DAP on education: Focus on quality, not quantity
DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang has expressed disappointment with the local education industry for failing to focus on raising academic standard in the country's public universities during a two-day education summit held in Kuala Lumpur this week.
Lim said the 2003 Education Summit's organisers had mainly promoted the quality and excellence at private institutions but failed to address the decline in academic standard at local universities over the last three decades.
"Is our sole strategy to restore, maintain and improve the quality of higher education in learning, teaching and scholarship purely through the presence of quality foreign universities in the country?" he questioned.
DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang urges the government to focus on raising academic standard in public universities and not be obsessed with chalking another 'regional hub' title.
DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang has expressed disappointment with the local education industry for failing to focus on raising academic standard in the country's public universities during a two-day education summit held in Kuala Lumpur this week.
Lim said the 2003 Education Summit's organisers had mainly promoted the quality and excellence at private institutions but failed to address the decline in academic standard at local universities over the last three decades.
"Is our sole strategy to restore, maintain and improve the quality of higher education in learning, teaching and scholarship purely through the presence of quality foreign universities in the country?" he questioned.
Low rankings
According to Lim, the poor state of academic standards at public universities could be gauged from their rankings in a 'Best Universities in the Region' list compiled by Asiaweek three years ago.
"In the sixties, Universiti Malaya was rated as one of the best universities in Asia Pacific, probably ranked among the top ten universities in the region.
"However, three decades later, it had suffered such as serious decline in academic standards and quality that it was ranked a lowly 47th position out of 77 universities," he said.
Lim noted that two other local universities, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia, were ranked at the 52nd and 57th positions respectively.
Regional hub aim
The DAP chairperson said instead of just aiming to raise the quantity of foreign students in the country, education authorities should instead be focusing on raising the quality of higher education in local institutions.
"Parliament at its June sitting should declare two national educational targets - to reaffirm Malaysia's objective to become an international centre for educational excellence and to have at least one world-class university among the top ten list of universities in Asia Pacific," he said.
"What is urgently needed now is a master plan on quality in higher education to ensure that Malaysia does not just become a regional education hub for foreign students by 2010 but (for it to be) recognised universally as an international centre for academic excellence," he added.
On Thursday, Education Minister Musa Mohamad announced that the ministry would be setting up offices in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Middle East to help promote public and private higher education in Malaysia.
He said that the move was in line with the government's aim of making Malaysia a higher education hub in the region attracting up to 50,000 students by 2010.
