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Higher education liberalisation the right move: PM

Posted: 08 Sep 2011 10:33 PM PDT

Higher education liberalisation the right move: PM

KUALA LUMPUR: The government made the right decision to liberalise the higher education sector in 1996, enabling more students to pursue their tertiary education locally, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said today.

The Prime Minister said the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 had encouraged private sector and government-linked companies and foreign institutions to set up universities and branch campuses as well as conduct twinning programmes in the country.

"It was a blue ocean strategy before the term was even coined and became popular in providing more places for Malaysians as local institutions cannot accommodate all the qualified students and not every Malaysian can afford the cost of an overseas education," he said at the 13th convocation of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman at Wisma MCA here.

Also present were MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Hou Kok Chung and university president Datuk Dr Chuah Hean Teik.

Najib added that the willingness to invest in human capital development had held Malaysia in good stead as a nation.

He said that in just one generation Malaysia was transformed from a low income agriculture economy into an upper middle income modern industrial economy.

"Human capital lies at the core of innovation and productive high income economy.

"No economy can succeed without a highly skilled talent base that respond creatively to economic changes, and is centred on creating, developing and utilising knowledge," he said.

He congratulated the graduands and told them graduands that their responsibility now is to propel the nation to greater heights.

"I urge you to go forth with this strong sense of responsibility and underpin your pursuit of success with uncompromising integrity, transparent, ethics and moral values which are the hallmarks of truly educated individuals," he said.

The Prime Minister presented scrolls to 60 of the 2,773 graduands at the ceremony. -- BERNAMA

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Need to keep women working

Posted: 08 Sep 2011 10:40 AM PDT

2011/09/08
By Rozanna Latiff, Ling Poh Lean and Aisyah Sulaiman
news@nst.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Women represent only 46 per cent of the labour force despite occupying up to 67 per cent of university places.

A day after the New Straits Times reported on a growing gender imbalance of 70:30 in the newest batch of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia undergraduates, Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said trained human capital did not all end up at work.

He said as such, the government should think of a way to keep women in the workforce as the relatively low percentage of female workers suggested that not all female undergraduates remained in employment.

Many female graduates do join the workforce but some drop out after marriage with a low prospect of ever returning.

"Many women decide to stay home after giving birth as they do not trust individuals, such as maids, to care for their children. Hence, more affordable and reliable childcare centres should be established," he said.

The quality and security of childcare centres should also be improved, given the rising number of accidents reported recently.

"With good childcare centres, women can stay focused on their work without worrying about their children. It is a better solution in retaining female talent in the workforce."

While the UKM situation could be a one-off thing, the average university gender imbalance ratio remains at 67:33.

Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said in most industries, female workers generally performed as well as their male counterparts.

"Women should not be discriminated against or even looked at as being family-centric, as they have proven to be just as capable and as qualified as men."

He said universities were merit-based and reflected the fact that female students performed better than male students.

"However, we should closely look into the reasons why this trend is continuing and find ways to address the fact that the men are simply not performing as well."

Malaysian Trades Union Congress president Mohd Khalid Atan said nothing should stop women from having a good career.

"They should climb the ladder and utilise the skills they have learned in university."

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said the challenge was to translate women's access to education into greater opportunities in the labour market, especially in decision-making positions.

She said the government was taking actions to increase the participation of women in the labour force.

Shahrizat viewed the trend of a higher number of female undergraduates as a "remarkable progress of Malaysian women in education".

She said this was a global trend as quoted by futurist and strategist David Houle, who said the percentage of female students in higher education was at an all-time high.

In the United States and Canada, about 60 per cent of undergraduates are women. This trend has also emerged in most countries in the Asia-Pacific, according to the Unesco Report on Gender Issues on Higher Education 2010.

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Khamis, 8 September 2011