Malaysia is facing a crisis in higher education leadership and needs to reconsider the government's power to appoint university vice-chancellors, a conference in Kuala Lumpur heard this week.
Morshidi Sirat, director of the National Higher Education Research Institute at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, called for greater autonomy for the country's universities and said the process of selecting vice-chancellors needed to be 'depoliticised'. The education minister appoints vice-chancellors to public universities.
'Do not blame the institution if you have a crisis in leadership. Go back to the system,' Professor Morshidi told the Leadership in Higher Education conference. 'We need to depoliticise the whole appointment process.'
He said a search committee made recommendations to the minister on vice-chancellor appointments.
'They [committee members] are very eminent people but they may not represent the interests of the stakeholders of the university.'
He questioned why vice-chancellors were required to answer directly to the minister rather than deal with parliamentarians and called for university leaders to serve longer terms. Most vice-chancellors served for two or three years but a five-year term would give them time to make plans and see results.