Higher Education in Malaysia 99
Star, 4 July 2014). Available data on private schools reveal that enrolments
have increased in the secondary schools, Chinese private secondary schools,
expatriate schools offering their own curricula, international schools, and
religious primary and secondary schools. Fees for all categories of school
except for Islamic religious are generally high, implying that a move to
private schools represents a considered decision (MOE 2009–12).
Academic Staff Qualifications
The key variable in higher education quality is its academic staff. Public
universities have better staff qualification profiles than private, particularly
in established HEIs. Overall, staff with PhDs increased from 24.4 per cent
in 2009 to 33.9 per cent in 2012 in public HEIs but with some of the newer
public universities reaching only 15.7 per cent (e.g., Universiti Pertahanan
Negara Malaysia). In private HEIs the proportion remained around 10 per
cent and below over the same period for better performing universities.^4
The majority of academic staff in both public and private HEIs hold 55 per
cent and 43 per cent Masters degrees respectively.
Rapid enrolment expansion has imposed considerable strains on
academic staffing, medical schools being a case in point. Malaysia has
thirty-two HEIs (eleven public and twenty-two private) offering forty
medical programmes, producing 3,500 medical graduates annually.
Private HEIs are known to hire part-time academics from public HEIs
as a stop-gap measure and to cope with high turnovers in international
staff. Comprehensive clinical training for such large numbers of students
is a major issue. Exacerbating the situation are the numerous changes in
decisions on the number of places available. The total number of qualified
candidates applying to the eleven public HEIs was 1,163. Public HEIs
have reduced the 690 places available in 2013 to 418 in 2014, moving up to
518, based on appeals. (The Star, 16 September 2014). Announcing sudden
changes has impacted negatively on institutional planning, academic
programme implementation and student choices.
International staff tend to support new programme areas, bringing
different perspectives to academic programmes which help institutions
to look outwards. Where international branch campuses are concerned,
there is the advantage of having education and training in Malaysia under
the umbrella of an acknowledged brand. In 2013 out of a total of 29,198
academic staff in public HEIs, 1,765 or 6 per cent were international staff,