I refer to the letter Two issues public universities need to confront .

Reading the contribution of Chinese Malaysian with interest, he misses out on the latest 'developments'. Naturally, since he has been away for some 20 years.

Just to update, the latest and greatest is the implicitly rolled-out encouragement (I noticed it is being implemented in all universities where I happen to have contacts) to 'improve' the quality of our university students.

Nobody has any qualms about improving the academic quality of students, so why my quote marks? Because we have embarked on a typical local approach to achieve this.

What makes an employable graduate, a good quality graduate? Good grades, a high CPGA? Meaning that our authorities have found a lever to improve the results of our students - a good quality student has high grades; consequently, high grades meaning having educated good students.

Nothing easier than this. Increasing the CGPA equates to increasing the students' quality. How do we do this the Malaysian way? By using a two-pronged approach of force and encouragement.

When there are not 'enough' A's, some lecturers are asked to 'justify' this, in writing. In another place, there is a prescribed percentage of grades. Elsewhere, in order to grade a student with an 'F', a written justification has to be added for each student graded such.

And as much as we see the usefulness of offering remedial courses for weak students (and have been doing this since long), it can be rendered absurd. First of all, the students considered 'weak' often refuse to attend these extra classes. Secondly, the students have by now become aware that the onus is on the lecturer to pass them.

Subsequently, we find they feel no more need to work, read and prepare. Instead of the students working harder, it is now up to their lecturers to work harder and lift all of the students to a level for a passing grade. And for many a student, that's all they aspire to.

One of the cleverer tricks is to draw a link between the academic success of your students and your own evaluation. The higher the CGPA of your students, the higher your evaluation as lecturer.

This is too tempting to resist, as one can imagine. Your appraisal commensurates with the grades that you give. Am I the only one who reads this as an open invitation to corrupt yourself?