HISTORICAL &

PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION
OF MALAYSIAN EDUCATION
EDT 1001:
GROUP 4

Question:
Discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of the
Corporatization and
Privatization of Education in
Malaysia.

PRIVATIZATION IN EDUCATION
IN MALAYSIA
HISTORY
Started in the 1950s
For students who cannot continue their studies to
obtain their basic certificates in Government
schools.
1970s:
The roles of the private education changed when
the private education began focusing on the preuniversity courses.

 Until the 1980s, the Malaysian government

was the main provider of higher education
Government kept tuition fees low by
heavily subsidizing all public institutions.
The government offers scholarships and
loans to low-income students.
Student enrollments at the tertiary level
have risen dramatically in the past decade.

 The ministry faced with tight budgetary constraints in

meeting the ever-increasing demand for higher
education.
State has to relinquish its role as the main provider of
higher education
Pressing the private sector to set up independent higher
education institutions.
In 1998, five public universities were given greater
institutional autonomy to generate revenue through
research contracts, consulting, business ventures with
industry, and other forms of investment.

An Expanded State Role

Private higher education has expanded
tremendously
1996, the Private Higher Educational Institutions
Act was passed
Government regulatory control powers over all
private education institutions in the country.
1997, the National Accreditation Board was
created to formulate policies on standards and
quality control

 The state has attempted to give higher education

a Malaysian identity.
All institutions must offer required courses in
Malaysian studies, Islamic studies (for Muslim
students), and moral education (for non-Muslim
students).
1996, the government established the National
Council on Higher Education
Function: to plan, formulate, and determine
national policies and strategies and oversee both
the public and private sectors

 Government would like the private sector to

complement and supplement the efforts of the
public sector and has sought to steer the private
sector toward providing more vocational and
technical education.
There has been a gradual shift from state control
toward state supervision in the relationship
between the Malaysian government and higher
education.

State Control Model

State Supervision
Model
The Ministry of
Universities are
Education regulates
access conditions, the
responsible for their
curriculum, degree
own management
requirements,
and generation of
examination systems,
their own revenues.
the appointment and
State oversees the
remuneration of staff,
higher education
the selection and
system in terms of
admissions of
assuring quality and
students, and other
maintaining a certain
administrative
level of accountability
matters.

Types of private education

institutions:
Private kindergartens which adopt the Preschool National Curriculum of the Ministry
of Education, Malaysia
Private primary and secondary schools
which adhere to the National Curriculum
and the proposed assessments
Private religious schools which use the
National Curriculum

 Chinese private schools which follow the

Ministry of Education guidelines
Expatriate schools
International schools
Tuition centres which provide learning
assistance to students according to the
National Curriculum
Language centres, computer training
centres, skills/commerce centres,
correspondence schools, etc

Example of related Institution

Privatization
International college
Unitar
Lim Kok Wing
Institute
HELP institute
Unisel
Shahputra
Lagenda

PTPL
Cosmopoint
UniKL
Stanford College
KDU

Corporatisation

MMU
UNITEN
UTP
College Telekom

PRIVATISATION IN
EDUCATION

ADVANTAGES:
lower cost to obtain a foreign degree by
enrolling in a twinning program
More references from the main university
Different study climate values
- competitiveness
- self-efficiency
- motivation
- language

 The shift is from central state control to marketbased policies, which will increase the range of
choices for students and address the needs of
an increasingly complex social order
The Malaysian state will still maintain a central
steering role to ensure equity access, consumer
advocacy, and national identity, which are
broader social and cultural goals that transcend
the market.

 Sought to create the conditions for

national unity by reducing inter-ethnic
disparities.
Develop and improve utilities and other
infrastructure.
Provide the public better services.
Changing the status of the institution.

 Promote competition, improve

efficiency and increase
productivity.

DISADVANTAGES..
Complete transfer of ownership and
control of a government institution.
Burden people especially if charges or
fees are raised for privatized services.
Implications of 2 sets of services :
>can afford privatized services.
>cannot afford continue rely on public
services.

 Increased costs of living and poorer

services and utilities especially in remote
and rural areas.

CORPORATIZATION IN
EDUCATION

ADVANTAGES
1. Corporatized universities will be allowed to borrow money.
2. Entering business ventures.- investment
3. Provide development funds for new programs.
4.Attractive salary packages for academic staff.

 Corporatised universities are expected to raise

a much greater proportion of their own
revenue,
encourages partnerships with private business
firms,
compete with other universities in the
production and marketing of courses to
students who are now seen as customers,
engage with the market for higher education.

 has the predominating characteristics of being an

institution that pursues technical excellence
Excellence in universities is not confined to academic
pursuits: it is also proclaimed in such matters as housing,
health and even parking.
greater access to higher education for all and especially
for disadvantaged groups,
greater responsiveness to demands for more relevant
courses
greater involvement of universities with the communities
that surround them,

DISADVANTAGES
1. Many entrepreneurial activities will impact the academic
quality & freedom of the university.

3. Money is lost to the service as profit for private companies

4. Conditions of employment & job security of staff are threatened

 The decline of collegiality,a form of

relationship where responsibility is shared
Corporatisation has undermined collegiality in
two ways:
Firstly, by removing the kind of equality that
existed between individual academics
Secondly, by creating a sense of competition
between universities as they confront each
other in the marketplace.

 The result of this preponderance of technique over

value is the decline of the classical disciplines
which can be seen occurring on a global scale.

The removal of disciplines from university

curricula follows automatically from the
conception that a university produces a product
that can be consumed and if a particular
productive unit has no buyers for its product, then
logically it should not continue to exist.

Hadith and Sayings

From Abu Hurairah r.a said, the Prophet (pbuh)
said;
Whoever find a path to seek knowledge, therefore
Allah will ease him a path to Heaven (From
Muslim).
"Islam, after all, makes it a duty for everyone to
seek knowledge and discover facts, and
increase the welfare of mankind." (Sardar, 1989,
p. 25).

The Prophet (pbuh) said;

Attain knowledge from the cradle to the
grave.
Acquire knowledge even if you have to
travel to China.
Acquiring of knowledge is obligatory to
every Muslim male and female.
Prof. Maqsood Jafri
Islamic Concept of Education

Issue
Privatization and Corporatization

 Upon completion of their diplomas, the students

can proceed to the degree "twinning"
programmes in collaboration with foreign
universities.
Finally, these students will be graduating with
foreign degrees without having to leave the
country. Besides the relatively lower tuition fees
in Malaysia, this possibility of proceeding to the
degree course is a "selling point" for most
private colleges wishing to attract students from
the Asia Pacific region.

What is the relative tuition cost of private

tertiary education compared to a public one?
A three-year undergraduate programme at one
of the public universities costs about RM1,400
per year in tuition fees (which is 13% of the
actual cost) whereas
It costs about RM30,000 to complete a 4-year IT
degree at the UNITAR,
from RM8,000 to RM13,000 per year for an
engineering degree at Multimedia University
(The Star, July 18, 1999) and
RM12,000 at the UNITEN (e-mail comm.).
One can expect to pay much more to study for a
Monash degree at its Sunway campus.

 All these go to show the extent of

subsidization (87%) at Malaysian public
universities.
Following corporatization, Vice
Chancellors in Malaysia have been
directed by the Education Ministry NOT to
increase tuition fees to local students, as
the government has promised the general
public that tuition fees remain unchanged
after corporatization.

 A private college enables its students to

apply for loans from the National Higher
Education Fund Corporation
According to one claim, private colleges
will have to pay between RM70,000-RM1
million in accreditation fees depending on
the number of courses a college offers per
campus operated. If a college has three
campuses, it pays three time.

Aggressive Advertisement
A KDU ad says the college wants to "make you
somebody." It also claims (perhaps rightly) that it
is a pioneer in American university transfer
programme.
Kolej Komuniti Mertajam boasts that it is the first
government approved private college in Penang.
RIMA College in Penang capitalizes on the fact
that they are offering "a part-time American
degree for busy people."

 Silicon Institute of Technology proudly promises

to offer an Honours degree in engineering and
computing in three years after the SPM.
HELP Institute says that theirs is "more than just
a degree-it's an American experience."
Taylor's College, which is twinning with, among
others, Sheffield university, warns that it's not
easy to be top engineers and financiers-you
have to be prepared for a tough life as an
engineering student on its campus.

Law and Order

It is advertisements such as this that the 1996 Act tries to
regulate. Article 75 states:
Any person who makes a false or misleading
statement in promoting a private higher educational
institution shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on
conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or
to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or
to both.
Three years after SPM (eleven years of schooling) is
indeed a short-cut way to a degree. The Ministry of
Education has recently determined that 3 years is the
bare minimum. Some colleges aren't too happy about
the new directive. (The Star, August 29, 1999).

CONCLUSION..
The actual achievements may have had more to
do with organizational, managerial and incentive
reforms, which do not require privatization as a
precondition. While there are undoubtedly been
many improvements in the quality of services
provided, user costs have generally risen
disproportionately higher, with obvious adverse
and distributional implications.

The End
Group 4
Nur Hidayah Yusuf
Sirajun Munira Sahrudeen
Nurul Nisshak Baharudin
Khairunnisa Mohamad Yusoff
Nur Liana Johari