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Idris Jusoh should remove his head from the sand

MP SPEAKS I would firstly like to commend Education Minister II Idris Jusoh for taking the initiative to respond to the barrage of criticisms following his statement that our higher education system is ‘world-class’ and on par with the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.

Unfortunately, as my colleague Tony Pua has pointed out , the minister’s response is nothing more than an attempt to qualify his far-fetched premise with highly selective data and an extremely liberal application of the term ‘world-class’.

Not only does Idris fail to prove his claim that our tertiary education system is as good as developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia (to use his own examples), his dogged failure to acknowledge our shortcomings reveals a dangerous attitude of wilful ignorance.

Yes, we attract many foreign students. No, it is not because we are ‘world-class’.

In his response, Idris ( left ) once again stresses that our foreign-to-local student ratio of 1:10 is proof that our education system is world-class. In fact, the minister quotes a 2014 Unesco report entitled ‘Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up’ which lists “five prominent factors” that makes Malaysia a choice destination for many international students. These factors are: cultural comfort, cost, value for money, language of instruction and quality of life.

While I would agree that these factors are amongst our value propositions, I would like to point out that not a single one corroborates the claim that we provide high-quality, world-class education.

Therefore, while the Unesco report does prove that we are a popular destination of higher education, it also reveals that our popularity is based primarily on practical factors such as affordability and cultural comfort. How can this be taken to mean that we are world-class?

Idris also points out that Malaysia recorded a 16.5 percent growth in international student enrolment in 2014. This increase, he points out, is higher than the growth figures achieved by Australia and the UK. Such a proposition, I must say, is disingenuous to say the least.

As we all know, the higher education sector in Australia and the UK is mature and saturated, with foreigners making up around 25 and 18 percent of their total student population respectively.

I think it is not difficult for anyone to see that further growth would no longer be exponential. In contrast, it is not difficult for Malaysia to achieve high growth numbers coming from a far lower baseline. At only 10 percent of our student population being of foreign origin, it is certainly not difficult to increase these numbers.

More importantly, I feel that it is important to understand the nature of this growth. In my last statement, I showed that our international students are largely Middle-Eastern, African and South Asian in origin. This by itself is not a problem, and genuine students who have come to develop themselves in Malaysia are certainly welcome.

Successful marketing strategy

However, I would like to stress that such an achievement is at best a function of a successful marketing strategy in tapping onto new markets rather than a function of the quality of our higher education system, which the Unesco report duly validates. Once again, quantity alone does not equate to quality.

If we are world-class, why have we lost so many great academics?

Idris also listed four local academics who were named in the Thomson Reuters ‘World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014' list. These professors, whose published research ranks among the top one per cent most cited in their respective fields, have certainly achieved distinction and I am equally as proud of their achievements. However, they are probably the exceptions rather than the norm.

Over the years, we have not only lost our best students to foreign countries, but also our best academics. For example, many brilliant Malaysian minds such as KS Jomo ( right ), Syed Farid Alatas, Wang Gung Wu, Johan Saravanamuttu and Azly Rahman have left Malaysia to serve at institutions overseas.

Often, they choose to do so not so much for financial gain but rather because of the increasing lack of academic freedom in Malaysian universities. Meanwhile, prominent academics who have stayed on in Malaysia such as Aziz Bari, Azmi Sharom and Kassim Ahmad are continually subjected to government intimidation in the form of the Sedition Act and other draconian laws.

This academic brain drain also applies to foreign academics. While Malaysian universities used to host the likes of Harold Crouch, Clive Kessler, John Funston, James C Scott and Arndt Graf, one is hard-pressed to name a famous international academic still based in Malaysia. Hence, if indeed our higher education system is world-class, then why have we lost so many great academics?

It is clear from Idris’s statement that he has his head in the sand. By expounding on a few select successes and ignoring the fundamental weaknesses of our education system as a whole, the minister risks fooling himself and all Malaysians along with him.

In truth, unless we begin to address the deteriorating standards of our higher education system as evidenced by many international surveys, chief amongst them the annual Times Higher Education World University Ranking report, along with other fundamental problems such as the lack of autonomy in the governance of our public universities, as well as the contracting space for academic freedom and constant government intimidation on academics and students, we will never be able to truly call ourselves world-class.


ZAIRIL KHIR JOHARI is the member of Parliament for Bukit Bendera.

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