Do not focus on profits

Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak

Learning Curve: Perspective

New Sunday Times - 02-12-2012

 

DILEMMA: The shifting of the value and mission of the university works to its detriment

 

RECENTLY Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim made a bold remark that it is not impossible for universities in Asia to be more outstanding or on a par with world renowned tertiary institutions in the West.

 

He was speaking at the launch of the School of Tomorrow, Empowering Lifelong Learners Conference.

 

He added that people in the East or Asia should not be mere followers of Western thoughts which supposedly contained the "perfect system for charting mankind's future".

 

If there is such a "perfect system", it is undergoing a number of unsettling quandaries.

 

An article in Forbes (Aug 21) outlined how higher education institutions in the United States are being "killed" in five basic steps:

 

 

It highlighted that as early as the 1980s, shifting state priorities forced public universities to increasingly rely on other sources of revenue.

 

This "came long before the current economic crisis" where "subjects that were not offering students the practical skills needed for the job market" are being defunded. These translated into "real and often deep cuts" into the budgets of state university systems.

 

 

It pointed to those from the business field -- a managerial/administrative class -- moving in to take over governance of the university.

 

They take control of much of the functions of the tertiary institution, including curriculum design and course offerings.

 

"Hierarchical bureaucracy became the order of the day, with a focus on output rather than outcomes, and efficiency rather than value for society."

 

The result is allegedly massive cost escalation, several times higher than the cost of living, unaccompanied by noticeable improvements in the quality of education.

 

 

There is a shifting of value and mission of the university "from a place where an educated citizenry is seen as a social good, where intellect and reasoning is developed and heightened for the value of the individual and for society, to a place of vocational training, focused on profit".

 

The article highlighted that the "university was no longer attended for the development of your mind". It is where you go so you can get a "good job".

 

Unfortunately, many of the jobs, for which people were preparing to fill, vanished as the economy shifted.

 

Managing universities like factories turned out to be a mistake: the economy was changing too quickly.

 

 

While dumbing down education, universities become so insanely unaffordable that "only the wealthiest can attend" or it is open to those willing to "take on incredible debt burdens that will follow them to the grave".

 

 

A surplus of underemployed and unemployed postgraduates continues. Out of the 1.5 million university professors in the US, one million are adjuncts, namely "hired on short-term contracts, most often for one semester at a time, with no job security whatsoever".

 

Adjuncts have "no benefits or healthcare, no unemployment insurance when they are out of work".

 

It is not surprising that these phenomena are not unique to the US. More countries are taking the same missteps, unintentionally or otherwise. Malaysia is no exception since it seems to model itself on the same.

 

Indeed, Rais was quoted as saying: "We should not allow this (Western) thinking to change our traditions and our Eastern way of life, which actually has a lot of good but is not brought to the fore."

 

More interestingly, he believed that there is already a paradigm shift in education in Malaysia which can contribute to its civilisation in future.

 

Be that as it may, Malaysia should assess the situation in light of comments in this column on Nov 18, namely the creation of local education in its own mould. Is it civilisation oriented?

 

This is even more pertinent now that we are aware of the mistakes which make us more vulnerable under the current circumstances.

 

A higher education crisis looms -- much less trying to be on a par with well-known tertiary institutions that are experiencing the dilemma -- if we are not able to avoid the wrong moves.

 

- The writer is the vice-chancellor of Albukhary International University