A group of University Malaya lecturers made a startling revelation today on the deteriorating quality of local graduates, which included allegations of mark tampering and abuse of power.

In a statement, the Association of UM Academic Staff (PKAUM) said the assessment system did not accurately reflect the students' level of knowledge and therefore allowed them to graduate easily with a degree.

"Lecturers are advised against giving out high number of failures. We have also received complaints where certain parties in the university raised examination marks without the agreement of the examiners," said its president Rosli H Mahat.

He said the problem became prevalent because of the system which allowed students to be awarded degrees without sufficient number of credit hours.

"The 100 credit hours system was introduced to enable students from public universities obtain their degrees in a three-year period. However, we find this to be insufficient. Their studies also lack depth," he stressed.

The association released the critical statement in order to identify the reasons behind the poor quality of local graduates and the growing unemployment among them.

Valid criticism

Rosli also outlined two other factors which contributed to this problem. These were the lack of transparency in promotion of university officials and the absence of incentive for academicians to carry out research work.

"There are people who look down on the quality of local graduates. Some question the ability of academicians to teach and carry out research work. We admit that there is no smoke without a fire," he added.

According to him, there were valid reasons behind some of the common criticisms against local university graduates.

"The criticisms are not merely centred on their poor proficiency in English but also that they are poorly trained in their areas of specialisation.

"They are found to be unable to make clear and coherent arguments but these weaknesses are often not reflected in their results transcripts," he said.

Rosli also revealed that the association received complaints each year about alleged abuse of powers by certain university officials in promotion exercises.

"The lack of transparency in promoting academic staff thereby resulting in the appointment of less qualified lecturers to the positions of associate professors or professors," he said.

As a result of this, he added that skilled professionals were left out and this affected staff morale.

In addition, he said obsession with appointment to high level positions have also resulted in academicians neglecting their work to vie for administrative positions.

Pay increase

Another dissatisfying development was the set requirement for academicians to pass several skills assessment courses before they could be eligible for appointment to higher office.

"We feel that a large number of these courses are irrelevant for academicians. If the government wishes to raise the quality of service among academicians, we suggest that it adopts a special scheme to attract highly-skilled academicians into public universities," he said.

For instance, Rosli said the government should consider a scheme which provided allocations for academicians to pursue courses relevant to their respective disciplines.

He said the government should also revitalise an earlier scheme to corporatise pay packages for academicians, which was suspended following the Asian Financial crisis in 1997.

"Under the corporatisation scheme, academicians were supposed to receive a pay increase by 17 percent. We were told that the new salary package would be implemented after we overcome the crisis. However, until today, this scheme is still not in place," he said.

Rosli - who was appointed to head PKAUM this month - stressed that the tarnished image of local universities could only be corrected if authorities were willing to address these problems.

Over the past few months, local universities have been at the centre of debate over rising unemployment among local graduates, amid complaints from employers that they lacked the necessary language and professional skills to fulfill job requirements.

However, to date, the blame has been pinned on students for their poor skills and selectiveness in accepting job offers.