All 20 public universities in the country have been accorded autonomous status after six universities received their autonomous status letters from the Education Ministry.

The ministry, in a statement, said the autonomous status gives power to the University Board of Directors (LPU) and the University Board of Governors to make their own decisions.

“The autonomy is a delegation of power to enable universities to move more effectively towards excellence and empower these institutions towards a global level.

“The autonomous status also enables universities to be more flexible in making decisions to determine their direction including finance and human resource management,” it said.

According to the statement, even though universities have the power to manage their resources without referring to a central agency, they should adhere to basic principles as the autonomy is not absolute and they are still subject to the government and ministry policies and strategies on higher education.

The public universities autonomous programme had been introduced since 2012 under the National Higher Education Strategic Plan for a paradigm shift of the institutions towards more effective higher education management.

“The delegation of power was conducted in stages as it required negotiations between the Education Ministry and other central agencies,” it said.

Before this, 14 public universities have obtained their respective autonomous status.

The six universities which received their autonomous letters are Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK), Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM), Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP).

-- Bernama