University Malaya vice-chancellor Ghauth Jasmon is perplexed that his harmless comments at a briefing for students have become mired in controversy.

His comments during the briefing on Feb 14, at the university had been misunderstood, misinterpreted and gave the misconception that he degraded Bahasa Malaysia.

NONE Ghauth ( right ) said that during the briefing with about 2,000 students from various faculties and some academic staff, he was merely presenting data from the Higher Education Ministry about graduate employability and its relation to better command and skills in the English language.

"But it ended up like I am not giving importance to Bahasa Malaysia... which I did not intend to, whatsoever. I think this all a pure misunderstanding," he told a press conference at the UM today.

He arranged for the press conference to clarify what had transpired during the briefing which had created controversy, resulting in an allegation by a student, 'Siswa Kecewa, UM', on Berita Harian Online on March 5 that Ghauth had degraded the national language.

It was also reported that a memorandum was submitted by students from the Akademi Pengajian Melayu (APM), demanding that Ghauth apologise over the matter and state his stance on the national language.

Ghauth said the university's statistics last year, had shown that APM students, six months after completion of their studies, had the lowest graduate employability rate as compared to students from all other faculties.

He said the ministry wanted all public universities in the country to do more to increase the command of English and skills among university students to increase the graduate employability rate, and as such, it was his duty to present that fact, message and concern to UM students.

He said, all the data (which he had presented) came solely from the ministry.

The vice-chancellor said the briefing was held, among others, to share his vision and mission to raising UM into the rank of the top 100 universities within five years and get the students' views on their contribution to achieve that.

Ghauth said he would meet APM students soon to clarify the matter and erase any misunderstanding.

- Bernama