DAP has challenged Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to present a higher education “masterplan” on how it plans to get Malaysian universities out of the doldrums.

 

In a statement today, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang (left) said that Malaysia should aim to produce at least two world-class universities by 2020.

Otherwise, DAP Lim Kit Siang said, Malaysian universities will continue to slide down world rankings and gain infamy as “recruiting ground for terrorist”.

“Muhyiddin… should present a Higher Education Masterplan for October Parliament to produce at least two world-class Malaysians universities by 2020.

 

“(He should do this) instead of allowing Malaysian universities to become recruiting ground for terrorists for the...war in Syria and Iraq,” he said.

He added that the goal of having world class universities is also imperative to Vision 2020 as no country has achieved developed status without a top notch tertiary education system.

'Shameful and mortifying'

 

Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (below) was yesterday reported by The Star as saying that police are monitoring varsities as they are recruitment grounds for militants.

Police earlier also disclosed that Universiti Malaya (UM)’s Department of Akidah and Islamic Thought senior lecturer Mahmud Ahmad is among five wanted for militant activities.

 

The news comes soon after Malaysia slipped out of the Times Higher Education top 100 Asia universities 2014 ranking.

“(This) is most shameful and mortifying for Malaysians as in the fifties and sixties, University of Malaya was one of the world-class universities comparable in academic excellence with universities like Universities of Hong Kong, Melbourne and Sydney.

“Now, after 57 years of Merdeka and 51 years of Malaysia, Universiti Malaya has not only been left behind by its previous peers…(but) all our universities are regarded as far inferior to foreign tertiary institutions, which had not been highly regarded by Malaysians in the past,” he said.