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conducting research and teaching in higher education with little reference to
one another.
Although the precise number of Malaysian universities offering master’s and
doctoral programmes in higher education has not been ascertained by a proper eval-
uation, a document analysis carried out by the authors indicates that, thus far, there
seems to be only one specialized doctoral programme (EdD) in higher education
established in one of the public universities in Malaysia. Another new initiative is
being carried out at the Department of Policy and Leadership Education, Faculty of
Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), to set up a taught master’s
course in higher education. No other course work is offered regularly in the other
public universities for the purpose of providing professional preparation to gradu-
ates who would be entering careers in institutions of higher education. Suffice it to
say that the development of graduate programmes in higher education is constrained
by the lack of professionally trained leaders and scholars in the higher education
field as well as by the lack of understanding of the importance of the field as an area
of study or scholarly work.
Started in 2014, the UKM EdD programme is managed by the Faculty of
Education and the Academic Professional Development Centre of UKM. It was
established in the first place to meet the growing demand for academic and admin-
istrative staff at universities. As such, it follows a generic EdD curriculum, available
as a part-time study option with four phases (pre-practicum/thesis) amounting to
40 units of modules, while phase 5 involves a practicum (6 units) and phase 6 is
for research (40 units) (see http:/www.ukm.my/professional-ukm/wp-content/
upload/2014/09/senarai-kursus-berkredit-EdD.pdf). Presently, 25 students are
enrolled in the EdD programme. However, based on our review of the programme
documents, we argue that there are major weaknesses in the EdD curriculum, par-
ticularly in the course content. Most of the courses only describe general observa-
tions and focus on minor matters relating to current practices in higher education.
The courses do not appear to present a consistent framework or a consistent set of
theoretical presuppositions, nor is there a blend of research, theory and practice.
Moreover, the courses are conducted by academics with neither in-depth knowledge
of epistemology and theories nor vast experience in research into higher education.
The majority of the faculty members teaching the EdD courses have been trained in
other disciplines, with experience in secondary and primary education. In part, this
may reflect the dismal lack of experts in higher education as indicated by the lack of
key higher education literature listed in the course synopsis. As argued by Skolnik
( 1991 ), having such a small number of core faculty working in higher education
programmes simply cannot create the critical mass necessary to move the field for-
ward. It is therefore doubtful that the programme can make an important contribu-
tion to the professionalization of the field.
In Malaysia, higher education seems to have naturally developed as part of edu-
cation studies that are frequently located at the teacher education faculties or at least
close to them. A document analysis on the types of PhD in education by research
carried out by the 12 education faculties in the public universities showed that
higher education is explicitly included as one of the subtopics for full research in
N. Azman and M. Sirat