countries.

Preston University, for example, claims to have 30 "affiliated" campuses in 19 countries, and virtually all of its students are abroad. Abdul Basit, the university's president, is a native of Pakistan who rarely visits the university building at the airport in Cheyenne.

According to Jerry P. Haenisch, who is chancellor and chief executive officer of Preston, the university has about 8,000 students, the bulk of whom are in Pakistan.

Mr. Haenisch says that half of the university's operating income comes from nine campuses in Pakistan. The rest comes from other campuses worldwide and from the university's distance-learning program, which enrolls about 300 students.

Students and faculty members exchange exams and assignments through express mail, Mr. Haenisch says. The tuition for distance-learning students ranges from $4,950 for an associate degree to as much as $9,950 for a bachelor's degree. He says faculty members are paid $100 to create a course syllabus, $50 to grade an exam, $250 to evaluate a masters' thesis, and $1,250 to supervise a candidate for a doctorate.

Interestingly, in Preston is pretty good at entertaining politicians (which in itself may be a pretty good lesson!) to support its dubious causes as reported in the MSNBC earlier this year:

...state lawmakers [of Wyoming] abandoned a bill that would have required private schools to have proper accreditation by 2010. That was after two state senators were guests of Cheyenne-based Preston University on an expenses-paid trip to Preston campuses in Pakistan and Dubai.

Hence we can only conclude that Datuk Abdul Azeez enrolled for the program with "one of the oldest Universities" in the United States with the intention of obtaining an easy degree "qualification", or alternatively, he was an innocent victim of an unethical marketing campaign by these dubious institutions. Make your own judgement. Either way, it's time for Datuk Abdul Azeez to stop being too proud of his Masters degree credentials - and instead use his lesson and political connections to strengthen the accredition policy of foreign universities in Malaysia.

To obtain the complete list of accredited institutions recognised by the United States accrediting organisations, check out the Council of Higher Education Accreditation website. Please do note that a university that is accredited is NOT a recognition of its quality. It is however, at least better than an unaccredited 'institution'.

The Role of the Private Sector in Tertiary Education

While browsing the net, I've chanced upon a great 56 page research report entitled - The Role of Transnational, Private,and For-Profit Provision in Meeting Global Demand for Tertiary Education: Mapping, Regulation and Impact.

It's written by Professor Robin Middlehurst and Steve Woodfield Centre for Policy and Change in Tertiary Education, University of Surrey, United Kingdom. The report is actually commissioned by the Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO in 2003/4.

The report specifically used Malaysia as the case study. Read it here. It's particularly useful for individuals seeking information on the Malaysian education system as well as for policy makers to make more informed decisions.

Can You Buy Places in Malaysian Universities?

An article in the Star today highlighted that there are conmen attempting to "sell places in varsities".

A student who did not get a place in a local university was surprised when someone from a college called him to say it was submitting an appeal on his behalf to the Unit Pendaftaran Universiti (UPU).

The person asked him to pay RM500 upfront so that he could book a hotel room for an interview.

The director at UPU, Pn Rahmah Hussein said that it could be a con-job.

I told the student not to entertain such callers. The appeal period is over and the UPU has already allocated all the places. It is very sad that some people are using devious means to sell places in local universities.

However, an unnamed private college was apparently linked to the affair. This private college has "tie-ups" with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) to offer certain degree courses. An official at the college stated that:

The private college is fully moderated and monitored by the universities, the college would ask for a RM500 deposit to process each application.

It is now quite a trend for private colleges to offer degree programmes from local universities. Stamford College has a "franchise" programme from University Sains Malaysia to offer diplomas and degrees in Computer Science. SAL Colleges have various programmes offered by UPM, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) and even an external jurisprudence degree from Universiti Malaya (UM).

Whatever the case, my advice to prospective students will be to be very careful. Many of these colleges, while offering valid degrees from the relevant local universities, may not possess the necessary teaching faculty as well as facilities to ensure that you receive the best possible education to do well in your examinations.

Dr Terence Gomez Saga - The Fallout?

After the much publicised affair over the forced resignation of Dr Terence Gomez from University Malaya in order for him to accept the offer of a position with the United Nations, and the subsequent reversal of the decision by our Prime Minister himself, it looks like some of the negative consequences are now surfacing.

For a background to the Dr Terence Gomez affair, read my blog post here and the reinstatement by our Prime Minister here.

Apparently, the University of Malaya Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Hashim Yaacob who suffered a major loss of face (although his skin is still quite thick because he has still not offered to resign over the debacle), is now on a witch-hunt against university staff who had openly supported Dr Gomez.

Parliamentary Opposition leader, Lim Kit Siang, who played a significant role in publicising the episode and ensuring that the Prime Minister gave his due consideration over the issue, has raised in his press statement on 26th July, requesting:

The Minister for Higher Education, Datuk Dr. Shafie Salleh should direct the University of Malaya Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Hashim Yaacob to halt the campus witch-hunt because of his Terence Gomez debacle and focus instead on restoring the international reputation of the
country’s premier university for academic excellence and freedom.

Hashim will only be compounding his mishandling of the Terence Gomez secondment issue if he now seeks to vent his spleen at the embarrassment he suffered as a result of the Prime Minister’s intervention by gunning for easier targets, like the President of the University of Malaya Academic Staff Union (PKAUM), Professor Rosli Mahat, who had been issued a “show cause” letter by the Vice Chancellor for his support of Dr Terence Gomez during the Gomez controversy.

I do hope that the Minister of Higher Education, whose position as a minister is under threat in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle - will do the right thing on behalf of the Prime Minister and insist that the UM Vice Chancellor focus on his duties and responsibilities. Should the UM Vice Chancellor remain recalcitrant, then I assume it will be his prerogative to seek a replacement candidate for the position.

Scholarship from European Union

Thanks to information from a kind reader, Dude K - there's a fairly new scholarship - Erasmus Mundus - available for candidates seeking to pursue their Masters degree in Europe offered by the European Union.

Erasmus Mundus is a co-operation and mobility programme in the field of higher education. Its objective is to encourage mobility of third-country graduate students and scholars to the EU. The duration of the programme is five years (2004-2008) with funding of € 230 million for the whole period.

At present there are 36 master courses involving over 100 EU-based universities. It is expected that up to 100 master courses will be eventually set up by 2008. Student and scholars have to apply directly to any of the selected Masters consortia and to be accepted by them to receive the scholarship. The student scholarship is €21,000 (98,000 MYR) for one year and €42,000 (RM196,000) for two years. For scholars the amount is €13, 000 (RM60,000) for a period of three months.

For more information, please visit the scholarship website or read the brochure. Good luck!

Equal Access to Education (II)

As highlighted in the previous blog post, a Selangor delegate, Dr Amran Kasimin put up a motion calling for "more access to education for Malay youths and an improvement in the quality of education" during the recently completed Umno general assembly.

I completely agree that the government will have to improve access to quality education for the disadvantaged groups in the Malay community. This means that financial resources should be granted to these disadvantaged families, particularly those in the rural areas. In addition, teaching and learning facilities must be upgraded to ensure that they have at least a decent opportunity to receive the same education as their counterparts in the urban areas.

However, the Malays are not the only ones with a large number of disadvantaged youths. The Star has recently reported the comments by former National Union of the Teaching Profession secretary-general Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam, who is now a Human Rights Commission member, that the poor performance of Indian students and the high number of dropouts have been attributed to poverty.

Statistics show that of 34,470 Indian children under the age of six, only
13,714 (40%) attend pre-school. And, 5,580 children of primary school age do not
go to school at all. The present enrolment of Indian students in national and
national-type school is 198,000.

There are 69,985 Indian children in the country in the 13-17 age group but
39,680 (56.7%) end their education at secondary level. Currently only 25,000
attend secondary school and of this only 2,000 (8.7%) were offered places in
institutions of higher learning.

The government should devise an education policy which will assist these disadvantaged students, irrespective of race to ensure that they have an equal access to quality education. However, we should never fall into the easy trap of attempting to provide "equal access" by lowering the standards of education, providing university placement as "handouts" or have a different "marking scheme" for different students, for this will instead make it an unequal access to education for the other communities. As argued in the previous post, such actions will only serve to disincentivise these target students and retard their ability to compete effectively in their future.

Equal Access to Education

During the UMNO General Assembly which was just completed (see highlights here), a Selangor delegate, Dr Amran Kasimin (the number of "Dr"s making headlines is a tad scary) put up a motion calling for "more access to education for Malay youths and an improvement in the quality of education".

In his motion, he made several assertions:

1. The assembly also called for compulsory formal education to be raised from six to 11 years.
   
   
2. The shrinking number of Malay students in both public and private universities was worrying.
   
   “Since meritocracy was introduced, fewer and fewer Malay students are getting into universities."
   
   
3. The motion on education and religion, among others, also called on the Government to seriously addres s the widening levels in academic achievement between Malay and non-Malay students.
   
   
4. He suggested that a medical college specifically for Malay students be set up so as to reduce the divide between Malay and non-Malay students.

My opinions and response are as follows:

1. I will fully support that education be made compulsory for 11 years - although I must say that this will be a tad ambitious at this point of time. Firstly, the number of schools and teachers will not be able to support the number of students, particularly at secondary level. If we were to "force" the education on the students who would otherwise have dropped out, then we may be reducing the resources available as well as the quality of education to the students who have shown greater potential in furthering their studies.
   
   
2. This point about the "shrinking" intake of Malay students in local universities, which is raised by many many UMNO politicians is hard to understand. The facts which I have at hand, published in the local newspapers says the exact opposite - that Malay student intake has in fact increased, and the number of Malay students entering Medicine have grown at a faster than proportionate rate, compared to the non-bumiputera students!
   
   
3. There is this continual perception, particularly amongst the UMNO politicians that there is a "widening" in levels of achievement between bumiputera and non-bumiputera students. I'm really uncertain as to how factually true this is, between say 5 or 10 years ago, compared to today. I'd rather like to think that while there is a sizeable gap in achievement, this gap hasn't really "widened" in the past decade.
   
   I would argue that the fact that the gap remains despite the adversity faced by many of the non-bumiputera students points clearly to the failure of the current affirmative action education policies. This failure is not explicitly denied by these UMNO politicians, but they are however not obviously recognised either. The current set of affirmative action education policies, while well-intended to boost the achievements of the bumiputera students, are misguided and might in itself have actually contributed to the stagnation or even the decline of the achievements of bumiputeras in education. I support having a certain amount of affirmative action policies to benefit the less privileged communities. However these policies should not disincentivise the target community in their educational endeavours. It is my opinion that the current set of policies which significantly eases the entry to institutions of higher education, which lowers the standards of the educational syllabus (for example, that of English language), which provides substantial preferential treatment for scholarships - lead to many in the target community being disincentivised from striving and working harder to reach their full academic potential. Instead of reducing the achievement gap between bumiputera and non-bumiputera students, the current policies (some of which are being reformed) have instead backfired and served to instead institutionalise or even widen the gap.
   
   
4. If the government chooses to implement the types of policies advocated by some during the UMNO general assembly - such as dedicated medical schools for the bumiputera students "to reduce the divide between Malay and non-Malay students", it'll only serve to enhance, and ensure that the "divide" becomes a structural divide which will be even more difficult to eliminate in the future.

The government must exercise strict discipline to avoid such short term policies for the purposes of political expediency, particularly if it's just to satisfy some misguided outspoken grassroots leader in UMNO. Some of these hare-brained schemes will not only harm national unity, but will also backfire on its own objectives to improve the achievements of the bumiputera community. With the clues given by the current administration during in its public statements to date, I'm hopeful that they are serious in remedying (instead of deepening) the mistakes of the past.