Free education for all?
IN a recent interview, Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said, “We aim to make university-level education free, but the economic situation has not yet permitted it. This relates to tuition fees. Our fees in public universities are not too costly compared to private universities.”
This ambition is to be welcomed and many countries have the same vision, if they have not already achieved it.
In the last United Kingdom general election, the Labour Party’s manifesto said that university education would be free for all. The current Conservative government is talking about reducing fees from the current £9,000 (RM49,050) to £6,000 (RM32,700).
Dr Maszlee’s statement that public university fees are not too costly is certainly true. The difference in fees between the public and private sectors can be large.
One of the main reasons for this difference is that the private sector does not have any government support to offset its fees. The private sector has to fully support itself, primarily through the fees that it charges.
The decisions facing Malaysia are not dissimilar to those faced by the UK. In the UK, university fees used to be free until 2006/2007, when a fee of £3,000 (RM16,350) was introduced. At that time, the government contributed 30.6% of university funding and student fees contributed 29.4% (see Figure 1).
As shown in Figure 2, when the fees were increased to £9,250 (RM50,410) in 2016/2017, student fees contributed to 47.9% of university funding, with the government contributing 13.9%.
These figures are from the University of Nottingham, UK, but they will be representative of other UK institutions. Funding decisions determine where the fees come from – the government or individual students.
A key difference between the UK and Malaysia is that the UK’s tertiary institutions are not divided into public and private universities. Any changes that the UK government makes affect all the universities.
In Malaysia, any changes in government policy for public universities do not directly impact the private sector. However, the indirect consequences could be significant.
If there is an option to get free higher education in Malaysia, what would attract students to the private sector? The quality of the private university, lack of places in the public sector and the option to undertake part of their studies overseas may all be viable answers.
It may also mean that students who cannot get a place at a public university and cannot afford the fees in the private sector will not be able to access higher education at all.
It is unclear how government changes in the public sector will affect the private sector. The private institutions will need to monitor government policy and develop their strategies, in a proactive way, to align with the government’s vision for higher education in Malaysia.
The private sector would welcome
The private institutions will need to monitor government policy and develop their strategies to align with the government’s vision for higher education in Malaysia.
the opportunity to meet with the ministry to enable higher education to develop in a planned, coordinated way.
Indeed, Dr Maszlee has been kind enough to agree to meet with the UK5 (Heriot-Watt, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading and Southampton) later this month, along with British High Commissioner Vicki Treadell.
We are looking forward to that meeting as we truly believe that the UK universities, with a presence in Malaysia, can help the ministry achieve its higher education ambitions. We are very happy to help.