Higher education has become a key battleground in GE15 and surprisingly it is Barisan Nasional (BN), the traditional bogeyman among academics, that offers the most radical reforms.
The potential for transformation of higher education begins in schools with the BN pledge to restore the balance between science and technology and humanities, literature and art in the school curricula.
Over time this will force changes to university programmes, away from business and management courses as students choose more creative, innovative and frankly more interesting subjects.
Coupled with BN’s idea to encourage students to take a gap year for personal and social development, this will hopefully encourage greater maturity among our students and help them make better study choices. After a year of reflection many might not go to university at all, choosing better TVET options rather than hopping on the job-seeking treadmill as a post-school default.
Of course the biggest pledge by BN that all academics, including an arch market economist like myself, should support is to provide free higher education for students from B40 families.
This is part of BN’s long-term plan to eradicate absolute poverty which includes their revolutionary assistive basic income scheme, an automatic, monthly credit to all households with incomes below RM2,208. This is the most important social protection reform in Malaysia that I have seen in the 20 years I have been here.
Free higher education is perfectly affordable especially when combined with cost reductions through flexible, blended higher education models which many universities already provide. Competition and choice will be enhanced with higher education vouchers for private universities and full loans for the M40 group.
Taken together these will reduce the burden of debt on students, parents, universities and above all the system itself. New loans will be offered only to those with higher incomes more able to manage them and universities should see lower drop-outs from people unable to pay fees.
The financial model for PTPTN will become more stable and BN’s pledge to transform PTPTN into a foundation funded through community endowments and infaq will offer an opportunity for a new role as a real investor in higher education access and quality rather than its current role as a government-linked debt collector.
The idea of income-contingent PTPTN loan repayments is similar to the offer from Pakatan Harapan and is the pre-cursor to a simpler graduate tax, where loans can be abolished completely and the cost of higher education repaid through income taxes rising according to the higher income graduates enjoy. School teachers will not pay the same as corporate lawyers.
The promise to grant full autonomy to public universities should be welcomed by my colleagues in the public sector provided it does not encourage autocratic vice-chancellors. Academic democracy must be ensured along with academic autonomy.
Two smaller footnotes to upgrade Darul Quran to university status and establish a new women-only university will offer greater choice for those interested in these options and we look forward to a men-only university too.
So a truly radical higher education shake-up is on offer from BN but whether my academic colleagues will find it within themselves to hold their nose and vote for anything offered by BN is something I leave for them.
The best advice for the next higher education minister, from whichever party she may be, is to set up an expert panel to iron-out the details of these plans and impose them with an iron fist no matter what the grumpy old men and reactionary liberal chatterarti might say.
Whilst of course at all times ensuring the highest standards of academic freedom, engagement and autonomy!
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.