The Budget crunch in 2016 and 2017 was a short-sighted move that substantially compromised the quality of education in public universities.
Last year, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak continued to cut down the budget allocation for higher education by 19.23 percent despite the various opposing voices from National Council of Professors (MPN), academicians, student movement groups and opposition parties.
Insufficient allocation affects quality
The Malaysian Academic Association Congress (MAAC) reported over 6,000 lecturers in public universities, including professors, were either terminated from their jobs or had their contracts not renewed in 2016 due to the budget cuts.
This is a serious issue as it reflects a knowledge loss crisis in our nation. On the other hand, incumbent lecturers are overwhelmed by the increase of workload because they are understaffed.
This situation is rather hostile for fostering innovations. How can invention and innovation be possible when our academicians are struggling to find a balance between teaching, research work and performing administrative duties?
Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh is partly to blame for undermining our public universities. More and more academicians in public universities are experiencing the negative impact of the budget cut.
The reduction of funds and higher education blueprint might look good on paper but they are not helping our universities unleash their potential.
Postgraduate students suffer the most
After the budget cut, academicians are having a hard time purchasing lab consumables as well as new research equipment which are essential to produce good quality work. As such, many research laboratories are forced to shut down due to inadequate funding for maintenance.
To make matters worse, the costs of lab consumables have increased drastically due to the GST implementation.The weak ringgit further weakened research activities.
In addition, the number of MyBrain15 scholarships offered was reduced drastically as compared to previous years. Most scholars were only able to receive scholarships that cover 80% of their studies while their monthly allowance was reduced to RM1,800 from RM2,300.
To sustain themselves, some postgraduate students are forced seek part-time employment outside, sacrificing their study time.
With lecturers terminated from their jobs, lack of proper research facilities, research grants and scholarships from the government, many postgraduate students in public universities suffer from inadequate support to complete their studies.
Without a conducive research environment to foster knowledge, it will be hard to realise the aspiration from Higher Education Ministry to achieve 60,000 PhD holders by 2023.
Discrimination against marginalised groups
University of Malaya’s (UM) allocation was reduced by 58.7 percent, from RM630 million in 2015 to RM370 million in 2017. Consequently, UM come up with a direct intake system for students who are able to pay for expensive tuition fees to bypass the Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU) selection.
While it is an easy way for UM to generate income, this “business” also make our public university enrollment unfair at the same time.
Placement that should have given to more qualified students through the UPU was instead sold due to budget cuts.
For now, the direct intake is only applicable for civil, electrical, chemical, biomedical and mechanical engineering degrees and the tuition fees are set at around RM90,000. In other words, the direct intake system is marginalising more qualified students from lower-income families.
If there are no objections from the public against UM’s direct intake, I believe the commercialization of student intake will continue to happen at other public universities with a wider degree program selection.
Lastly, Dapsy demands Najib to restore the quality of our public universities.
LEONG YU SHENG is the director of Varsity Affairs Bureau, Dapsy Malaysia.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
