The Higher Education Ministry is endeavouring to raise the voter turnout at campus elections, where some universities recorded a turnout of less than 70 percent in the past.

"There are some campuses where the election process runs smoothly but the voter turnout is below 70 per cent," said deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.

"To us, a turnout of less than 70 percent is not so healthy for a
university. It should be 80 per cent or more.

"We want to find out why the turnout is low at some universities and how to raise the percentage of students coming out to vote," he told reporters after a get together with student leaders at the
Kota Kinabalu Polytechnic, here today.

He said this was also linked to the transformation process of the Student Affairs division at all public institutions of higher learning, in line with the amendments to the Universities and University Colleges Act almost a year ago.

At the same time, he said the Higher Education Ministry was also studying ways of improving the quality of student leaders including increasing the number of leadership courses for student leaders.

"Thirdly, how to create more student leaders. We find that there are students holding several positions. It is better not to hold three or four positions, and let others hold posts too," he said.


- Bernama