LETTER | The impact of Covid-19 continues to disrupt the world and there is much uncertainty within the higher education sector as to what this means to the future of Malaysia’s higher education and skills training. A wide range of stakeholders including students and parents are anxiously seeking answers on this front. Along with health devastation, the impact of Covid-19 is forcing institutions and classes to close, leaving students stranded and lecturers without employment. The risk of more closures of institutions is obvious.

It wasn’t that long ago when academic groups and sectoral stakeholders welcomed the decision by the prime minister to reintroduce the Higher Education Ministry with your appointment as minister for higher education. This will ensure more attention is given to the overall development of the policy framework and the higher education sector, a sector that has been neglected.

No doubt, this is a challenging moment for everyone. While we appreciate your creativity in engaging students through social media platforms such as Tik Tok, perhaps it’s more appropriate and important, at times like this, to ensure more work and support being given by the Higher Education Ministry to our educational institutions and students.

In response to this crisis and the impact on the higher education sector, your role as a crisis manager is needed now, more than ever. As such, I would like to propose the following activities for your kind consideration:

Set up a special task force for higher education consisting of experts from government, higher education institutions (both public and private), think-tanks and student groups to plan, implement and coordinate actions in addressing the concerns and foreseeable risks posed to the higher education sector and students as per below.

The immediate priorities and roles of the special task force include but are not limited to:

Set up a centralised information centre to ensure coordinated and accurate information is being communicated to educational institutions and students throughout the pandemic.
Set up a national emergency fund to support the universities, educational institutions and students if the situation requires.
Propose salary cuts for senior executives in KPT, vice-chancellors and universities to contribute to the welfare support for staffs and students.
Coordinate relevant federal and state government agencies to ensure proper mobilisation of resources and effective execution to support the students at a local level.
Address the challenges of shifting to online learning due to issues such as accessibility to the Internet and the feasibility of teaching online for courses that require practical or face-to-face learning environment.

As a host to more than 150,000 international students studying in Malaysia, it is also important for the ministry to ensure that they are well supported. This can be done through involving the foreign embassies, EMGS and Immigration Department on matters related to visa and off-campus accommodation.

Otherwise, it may pose a reputational risk to Malaysia as a welcoming country for international students.

The ministry must immediately step up its efforts in ensuring all steps are being taken to support this important sector of the country. Public confidence must be restored and uplifted in this time of uncertainty.

The writer is co-convenor of the Asean-Australia Education Dialogue and former president of the Council of International Students Australia (Cisa).

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.