Higher education sector to be updated

Plans afoot to change the way learning and teaching take place

PUTRAJAYA: Learning spaces will be “redesigned” in higher learning institutions so that lectures can be conducted outside the confines of halls and classrooms in future.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said these were among the plans to update the country’s universities and colleges for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

One of the plans, he said, was to change the way learning and teaching takes place.

“Instead, it will be carried out through self-learning, peer-oriented learning and virtual-based learning,” he said, adding that these allowed students to learn outside the classroom.

“We are also rethinking the way we assess students so that we can do evaluations without examination,” he added.

These institutions, he said, potentially face challenges as the Fourth Industrial Revolution dawns.

“We must be ready because we have to do it (to keep up),” he told reporters after delivering his 2018 new year message here yesterday.

“Changes have to be made,” he said, adding that the plans would be carried out throughout the year to “update” the higher education sector.

All these plans, added Idris, are in line with the ministry’s theme for 2018, which is Higher Education 4.0: Knowledge, Industry, Humanity.

Idris said lecturers would also be “upskilled” so that they could adapt, adding that academic staff would undergo the Learning and Teaching 4.0 Professional Development Strengthening Programme.