Malaysian public universities are still going backwards

The bottom line is that the quality of degrees awarded must be questioned. There is something wrong when university graduates earn the low salaries that they are earning.

Students may be competent in the technical knowledge they have. They must also be competent at critical and creative thinking and be able to competently present what they know at the job level. The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) needs a major shake up on this matter, as it is the keeper of degrees in the country.

What is not adequately measured in university rankings is the environment students are immersed within during their university education. University should be a total life experience. Diversity on campus will go a long way to widening the perspectives of Malaysian students for the rest of their lives.

The fact that Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) has already run up the charts to second best Malaysian university in less than 20 years of existence as a university tells us something about the plight of Malaysian public universities.

The current Malaysian university blueprint has failed. The very assumptions Malaysia's universities were built upon need to be urgently questioned. Diversity is a national asset and must take precedence over today's inadequate and religious agenda shared by both BN and Pakatan Governments.

It's time for Pakatan to make the hard decisions.