Universities bear the brunt of cuts as economy slows

Malaysia’s public universities are reeling after higher education appeared to bear the brunt of cuts announced in the 2016 budget last week. Higher education will see a decrease of MYR1.4 billion (US$325 million) compared to the previous year – a drop of some 15% from MYR15,785 billion in last year’s budget to some MYR13.3 billion.

Malaysia’s economy has come under pressure from lower oil and commodity prices and the need to reduce a yawning budget deficit has led to the cuts, according to Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh.

Some 19 out of the country’s 20 public universities will see their budget allocations slashed, with the country’s flagship Universiti Malaya the biggest loser, facing a 27.3% decline in government’s proposed funding for next year.

Universiti Teknologi MARA and two others will see cuts of over 23%, while 11 other universities will see reductions of 10% to 20%. Parents are concerned that the cuts of 20% to 25% in the budget allocations for individual universities could lead to sky-rocketing university fees in the near future.

“With the top universities having their budgets slashed by up to 27%, how will the ambition of having world-class universities materialise?” said Zairil Khir Johari, education spokesman for the opposition Democratic Action Party, referring to the government’s stated targets for its top public research universities.

Zairil said improvements in universities would require more investment to boost the quality of the academic faculty and develop better research programmes and grants, as well as upgrade infrastructure and student facilities.

Blueprint

The government has been attempting to defend the budget cuts in the face of criticisms that it will be unable to carry out its flagship higher education Blueprint to 2025 to spur “excellence in higher education”, in the face of such swingeing cuts.

Although the higher education budget was less than last year’s – the 2015 budget was already 12.4% down on 2014 – it was “in line with” the higher education Blueprint 2015-2025 and “will lead universities to unlock and utilise their assets in finding their own resources", Minister Idris Jusoh said.

“In the Malaysia Education Blueprint, it is clearly stated that public universities need to reduce their dependency on the government,” Idris said last Monday.

Among the proposals floated by the government is that public universities and colleges should “earn income” through different measures, including setting up endowment funds, which have been insignificant in the past; and should develop closer partnerships with industry.

But the wider fear is that such big cuts will lead to fee increases. Parental discontent has increased as “places in universities have been reduced for two consecutive years while [the number of] students who qualify to go to university is rising,” said Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, an executive councillor in the Selangor State legislature and a People’s Justice Party, or PKR, spokesman for education.

Sim Tze Tzin, a PKR parliamentarian, said: “We predict university fees will be raised next year. This will affect 534,569 students in public institutions of higher learning.

“The percentage increase in fees is projected to be in the range of 20% to support the deficits at such institutions,” he said in a statement last Tuesday.

Sim predicted universities would additionally raise charges for other services including dormitory fees, registration fees and services fees. The expected rise in fees will be compounded by the reduction in study loans from the government’s loan body, the National Higher Education Fund Corporation or PTPTN, he said.

However Idris said fees would not rise. "We will not allow any increase in fees for undergraduate programmes at our universities," he told the media last week.