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Sunday, 6 June 2010

Education Ministry weeding out below-par institutions

(NST) KUALA LUMPUR: The Higher Education Ministry is coming down hard on private universities and colleges that failing fail to take their role as educators seriously.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the ministry found that some of these institutions were unable to provide quality services due to financial reasons.

“Many of the institutes did not have the financial capacity to operate as they relied too much on payments by students from their National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans,” he said.

Last year, the ministry de-registered 22 of such institutions.

them. Similar action was taken against 56 of them between in 2007 and 2008.

Saifuddin said this to reporters after the opening of the two-day National Association of Private Educational Institutions’ (Napei) 29th Malaysian Education Fair at the Putra World Trade Centre yesterday.

Saifuddin said the ministry also had to de-register several universities and colleges because they were not taking the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) seriously.

He said when there was insufficient interest in a course, some institutions would drop it and offer a different one.

"We cannot tolerate this such practice because it spoils the market and won’t do justice to the serious industry players.”

he added.

Saifuddin said the ministry was striving to ensure the standards of the private institutions were upheld to bring in quality international students.

He said that both the public and private institutions of higher learning still had difficulty in attracting students from certain parts of the world, like Europe.

With the cooperation of the private education sector, the ministry will be holding roadshows overseas to invite foreign students to study in Malaysia.

In reply to a question, Saifuddin said that he was willing to meet the 500 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) students who had complained about not getting places in universities. The students wanted to meet him at Parliament House tomorrow. on Monday.

“SPM results are improving, which is good, but this makes it very competitive
as we have limited space in the public and private institutions of higher learning.”

He also said in the public institutions, entry is was granted not just based on academic excellence but also on co-curricular activities.

“The universities take in students based on their needs, too. As such, , so there may be some who will not get a place.

“We cannot increase the space but the universities they we are trying their best to accommodate as many students of them as possible.” he said.

Napei president Associate Professor Elajsolan Mohan said the education system must be able to identify students who were not academically inclined and provide them with alternativee paths.

“First, we need to find out how many students get a minimum of three to five credits for SPM every year and develop a bridging curriculum for those who do not meet entry requirements.” he said.

Elajsolan said this would give all students the opportunity to for further their education and at the same time, enhance the human capital needs of the country.

Napei awarded three private education institutions with the Napei Academic Excellence Award.

They are Smart Reader Worldwide for the pre-school category, Sekolah Seri Suria for the schools category and Masterskill University College of Health Sciences for the university-college category.

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