Malaysia’s Higher Education and Quest for Developed Nation Status by 2020

Malaysia aims to transform itself into a technologically sophisticated, export driven, high-income and developed nation by 2020.¹ Foreign and domestic private investment and high-quality human capital have been targeted as the pivotal drivers of Malaysia’s economic growth. They are expected to propel the country from its position as an upper-middle-income country to high-income and developed nation status. To accelerate the growth of a talented, entrepreneurial and balanced human capital, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced a new motto of “Soaring Upwards” for the Malaysian higher education system to quicken the pace of creating a first-rate educated workforce.² The recently launched Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015–2025 (Higher Education) has targeted that by 2025 at least one Malaysian university should be ranked among the top twenty-five in Asia, two universities in the global top hundred, and four universities in the global two hundred.³ In The Times Higher Education’s World University Ranking for 2015–16, one Malaysian university achieved a place in the 401–500 rank, while another four are in the lower 601–800 band.⁴ The government estimated that Malaysia would need about 500,000 highly skilled and talented science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) oriented workers, a large pool of trained graduates, and a great number of skilled and semi-skilled workers. It is envisaged that skilled and semi-skilled personnel will be provided through technical and vocational educational training institutions.⁵

This chapter examines the role of high-quality education and discusses issues related to the Malaysian vision. Equal opportunities to pursue an all-round excellent education to accomplish the objectives are of paramount importance. The focus of the chapter is on current educational provisions and what is needed to secure well-equipped, creative and innovative high-quality human capital to become a developed nation by 2020.

Inclusive and Quality Education Drives “Holistic” Talent

To produce the critical number of graduates and skilled employable workforce, a country requires an inclusive, high-quality and equitable education system. Such standards should be ensured both at school and tertiary levels. This is Malaysia’s core challenge and dilemma. The country’s present centrally controlled and managed public higher education system is based on a politically resolute, race-based affirmative action strategy and managed by a rather insular bureaucratic system. Parallel to this public provision, there is a sizeable profit-based private sector delivery system. Can the country under such constrained supply conditions generate the critical mass of high-quality and skilled employable workforce?

Outside of Malaysia, high-income and developed nations are propelled by advancing technological progress in the production of their tradable goods and services. Such progress is strengthened by a continuous supply of knowledge-intensive, talented and high-waged human capital. This constant supply of an indigenous talent pool combined with the vital stock of a high-quality graduate workforce largely from developing countries and endowed with ability and innovative ideas are the ingredients for their economic, social and cultural betterment and the progressive advancement of their societies. This critical element is wanting in Malaysia.

Apart from the vital supply of high-quality manpower, developed countries’ best-ranked higher education institutions continually strive for excellence at the frontiers of education, research and scholarship. Such qualities have contributed to an all-embracing economic, social and cultural transformation of their societies.⁶ Developed countries like Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany and others provide low- or no-cost high-quality education. They consider free or low-cost education to their young citizens as a vital social responsibility, a public good and a national investment.

An inclusively structured quality education for all, from preschool to the tertiary level, and facilities for lifelong learning develop and nurture the full potential of a country’s diverse “demographic dividend”. A development policy driven by an inclusive and continuous stock of human capital formation, fortified by a system of social justice, is essential. Such a strategy achieves greater income equality, enhances national unity and encourages economic growth.

State Monopoly and Politicization of Higher Education

Multiracial Malaya...