The decision by the Ministry of Higher Education to hold a three-day walk-in-interviews to hire potential lecturers has baffled many academicians, researchers and concerned individuals.

Some claimed that the method implemented by the ministry was "ridiculous" while others said the walk-in-interviews had many "shortcomings".

The strategy by the ministry has been claimed to be part of bigger scheme to ensure that at least 60 percent of the country's academic staff have PhD qualifications by 2010.

As such, a series of walk-in-interviews would be held between May 26 and 28, from 9am to 4pm, at Kuala Lumpur Sentral in Brickfields.

The interview sessions are open for job-seekers who are interested in filling up the vacancies of academic staff in 20 local universities.

Unclear requirements

When malaysiakini called to inquire about the interviews, the person-in-charge of the project, known only as Mohd Safiee, explained that only 20 local universities would be participating in the scheme and that panelists from every university would set up their own counters to conduct the interviews themselves.

"The interview session will be divided into two sessions which includes a face-to-face interview and an essay writing based on the questions we have prepared," he added.

"Applicants can choose any local university they like and visit the university's booth for an interview on these three days."

"And you don't need referees. Even though you have applied through a university (if you are a university student), you can still come over here to fill up a form and register with us."

Need proper way

When contacted, popular blogger Tony Pua, who owns the blog " Education in Malaysia ", said that he found the idea of walk-in-interviews as proposed by the ministry in order to select qualified lecturers as ridiculous.

"It's definitely not a proper way to interview our academic staff. By using walk-in-interviews, I feel like as if we are interviewing Mcdonald's staff," he said, adding that the ministry needs to think of a better way so that they could attract good quality candidates to fill in the vacancies.

The former CEO of a public listed IT company and graduate of Oxford University also said if the government wished to recruit more good quality lecturers, they should select the candidates based on their performance and not race.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) researcher Tan Lee Ooi said he has no confidence in the credibility of the walk-in-interviews as there were still many shortcomings in the system itself.

"I do not plan to waste my time to go all the way down to Kuala Lumpur to apply for it because I find it weird for people who is not in the related field to interview me, rather than the faculty's dean or head of department or lecturers who knows the specific field better," he said in a phone interview.

'We don't know'

He also doubted the credibility of chosen panelist who would conduct the interviews as he claimed it would be unfair to the applicants if the interviewees who interviewed them do no posses any professional qualifications in the related field.

"Actually we can just apply directly to the related faculty of the university as it will save us more time and energy."

On the other hand, an associate professor from the School of Communication in USM told malaysiakini that he and his colleagues were unaware of the walk-in-interviews.

He added that they have not been informed by the university management if they were needed to be panelists in the interview sessions.