Government urged to upgrade one or two universities

The government has been urged to pick one or two public universities to be upgraded to global status. Conference organising chairman of the 2015 meeting of the Chairmen of the Board of Directors (Public Universities), Tun Zaki Tun Azmi, said the aim could be met if one or two were nurtured into becoming the 20 best in the world, reports Bernama.

"To implement the proposal, the government, for example, must appoint the best from among local or foreign candidates as vice-chancellors to manage the administration of the universities," he said in his speech at the conference last Tuesday. He said the funds to send local students abroad could be used to hire the best lecturers for the selected universities. Every public university in Malaysia must cooperate by giving their full support to the selected universities and dispel any feeling of jealousy, he added.

Tun Azmi said that some might say that the government, through the Higher Education Ministry, was implementing what he proposed by developing research universities. However, he said there were too many to achieve the aim, and instead, he added that the government should pick one research university and turn it into a special research university. "A foreign university does not specialise in all fields. We need only pick one or two fields and soar in our expertise in the fields we pick," he explained.
Full report on the Bernama site