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Malaysia's school
daze
By Arun Bhattacharjee
KUALA LUMPUR - Nothing irritates Malaysians more
than the success of Singapore as a magnet for higher
education in Asia. And nothing prevents some of them
from copying the idea and doing a poor job of it.
Malaysia has been competing hard to woo some of the
foreign institutes away from Singapore, without much
success so far - largely due to scams and other poor
practices by educational organizations that have given
Malaysia a bad reputation.
Now Malaysia wants to
try again to attract foreign students - and do it the
right way. The Ministry of Education has canceled the
education licenses of a large number of private
institutions of higher technical studies that sullied
the image of the country. The government is also
introducing a proposal for legislation that excludes
students who come from non-Islamic countries from the
mandatory religious classes in the colleges and
universities. As an Islamic country, Malaysia puts a lot
of stress on religious education and currently all
students have to attend Islamic religious
classes.
The education fraud by some private
colleges involves enrolling foreign students and
promising them a degree or diploma from a Western
university, though there is either no agreement with
that university or it has been terminated because poor
performance at the Malaysian end. In most cases the fees
paid by the students are not refunded and the student is
denied the promised diploma or degree.
Ashraf
Zaki of Pakistan came to Malaysia in 2000 with a
two-year diploma in information technology (IT) to
enroll in a graduate course. He deposited part of his
RM14,000 (US$3,700) fees in advance but was told a few
months later that the college had not received a permit
from the government to run the college. Now the college
refuses to refund his fees. So far Zaki has spent more
than RM30,400, including his airfare, his stay in Kuala
Lumpur and the college fees - nearly half a million
Pakistani rupees. He is now running from pillar to post
to get at least part of his money refunded. Under the
terms of his student visa, he is not allowed to earn
money in Malaysia, nor does he dare lodge a complaint,
as the head of the institute in question has political
clout.
Government sources admit that strong
steps are needed against some private colleges. Few
students accept this explanation, feeling that within a
highly controlled education regime it would be
impossible to continue this kind of fraud without
government knowledge.
Nearly a thousand foreign
students had been affected, 60 in a single institute
teaching IT, before the Education Ministry closed a
large number of private colleges to stop malpractices
involving foreign students. The closure of the private
institutes left the students without diplomas and with
depleted purses. The chance of refund on appeal is
remote. Said a student from Angola, "It looks like apart
from paying our fees and other expenses we may have to
pay for risk insurance so that we are not swindled."
True, this is not a universal phenomenon, but
private colleges in Malaysia have earned the country a
bad name. The federal government canceled more than 200
educational licenses issued to private colleges last
year after a strong warning, but malpractice continues.
Now Malaysia wants to become an educational hub,
with its private colleges signing new collaboration
agreements with some elite institutes overseas, mostly
from the West. The idea is to offer foreign diplomas
offering academic curricula of the Western universities
at a lower cost than Singapore and Australia.
Malaysia projects earnings of RM500 million
annually through increased enrollment of foreign
students from the current 36,000 to 50,000. Last year
Malaysia had students from 36 countries of which the
largest number was from Islamic countries in Africa,
Asia and the Middle East.
It appears Malaysia's
private colleges will have to be more result-oriented
besides approaching a new set of universities and
institutions in the West to use their educational
curricula and brand names while maintaining standards,
which are coming under scrutiny, as quite a few
agreements have been terminated.
The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which had a
tie-up with the Malaysian Institute of Science and
Technology, is planning to leave, apparently because of
high costs. Now the government is being asked to
subsidize higher technical education to keep these
institutes in Malaysia. The government has refused, as
this would mean subsidizing foreign students.
Malaysia has signed agreements with several
foreign institutions, including Nottingham University,
Curtin University of Technology, and a few other
universities in the United Kingdom and Australia. Its
effort to get the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
to come to Malaysia failed, as IIT preferred Singapore,
which offered better facilities.
Another issue,
perhaps the most important, involves the issuing of
visas to visiting professors. Often there is a long
waiting period. Many foreign universities, confides a
European diplomat, feel that their standard of education
is likely to be compromised along with their brand name
if their faculty members are not in Malaysia to
supervise standards. Students are also unhappy that they
are not issued visas for the duration of their course
but have to renew them every year, paying not only high
visa fees but service charges to the college responsible
for renewing the visas.
Singapore, on the other
hand, can boast of eminent universities such as Johns
Hopkins, MIT, Stanford, and Georgia Institute of
Technology, and the latest addition is going to be IIT
from India. The total number of "institutes of
excellence" in Singapore is 11 so far. Malaysia's
efforts to woo Wharton Business School from Singapore
and the Kellogg School from Thailand to Malaysia have
failed so far. The principal attraction to study in
Malaysia is the low cost compared with Singapore and
Australia. But the many students who have suffered will
be bad publicity working against getting new students
from those countries.
The Malaysian government
has taken a serious view of the lapses by private
colleges, but it is yet to put its other acts together
to make Malaysia a better place for foreign students,
including stopping harassment by the police in the name
of checking visas, seeing that faculty members conduct
their classes regularly, and passing the promised
legislation to spare non-Muslim students from the
mandatory religious classes.
(Copyright 2003
Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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