A committee working on draft amendments to the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA) is expected to submit the proposed amendments to the Ministry of Higher Education in early February.

Its chairman, Prof Nik Ahmad Nik Mahmod said the committee would analyse feedbacks from the public on the rationale of students being allowed to take part in politics.

He said these included holding political talks, joining political parties, distributing political leaflets and carrying out activities associated with political parties.

The public can post their feedbacks to the committee's official email aukuwg@mohe.gov.my, its social networking account http://www.facebook.com/aukuwg or by answering a questionnaire posted on http://www.mohe.gov.com.my, he said in a statement today

In November, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that Section 15 of the UUCA would be amended to enable students to join political parties, but not to the extent of bringing politics into the campus.

Subsequently, the Higher Education Ministry set up the committee headed by Nik Ahmad to formulate the terms of reference and get input from all stakeholders, including students and universities, for the proposed amendments.

Public hearings to be held

uuca amendment public consultation Nik Ahmad, who is also deputy rector (student affairs) of International Islamic University Malaysia, said in the first process of getting feedbacks, the ministry would write to all public and private universities to seek the views of academicians and students.

He said in the second process, the public could answer a questionnaire that would be posted on the ministry's website and social networking site, http://www.facebook.com/aukuwg.

The third process is through public hearings that will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, he added.

- Bernama