Working adults who never had the opportunity to obtain a tertiary education will be able to do so when Gerakan's university opens next year in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, said its president Dr Lim Keng Yaik today.

"The Wawasan Open University (WOU) is sponsored and promoted by Gerakan for the benefit of some nine million Malaysian working adults without university degrees who left school after completing their secondary education but never managed to finish their tertiary education," he added.

Lim told reporters this after officiating Gerakan's photo galleria at its headquarters in Menara PGRM, Kuala Lumpur.

WOU will offer distance learning courses in fields of information technology, engineering and computing in its Penang branch while the centre in Kuala Lumpur will offer business management, accountancy, language and arts courses.

"This will complement the government's objective of creating a knowledge-based economy as the country migrates from being a low cost producer to a high cost producer," said Lim, who is also energy, water and communications minister.

The open university concept is derived from United Kingdom's open university and the county's very own open university which runs off campus programmes with tutorials conducted after working hours and on weekends.

"This will be a second opportunity for these adults to obtain diplomas or degrees and also create an upward mobility on qualifications of workers and provide them with skills to face the country's changes in the future," said the veteran politician.

The university in the city will be housed at Gerakan's upcoming new building Menara PGRM 2 while the Penang branch will be housed at the Yeap Chor Yee building.

Lim said that the party would incur a total operational cost of RM50 million for the first three years of administrating the university.

Merger plans

In his speech earlier, Lim said Gerakan was going through changes with the injection of new faces.

"It is the right time to remember the party's history as we have a lot of new leaders now and many young members as well," he said before launching the gallery which boasts 1,300 photos documenting the party's history since its inception in1968.

Lim also talked about Gerakan's possible merger with MCA saying that it would not happen in the near future but the close cooperation between the two will continue.

Both parties are in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and while MCA is a Chinese-based party, multi-racial Gerakan has a sizeable Chinese membership.

"This matter (merger) will also be brought up during the party's national delegates conference to the grassroots leaders to listen to their views and get feedback," said Lim.

On the same note, the Gerakan leader added that he does not expect much resistance from members to the merger as it was a good move and he aims to clear the confusion on the matter during the conference.

The three-day conference which begins tomorrow, will see close to 2,500 delegates attending, comprising leaders and observers nationwide.