KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh’s proclamation of Malaysian universities as on par with developed countries is “dangerous” as it ignores the gap in quality, said a DAP lawmaker.
According to Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming, Idris’ use of rising foreign intake to benchmark the quality of local institutions of higher learning was was akin to “fooling” himself into believing Malaysian universities are on the same level as those in the West.
“Firstly, the decision for foreign students to study abroad is governed by a number of factors including the cost of a program, the cost of living, the entry requirements…,” Ong said in a statement.
“To think that our education system is world class and on par with countries like the UK and Australia just because we have a large number of foreign students is dangerous, especially coming from the Education Minister.”
Idris was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama yesterday that Malaysia’s institutions of higher education are on par with those in the US, Germany and Australia as there are 135,000 foreigners making 10 per cent of all students in local universities and colleges.
The minister also cited Universiti Malaya’s rise in the 2014 QS World University Rankings, from 167 to 151, as further evidence.
However, Ong said that even with UM’s improvement did not mask the fact that no Malaysian institution was among the top 100 of the same survey, whereas the UK has 19, Australia has eight, and Germany, three.
“The second education minister is actually doing a great disservice to our local universities by unfairly comparing them to other universities in developed countries which have a much longer history, higher per student funding and more established research infrastructure,” Ong said.
“Those are standards which our universities should aspire to but have not yet reached.”
