FORMER Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz lashed out at the Higher Education Ministry (MOHE) for not shouldering responsibility over private varsities offering unaccredited programmes to unsuspecting students, leaving the latter in a limbo upon graduation.
“The relevant authorities, particularly the Higher Education Ministry (MOHE), has the responsibility of ensuring every education institution, public or private, subscribe to global standards.
“Any aberration will result in wasted time and effort on the part of our students as their qualifications will not be recognised.
“As a result, the country suffers losses as the human resources supply coming out from varsities will not meet market demand,” she said, in a Facebook post.
Universities, particularly among private ones, are often plagued with issues in regards to their programmes either not having accreditation from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) or having it revoked halfway for not meeting Government requirement.
Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported that students of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT) were distraught following delays in getting accreditation for eight of their courses.
The students claimed to be representing as many as 840 of their peers. They said a letter was sent to LUCT on April 12, demanding the varsity achieves accreditation status for its courses prior to graduation, or otherwise, provide the graduates with compensation.
However, LUCT claimed that it was in the midst of ironing out the issue with MQA, adding the issue is expected to be resolved by September.
Rafidah, a former International Trade and Industries Minister, said that the Government should not be buoyed with numbers alone, adding there was no point having great numbers of graduates at the expense of quality.
“And MOHE must undertake proper evaluation of every course offered both by public and private varsities to ensure strict compliance to said standards,” she opined.
On that note, Rafidah queried on why Malaysian was having too many higher learning education institutes, with many private varsities getting approvals to operate.
Based on her check, she claimed that Malaysia now has 20 public universities, 47 private universities, 34 university colleges, 414 private colleges and 10 foreign university branch campuses.
“To me, that seems to be unusually large number of approvals being given, especially for private colleges.
“But what criteria were used before giving their courses accreditation. How were their curriculum vetted and benchmarked?” the former Kuala Kangsar MP asked.
Rafidah “guilty by association”
However, Parti Sosialis Malaysiia (PSM) was unimpressed with her assertions and called Rafidah out for her hypocrisy over the matter.
“Privatisation of higher education occurred between 1980 and 2008, at a time where Rafidah was serving as a Cabinet minister.
“Why did she not object in the mid-1990s? Why did she not protest against the Bills when tabled at the Dewan Rakyat when serving as MP? Why didn’t she also resign from her minister post to protest these changes?” its central committee member Sharan Raj queried, when contacted by FocusM.
Prior to 1995, private higher education institutions were virtually non-existent as licensing for it required Cabinet approval.
Sharan added that higher education then was largely funded and managed by the federal Government, with less than 20 private higher education institutions operating at that time.
“Then in 1996, the Government enacted the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act to make it easier to establish private varsities.
“The following year, they enacted the Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional Act to saddle youngsters with student-debts, while private colleges raked in the moolah.
“And all these measures would have been discussed during the weekly Cabinet meetings, which Rafidah was a member then. Plus, many of these private colleges are owned by BN linked politicians,” he claimed.
Sharan added: “The lack of credibility and proper accreditation amongst private varsities peaked from 2005 to 2006.
“However, the Cabinet enacted the Malaysian Qualifications Act in 2007, instead of reversing the privatisation of higher education.” July 8, 2021.
