Uniknya universiti awam Malaysia

Satu perkara yang tidak pernah berubah sejak penubuhan universiti di negara ini ialah struktur pentadbiran yang mengalami perubahan yang begitu kerap. Meskipun kita dimaklumkan perubahan kepimpinan berlaku setiap 2 - 3 tahun sekali dengan perubahan muka baru Naib Chancellor atau yang lama masih dikekalkan; namun sebenarnya dalam strata keseluruhan, dinamik kepimpinan dalam universiti begitu 'fragile' sekali.

Kesemua jawatan kepimpinan yang dipegang oleh pegawai akademik tidak kekal dan ia merupakan lantikan sementara (paling lama 3 tahun); ia meliputi dari jawatan naib chanselor, timb, naib chanselor, kesemua dekan, timbalan dekan, ketua jabatan dan juga ketua unit serta ketua labaratori serta pengarah sesebuah institut dalam universiti.

Perubahan tempoh sesuatu jawatan itu pula berlaku tidak serentak.Ada yang habis tempoh dahulu kemudian disambung, ada pula yang tidak disambung dan ada pula ditukar ke bahagian lain; dalam julat waktu yang berbeza-beza.

Saya tidak pasti tujuan struktur sedemikian diwujudkan. Bagi saya ia gagal memantapkan sesuatu perancangan. Tidak seperti ahli politik yang diberi mandat selama 5 tahun serta pasukan yang turut dilantik dalam tempoh yang sama; di universiti tempatan tidak begitu.

Dalam menghadapi pelbagai kritikan terhadap standard universiti awam di Malaysia berbanding universiti di negara jiran dan negara-negara lain; saya berpendapat wajar untuk sesautu dapat dilakukan. Maaf jika saya katakan, banyak pengalaman yang saya lalui mencerminkan banyak yang hanya seperti perbualan di kedai kopi...begitu rhetorik bila isu diperdebatkan namun sayangnya tiada tindakan susulan atau tidak wujud mekanisma yang jelas untuk membolehkan sesuatu yang diharapkan itu menjadi kenyataan.

Ini merupakan sebahagian yang sempat saya baca:

Malaysian universities losing out to Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines

Sunday, 16 November 2008 11:53
Malaysia is losing out in the unrelenting battle for international competitiveness among nations, with Malaysian universities even losing out to universities in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines – something completely unthinkable in the first three decades of our nationhood.

For the second consecutive year, Malaysia had fallen completely out of the list of the world's Top 200 Universities this year in the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) - Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.

The national shame of Malaysia falling completely out of the list of the world's Top 200 Universities this year in the 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) - Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings is being compounded by the ignominy of Malaysian universities losing out not only to top universities in Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea but also to other South East Asian nations like Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines.

The 2008 THES-QS rankings should be a "wake-up" call to the Higher Education Minister and the Cabinet of the advanced crisis of higher education in Malaysia, but I have given up hope that the Barisan Nasional government is capable of "waking up"!

For the second consecutive year, there is not only not a single university in the 2008 THES-QS Top 200 Universities list, there is also not a single university in the separate ranking of Top 100 Universities for five subject areas – Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities; Life Sciences and Biomedicine; and Technology.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Malaya (UM) were in the 2006 Ranking, placed No. 185 and 192 respectively. UKM plunged to 309 last year and improved to 250 this year while UM fell to 246 last year improving slightly to 230 this year – but both remain outside the Top 200 Universities ranking.

The government named Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) as the Apex University but it has a dismal international rankings after being included once in the Top 200 Universities list – No. 111 in 2004, No. 326 in 2005, 277 in 2006, No. 307 in 2007 and No. 313 in 2008.

It is both sad and pathetic that our Apex University, the USM, at No. 313 ranking, is not only left far behind in South East Asia by Singapore (National University of Singapore No. 30 and Nanyang Technological University No. 77) but also by Thailand (Chulalongkorn University No. 166), Indonesia (University of Indonesia No. 287) and the Philippines (Ateneo de Manila University No. 254 and University of the Philippines No. 276).

Until last year, Malaysian universities were all ranked well ahead of the Indonesian universities, but in the 2008 THES-QS World Top Universities ranking, Indonesian universities are catching up with Malaysian universities in leaps and bounds.