Disturbing trends in local academia

I REFER to the report, “Gerak: Proposals for reforming varsities well-received” ( The Star, July 24). I wholeheartedly agree with Prof Zaharom Naim that “the ethos and culture of excellence in universities must be brought back.”

I regularly proofread masters and PhD theses from local public universities and have noticed a number of disturbing trends.

Some unscrupulous supervisors get a group of their students to work on one PhD thesis. After it is submitted under one student’s name, the same group then works on another thesis. It seems these students do not know that this is cheating and boldly use “we” instead of “I” when describing the way the research was conducted and analysed! The supervisors are thus able to claim credit for churning out numerous PhDs.

It is obvious to me that plagiarism is common in our local universities because of the great difference in the standard of English in different parts of a single thesis. When I informed one student of the plagiarism in her thesis, she proudly told me that she had already passed!

To maintain standards, it is important that external examiners from respected overseas universities are appointed for local masters and PhD degrees.

It is also equally important that local examiners are prevented from reading the external examiners’ reports before making their own reports on a thesis. This, I found, is common practice even in prestigious local public universities.

Local academics must prove their worth by publishing in respected international journals in their respective fields and present their findings in international seminars and conferences. Many just remain silent in conferences possibly due to their lack of confidence in speaking English.

Finally, only academics with a proven track record should be appointed as administrators of universities. Politicians and people of influence should not be allowed to interfere in the administration and intake of students in our universities.