I refer to the call by University Malaya vice-chancellor Dato' Prof Dr Hashim Yaacob in his letter Talk to me about UM . I am a former student of UM, and I can tell why UM has been in a free fall and is still free falling.

1) Where are the quality lecturers? I can tell you most of them have resigned and have joined foreign universities.

2) Why did they resign? Because there is no meritocracy at UM in promoting lecturers. I remember my batch had one of the most useless lecturers (by common consensus) and yet he got promoted to associate professor.

3) The term system is the best to test how well students understand the subjects they study. UM has changed it to the semester system which has in turn made the students become lazy. It is so easy to get a pass.

4) The university has modified the syllabus such that I am told that engineering courses now no longer required 'survey camps' and no compulsory industrial training is enforced.

5) Some lecturers are deadwood and have no new ideas on how to present new notes and exam questions. Year in year out, the same old stuff.

6) Students are not allowed to complain about a lecturer's performance. If they do, they will be blacklisted. Living in this environment of fear and punishment, how can students be creative and high-achieving?

7) Some of the lectures and are racists and extremists. They are supposed to guide the students, but are instead busy playing politics.

The list goes on...