Last week, New Straits Times, a government owned and controlled
newspaper and one of Malaysia's leading dailies, published a front-
page story on the ranking of some Malaysian universities on the basis
of what described as public perceptions ("Perception study of
Malaysia's public varsities reveals…", New Straits Times, November 3,
2007).
According to this survey, Universiti Sains Malaysia was the only
school to earn an "Excellent" rating and my own alma mater,
Universiti Malaya, came in under the "Good" category along several
other institutions. The other universities were ranked "Satisfactory"
but none were ranked below that.
This kind of word play shows a complete contempt for the intelligence
of the Malaysian public.
On face value we should be congratulating the Minister of Higher
Education, Datuk Mustapha Mohamed, for chartering this profound study
of public perceptions and, more importantly for his stewardship of
the university system which this survey suggest is doing well. All
these schools mentioned are great, and the only problem raised by the
NST article is that none scored at the "Outstanding" level, whatever
that means.
But the reality is that using public perception as the basis for
determining the quality of education offered by our universities is a
fundamentally flawed approach. On the one hand the public is not
fully aware of the true state of our universities. Secondly there are
a number objective standards one can use to accurately gauge
performance, such as test scores, peer ratings, the quality and
education level of the faculty, and the post-graduate success of its
alumni. These measures are commonly used by ranking systems around
the world but are ignored by the survey. Instead it appears they have
simply asked for public opinions and not looked at actual data.
Of great concern to me is that the government will use a sham ranking
like this to deflect criticism of its handling of the education
system that will likely arise at the UMNO General Assembly this month.
The Badawi Government has failed to address deteriorating academic
standards in our institutions of higher learning, and to create a
smokescreen it has planted stories of rather dubious sourcing to
generate goodwill and support for its policies.
It is back to politics again, as usual everything is fine. Malaysia
boleh!
Public perception in Malaysia is a crude measure of any institution's
performance because the information provided to the public is
generally filtered and packaged by UMNO-controlled media and
television stations.
Universities are themselves fiefdoms, controlled not by qualified and
capable academic administrators, but rather by UMNO political
appointees, many of whom have absolutely no background in education
management.
The methodology used by the Ministry of Higher Education's perception
study is not disclosed. One can only assume that this is because
everything this government does, as usual, is confidential. Hence,
its need to hide behind a screen of opaqueness and allow the
mainstream media spin on its behalf.
We can ascertain a few things about the study from the NST article.
The article shows that a survey was sent to 954 respondents and a
paltry 274 responded, not even 30 percent response rate. A closer
reading shows that the public had absolutely nothing to do with the
survey.
Results we culled from institutional respondents representing public
and private universities in Malaysia, 2 ASEAN universities (National
University of Singapore and Institut Teknologi Bandung), and 19
professional and certification bodies.
It appears that no individual Malaysian was ever asked his or her
opinion about the state of these institutions. And the graduates of
these universities – perhaps the most valuable source of information
about them– were never even approached.
This "feel good" approach to government that is the hallmark of the
Badawi Administration has been heavily criticised in recent months by
Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his colleagues in KeADILan. They cite the
pathetic state of Malaysian education and the dismal academic
standing of our public universities.
A review of Dato Seri Anwar's New Malaysian Economic Agenda shows
clearly that there is a widening gap between the performance of our
universities in Malaysia and those in other parts of East Asia and
beyond. This is of the many reasons why our competitiveness in the
region is and continues to decline.
The Times Higher Educational Supplement (THES) ranking of
Universities around the world (which ranks some 500 universities) is
a internationally recognized guide to the quality of edudcation at
universities around the world. Why must our Ministry of Higher
Education's system feel the need to reinvent the wheel? Why not rely
on a more independent ranking system?
Clearly it's because the results of the THES and virtually every
other public or private ranking system show Malaysian institutions to
be medicre at best and most rankings do not even mention Malaysia at
all. Our neighbors like Singapore, Korea, Japan, China and Australia
have a number of institutions that regularly appear in the top 100.
In 2006, THES ranked Universiti Malaya as 192nd in the world. It
showed that over a number of years, our 100-year old University has
been sliding in global and regional ranking. It is ranked very much
below the National University of Singapore (in the 1960s, they were
the same institution) and the new Beijing University.
In response our leaders often criticise rankings from overseas as
unfair and biased against Asian schools. But why would they be
favorable to China, Singapore, Japan and Australia and single out
Malaysia alone?
It makes no sense. The reality is that our Universities are simply
mediocre extensions of a flawed high school system. Our best students
have no choice but to travel abroad to earn a decent education and
must do so at great costs.
This means that a proper education and the benefits it provides in
terms of jobs, upward social mobility, intellectual stimulation and
life skills is a privilege reserved for the rich, wealthy and well
connected. The vast majority of Malays are consigned to a life of
mediocrity in our national education system.
Sadly, no serious efforts have been made by the Ministry itself and
our administrators at Universiti Malaya to undertake fundamental
reforms that are needed to reverse the slide.
Instead of taking these facts to heart, we hear from the present Vice
Chancellor, Rafiah Salim, that she is "satisfied" with the piecemeal
efforts to improve Universiti Malaya's standing as an institution for
research and teaching.
Our nation once had among the best university systems in the region
and attracted students and faculty from overseas. Why has it
declined? Why are we settling for such a raw deal? Why don't our
leaders do something about it instead patting themselves on the back
for nothing?
We need to seriously ask ourselves and our government what is the
purpose of a university education in the 21st century? Are our public
universities fulfilling that role as caretakers of our children and
our economic future in an increasingly competitive local regional and
global economic environment?
We fail to recognise that the ages of 18 to 22 are a developmentally
appropriate time for young Malaysians to become immersed in the life
of the mind. In the word of Harvard's legendary James Byrant Conant,
"Education is what is left after all that has been learnt is
forgotten". Wise words, indeed.
In my view and in the view of many others who were educated at
university in the 1960s, our universities have lost sight of their
mission to transform our young citizens into people with the wisdom
and integrity to take responsibility for their lives and for the
development of their nation. This can only happen if the government
and our university administrators undertake fundamental reform to
restore excellence in the research and teaching functions of our
educational institutions.
This is impossible unless we restore the sacred right of academic
freedom and trust our brightest minds to do the right thing in
promoting a discourse that is rational and respectful.
The laws in place that restrict these intellectual freedoms are quite
simply a tool imposed by UMNO to stifle a discourse which would be
enlightening and in the process unveil the layers of corruption and
decadence that now permeate the country.
Our government has shown, by example, that corruption, deceit,
bribery, and nepotism are the key ingredients for success in this
nation. This is fundamentally at odds with the pursuit of knowledge
and enlightenment. Our universities have a critical role to play in
reorienting the society along a strong ethical base and in
inculcating the values of integrity, kindness, cooperation and
understanding in our pluralistic society.
There is no reason why the Universities cannot be the breeding ground
for our nation's future leaders who will be committee to making
Malaysia a better place than it is today.
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