Putrajaya believes in "empowered governance" of Malaysian universities and this will gradually give way to autonomy, Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh told a conference on university autonomy today.

"Autonomy is a process we are moving into. We are moving from being a tight controller to being a regulator and policy-maker," he told the National Conference of Higher Education 2017 organised by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) in Kuala Lumpur today.

Idris said that "empowered governance" was one of the "shifts" laid out in the Malaysia Education Blueprint (Higher Education) and was already in effect.

According to the minister, 17 of the twenty public universities across the country have already been accredited with "autonomy status".

"They are 100 percent (autonomous) in terms of human resource and the student enrolment, and semi-autonomous in terms of governance and finances," he explained.

Up to 80 percent of public university budgets were endowed by the government, he added.

Idris also argued how previous amendments to the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA 1971), an act often criticised for stifling academic freedom, had in fact improved the governance of universities.

"These amendments have allowed public universities and lecturers to engage in commercial activities... and allowed for student political participation outside campus," he said.

VC appointments are transparent

To illustrate his point that "empowered governance" was not always bad, Idris said Universiti Malaya still ranked higher than other major universities in the region, despite being less autonomous and "tightly controlled".

"Is there any real direct link between autonomy and the quality of a university?" he asked a 100-strong audience comprising university vice chancellors, representatives from public and private universities, academics, think-tank representatives and tertiary students.

To a question on whether universities should appoint their own vice-chancellors, Idris reiterated that autonomy was a process, and "the process is full of transparency".

The current process of appointing vice-chancellors and other top leadership positions is through the Higher Education Leadership Academy (Akept), an NGO affiliated with the Ministry of Higher Education.

"It looks like it is the minister who chooses... but the process from the start is given to Akept to filter applicant's abilities and potential before coming to the table of the minister.

"Universities might be pilih kasih (biased)," he said.

Don: UUCA must go

Contrary to the idea of regulated autonomy, the Ideas, which coordinated all research presented at the conference, proposed that the UUCA 1971 be abolished to enable universities full autonomy.

"Until there is full autonomy, any reform is only superficial. Currently universities are operating like a bureaucracy rather than centres run by intellectuals," argued conference chairperson Professor Dzulkifli Abdul Razak.

Professor Dzulkifli, who is also Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (Usim) board of directors chairperson, added that autonomy was not about universities challenging the government, but about allowing the free flow of ideas.

"The university board should be the guardian of autonomy, and vice-chancellors should be appointed by the university board," he added.

Similar views were echoed throughout the various sessions of the conference.