Public varsities won’t go bust, says professors’ council
National Council of Professors’ CEO says public universities will not have to completely fend for themselves when seeking their own funding.
Speaking to FMT, MPN CEO Raduan Che Rose said the move to reduce allocations to public universities was planned some time back in a bid to lessen their dependence on the government for funding.
He said most universities in Indonesia and Europe had long been sourcing for own funds and for the same reason, yet none had gone bankrupt in the process.
“In Indonesia, laws were amended in 2012 to give universities more autonomy, and 11 universities gained full autonomy.”
“When they have full autonomy, they (universities) look for their own funds as only 35% of their funding come from the government,” he said, declaring that the situation in Malaysia was far from that in Indonesia yet there was already a lot of displeasure about it.
He said Malaysia had only slashed funding to universities by 30% but Indonesia had slashed funding by 65%, yet none of their universities had gone bankrupt.
He said the same applied to universities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States that experienced similar slashes in funding.
Raduan said it was extreme to think that public universities would go bankrupt without help from the government.
He was responding to claims by former Universiti Malaya vice chancellor Ghauth Jasmon, who said the university would likely go bankrupt in three to five years if the “right people” was not tasked with sourcing funds for its operations.
Ghauth said this when commenting on the financial crisis that UM was facing as a result of the government’s recent decision. He also warned that other universities would suffer a similar fate as retiring professors as well as those on contract, had been told to end their services.
Raduan, while acknowledging that the move to reduce allocations to public universities as announced in Budget 2017, was a “little surprising”, said the MPN would however not let any university carry its financial burden alone.
“The government is not abandoning the universities. Before this the government called on all vice chancellors to discuss the matter and universities with limited funds will have their allocations restored.
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“Most universities are now seeking their own funding and MPN will help. I have also had a discussion with all vice chancellors on how we can reduce our dependence on the government.”