Higher Education in Malaysia 107
the quality of schooling as well as higher education. Guidelines for
implementation emanating from these documents deserve attention but
also need to be received with circumspection over the longer term. The
learning environment evolves over time and across space thus requiring
planning and implementation to take changes on board on an ongoing
basis. To keep implementation healthy and relevant in terms of outcomes,
more effective systems of programme/policy review and impact evaluation
need to be in place so that change processes can function optimally.
Management of Change
For more effective overall planning of enrolment, academic staffing and
non-wasteful development of required infrastructure in priority areas,
greater transparency and availability of data in the public domain are
essential. There is need for more consistent and timely dissemination of
government policy changes with prior stakeholder consultation in order
to increase efficiency and benefit users, namely students and HEIs. Greater
transparency in the form of annual reports in the public domain on the
utilization of public funds such as the Higher Education Loan Fund would
respond effectively to the need for better public information as well as
increased trust in the system.
Human Capital Growth
The shortfall in appropriately qualified and skilled personnel for national
development and economic growth calls for a better match between
priority development areas and funding at undergraduate, postgraduate
and research levels. It is expected that the available additional funding for
the five research universities will help provide a larger pool of relevant
expertise for the knowledge economy through better concentration of
resources. While attention needs to be paid to student choice of disciplines
so that more graduates qualify in relevant priority areas such as engineering
and science, they also need to be better inducted into inter-disciplinary
learning and research approaches as well as those that use modern
technology. Above all, opportunities for access to higher education need
to be maintained and increased, particularly in science and technology, to
expand the talent pool as widely as possible.