Give more allocation to young, less established universities — Academician
KUCHING: The Pakatan Harapan ( PH) federal government has been told to attempt a different approach in distributing financial allocation to public universities in the country.
“Give more allocation to young and less established university,” suggested Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia ( USIM) Faculty of Syariah and Law senior lecturer Dr Muzaffar Syah Mallow.
In previous years, huge financial allocation has been given to well - established as well as regionally and internationally top scoring universities.
Muzaffar said instead of giving more financial allocation to these well - established and top scoring universities, the money should be given to universities which are young or newly established and still unable to achieve certain standard of a good or top ranking university within the country, the region and among the entire world.
“It is very important for the government to understand why many of these young or newly established universities are unable to become the country’s or world best university because they are still green in the industry,” Muzaffar told The Borneo Post in an emailed statement.
He was giving his wish list in the run up to the National Budget 2019 to be tabled by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad in Parliament on Friday.
“Being young and newly established, it is normal for any institution including university not to obtain certain level of score or ranking to be the best university. As a young and newly established university, they don’t have enough financial allocation to do proper research and development ( R & D) which is a very essential component for any university to become best university locally or internationally.
“Being young and new, these universities also don’t have all the necessary facilities to support their teaching and learning process. Being young and new also, these universities don’t have enough number of expertise or professors who could help them bring in more money for their university. This is totally different with well – established and top scoring universities. These well – established universities normally have enough capital or money to carry out many research activities.”
“As such, it is important for the government to consider these points when giving allocation for the universities in the Budget 2019 announcement,” he said.
He added that although it is important to treat all universities fairly, it is also crucial to consider various factors faced by each university in the allocation of financial grants.