KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — Public universities have shown that sourcing for their own funds by generating income instead of relying on the government "can be done", Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said today.

Idris said the "reality" was that public universities — which had faced budget cuts last year and this year — are capable of generating income to fund their operating and development needs.

"I wish to announce that in 2016, public universities have successfully generated income of between 12 per cent and 30 per cent of the total operating expenditure.

"It can be done. Not only it can be done, it has been done. Thank you to all the public universities," he said in a speech at the ministry's new year assembly here.

He said the public universities' sources of income include course fees, rental income, contribution from holdings and alumni, research proceeds and other internal sources.

He said the government views "waqf” or Islamic endowment as an important alternative funding source for public universities, noting that over RM13.25 million was collected as of December 31, 2016 by seven universities.

These seven local universities were Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, National Defence University of Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Pahang, he said.

"For 2017, I hope efforts to generate funds will be continued and enhanced by referring to the 'Purple Book: Enhancing University Income Generation, Endowment and Waqf' that has been launched by the ministry," he said.

Idris listed several methods in which public universities could generate income, including unlocking the potential of assets, increasing research commercialisation activities and the offering of consulting services.

Public universities could also set up waqf and endowment funds, collecting funds from alumni and industries, as well as using their funds and assets for strategic investments, he said.

Idris was speaking amid complaints over the federal government's budget cut by 9.3 per cent this year for the Higher Education Ministry which oversees public universities, which had last year also experienced a cut.

When asked regarding the non-renewal of contracts of senior lecturers at public universities allegedly due to budget constraints, Idris told reporters that the universities have to retain the "good ones".

"If you have good ones with you, is it going to affect you?" he added when met after the assembly.

When asked whether the quality of research at public universities would suffer due to budget cuts, Idris replied: "If you can get funds on your own from outside, it shouldn't be any problem."

He acknowledged that researchers at public universities may be slightly distracted from their research work due to the need to spend time sourcing for funds, but insisted that such reduction in financing from the government was inevitable and in line with the country's higher education blueprints.

"When there's something new, it will distract them a little bit, but you have to understand the fact that we are too dependent on the government.

"Are we doing the right thing by funding them (public universities) at 80 per cent when others can do it 30 to 40 per cent? That's why we’ve got to reduce," he said.

"It's all in the blueprint, as if you are discrediting the blueprint (and) you don't believe in the blueprint we launched...We are following the blueprint, that's it, so please appreciate the ministry who is following the blueprint," he said.

Earlier in his speech, Idris highlighted the budget cuts were in line with the ministry's planning of almost 10 years under the National Higher Education Strategic Plan in 2007 and the Malaysia Education Blueprint (Higher Education) 2015-2025's fifth thrust.

He also stressed the need to achieve sustainable financing of higher education by trimming local universities' reliance rate of 95 per cent on public funds, noting that the efficiency of their expenditure should also be boosted.

He cited the Universitas 21 Report 2016, where Malaysia took the top spot in the government's higher education spending against the country's GDP and 13th spot in overall rankings, but with local universities' output only at the 43th spot globally.

In his speech, Idris had also declared 2017 as a "Translational Research" Year for public universities, saying that there must now be a shift from cultivating research to "research that gives direct benefits to society".

"The question that arises is: How can research in universities be translated to solutions for national and international issues for the benefit of industries, academia, government and most importantly the community?" he said.

Among examples of such research are Universiti Putra Malaysia's efforts to increase the yield and quality of paddy plants, Universiti Sains Malaysia's research on using membrane technology for water treatment during floods, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak's research to detect the Zika virus that was used during last year's Olympics in Brazil, and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's research on the Langkawi Geopark, he said.

Later, Idris confirmed that "translational research" would also be aimed at helping public universities generate more funds.

In his speech, he highlighted that public universities have managed to generate a return of research investment of RM7.17 billion or at a rate of 28.5 per cent, based on RM5.58 billion pumped in by the federal government during the 2007-2015 period.

This included proceeds from fundamental research in the form of books and consulting services and products and intellectual property derived from commercial research, he said, adding that Malaysian universities have boosted their global rankings following research achievements.