the development of malaysian higher education: making sense … · source: rethinking reform in...

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Morshidi Sirat

CONVENTION FOR YOUNG ADMINISTRATORS OF ASEAN HIGHER

EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS 2017, 27 November 2017

by

THIS PRESENTATION…

• TO APPRECIATE THE IDEA AND (CHANGING) ROLES OF UNIVERSITIES

• SUCH APPRECIATION SHOULD LEAD TO DEDICATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN PERFORMING TASKS AND DUTIES

• HIGHER EDUCATION (UNIVERSITIES) TO ACHIEVE ITS GOAL – THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN PERSON

OUTCOME

NATIONAL INTEREST

EFFECTIVENESS AS HUMAN NOT MACHINE

RELEVANCE AND SENSITIVE

EXCELLENCE

Source: http://oura.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/A5.pdf

INFLUENCES, DEMANDS AND PRESSURES –MULTILEVEL AND MULTIVARIATE

Evolution of Societies up to Society 5.0 (Source: Keidanren)

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

SOCIETY

UNIVERSITIES – IDEA/SPIRIT

UNIVERSAL MORAL VALUES

HARMONIOUS HUMAN WELL-BEING/BALANCED/HOLISTIC

AN IDEALISM BUT WITH A PURPOSE

IMAGE AND RESPONSIBILITY UNLIKE ANY OTHER INSTITUTIONS (THE PUBLIC GOOD)

GOALS

FORM AND SHAPE OF FUTURE

HUMAN CONDITION FACED WITH THE RISE OF

THE MACHINE (4IR)

RELATED TO HUMAN (MORAL,

VALUES )

CREATION AND DISSEMINATION OF KNOWLEDGE OVER SEVERAL

GENERATIONS FOR THE BETTERMENT

OF HUMAN BEINGS

IMAGE OF UNIVERSITIES THAT YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH?

THE IMPACT OF NEOLIBERALISM APPROACH TO

HIGHER EDUCATION INCLUDING CORPORATE

MANAGERIALISM

DISTANT PAST

KNOWLEDGE FOR THE BETTERMENT OF SOCIETY

KNOWLEDGE SHARING

PAST, PRESENT

AND FUTURE

IVORY TOWER/REPOSITORY OF KNOWLEDGE

“FUTURE TENSE”

APPLICATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR HUMAN WELL-BEING

UNIVERSITY MATTERS

ROLES OF UNIVERSITIES PRIOR TO EMERGENCE OF MODERN

UNIVERSITIES

KNOWLEDGE SEEKING, GENERATION OF KNOWLEDGE WITH RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL INCLINATIONS

‘AUTHORITY OF IDEAS’ AND NOT ‘IDEA OF AUTHORITY’

SEEKING THE TRUTH

EDUCATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BEING AND HUMAN CO-EXISTENCE

ROLES OF PRESENT DAY UNIVERSITIES

DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN MIND, SPIRIT, EMOTION RELATED TO SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN

CIVILISATION

CENTRE FOR DISCOURSE ON VALUES, SKILLS ACQUISITION AND COMPETENCIES

LEARNING CENTRES (REAL KNOWLEDGE AND HUMAN PERSONALITIES)

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

CENTRE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR INDUSTRY

NEW DEMANDS ON THE UNIVERSITES ARISING FROM NEOLIBERALISM

EDUCATING STUDENTS AND RESEARCHERS FOR THE MARKET

UNDERTAKING, MANAGING AND SUPPORTING RESEARCH FOR REPUTATION

TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE FOR THE MARKET AND COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION

INVOLVING MANY STAKEHOLDERS IN GENERATING KNOWLEDGE AND INCOME

CREATING CONDUSIVE KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH MARKET DEMAND

UNIVERSITIES - RELATIONSHIPS

1. STATE-UNIVERSITY – GOVERNANCE AND AUTONOMY

2. WITHIN INSTITUTIONS – SHARED GOVERNANCE

3. WITH THE COMMUNITY

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• STATE-UNIVERSITY – GOVERNANCE AND AUTONOMY

• WITHIN INSTITUTIONS – SHARED GOVERNANCE

– Highly dependence on whether

• state control, steering from a distance, self-regulating

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SUMMARY OF THE KEY GOVERNANCE CHARACTERISTICS

IN ALL CLUSTER

FOUR MODELS OF UNIVERSTY-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP

1. the sober view of the university

The university is just another knowledge-based institution, not fundamentally different from knowledge-based business

only perhaps with a greater number and wider range of experts

this model sees the university’s relation with its community as one of exchange of its knowledge and knowledge workers with the other institutions in the community.

2. the creative view of the university as an institution

that is or should be concerned most essentially with optimising and nurturing the creative potential of individuals and of teams

the university entertains a relation of mutual stimulus and support with other actors in a community, in a common attempt to optimise the conditions for such creative environments.

3. the purist view of the university, which has been dominant in the Humboldtian university

According to this view, the university has to seek a critical distance from its social, political and economic environment in order to optimise its innovative and early-warning potential

The relation of the university with its community is one of mostly unidirectional knowledge transfer and dissemination from the university to its stakeholders

4. the social view of the university

It sees the university as an important critical counterbalance to governing forces and attitudes, be they market forces or mainstream societal attitudes.

The public role of the university lies in its ability to widen the access to knowledge and its benefits to as wide a range of individuals as possible.

The university would also be the institution that seeks to be the first to identify and define future developments and problems and to offer solutions to complex societal concerns.

In this model the university tries to engage in a dialogue with actors in the community in order to identify their needs and respond to them.

Source: Adapted from Clark Kerr. The Uses of the University, 5th ed. Cambridge, 2001, in Chang Da Wan, Morshidi Sirat and Dzulkifli Abdul Razak,

2015.: Harvard University Press, 2001.

INFLUENCES

• TRADITIONS AND CIVILISATIONS

• COLONIALISM

• NEO COLONIALISM

• GLOBALISATION

– NEO LIBERALISM (RETREAT OF THE STATE IN MATTERS RELATING TO UNIVERSITIES, DOMINANCE OF THE MARKET)

MODERN UNIVERSITIES

• Excellence Without a Soul - Harry Lewis, 2006.

“Harvard no longer teach the basic virtues of being human, the ideals of liberal education devoted to freeing the mind and the spirit.”

NO SOUL, MANY CRISES

• UNIVERSITY IN RUIN - BILL READING, 1997

– LOOSE CONNECTION BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND NATIONAL AGENDA

– UNIVERSITIES - BIG CORPORATION, PROFIT ORIENTED

– UNIVERSITY CULTURE IS ABOUT CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE AND EXCELLENCE IS DETERMINED BY NEOLIBERALISM/MARKET

RECLAIMING THE SOUL

• RELATE DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION TO HUMAN WELL-BEINGSEPISTEMIOLOGY

• THIS IS ABOUT DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN PERSON

• NOT ABOUT REPUTATION AND PHYSICAL IMAGE GOALS

• CLEAR ABOUT WHAT TO TEACH, TARGET AND PEDAGOGY

• HEAD-ON WITH CHALLENGES

CONTENT AND ORGANISATIONAL

SYSTEM OF HE

• INVESTMENT FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE MINORITY/MARGINALISED

• NOT FRUSTRATING THE MAJORITY

SELECTION PROCSS

• SOCIAL SYSTEM IS IRRELEVANT, EDUCATION IS KEY TO SUCCESS AS HUMAN PERSON

• MORE EDUCATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOLISTIC PERSON

EGALITARIANISM AND

MERITOKRASI

• MANAGABLE ORGANISATION TO ENABLE TRANSFORMATION IN REASONABLE TIMECONTROL

• RETOOLING TO BALANCE THEORY AND PRACTICE

QUALITY OF EDUCATION AND

ACADEMICS

• MORE QUALIFICATIONS MUST NOT LEAD TO LOWERING OF VALUE; VALUE ADD

• REDUCE WASTAGE OF PUBLIC AND HOUSEHOLD RESOURCES

EFFECTIVENESS (SOCIAL AND ECONOMICS)

• MORE RESOURCES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION NOT FEASIBLE; HIGH COST; SOCIAL OBLIGATION OF THE STATE BUT AT WHAT COST?

• NOT ALL ISSUES RELATING TO HIGHER EDUCATION COULD BE SOLVED BY INCREASING ALLOCATION

FINANCE

• OUTPUT OF UNIVERSITIES - THINKING HUMAN PERSON NOT MACHINE

• STATUS OF ACADEMICS AND ADMINISTRATORSCONFIDENCE

SOURCE: RETHINKING REFORM IN HIGHER EDUCATION, FROM ISLAMIZATION TO INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE – ZIAUDDIN SARDAR, JEREMY HENZELL-THOMAS, 2017.

Globalisation and Neoliberalism

• Why adopt neoliberal ideology, even if we claim to representquite different ideological positions?

Globalisation and Neoliberalism

Answer:

• Neoliberalism ability to normalize itself and convince the restof the world that there is no alternative.

Globalisation and Neoliberalism 4

• Have no allegiance to the nation-state or to the socialcontract

• Is very powerful not only because of its economic structuresbut also because of its pedagogical and ideological power

Globalisation and Neoliberalism

• Driven by the survival of the fittest

• More and more universities and other institutions of highereducation are being run as if they were large multinationalcompanies seeking immediate profit

“Hybridisation” in the Development of

HEIs

• Premise for the rise of hybridisation

• Due to the prevalence of the globalising force and neoliberalism,many universities have gone through major transformations interms of missions, governance and institutional practices.

• Impact on nation-building agenda?

“Hybridisation” in the Development of

HEIs

• “Hybridisation”

• is the interplay among global, national and local culture andvalues as a result of globalisation and neoliberalism

• Competition and survival

“Hybridisation” in the Development of

HEIs

• in the higher education sector, hybridisation manifests in theinteraction between Western academic models and traditionalcultures in different types of higher education institutions

• One of main features of a hybridised public university is acloser interaction with business and other organisations inthe private sector.

• Public universities have become hybrid organisation drivenby two steering paradigms:

• Governmental regulations and market forces (and these are notalien to the pressures and demands of globalisation andneoliberalism).

• The government (‘principal’) provides a budget for a numberof well-defined tasks, which the public university (‘agent’)then executes.

• This steering mechanism is often referred to as “tasksteering”.

• The public university is being confronted by a market withclients that buy some of the university’s services for aparticular price.

• The resulting revenues provide the university with “extra”income but also imply that the university is being confrontedwith the preferences of external clients.

• This process is frequently denoted as “market steering.”

• Emergence of hybrid universities

• Ideally, hybrid public universities need to be:

• “mission-centered”(include values, culture, community, nation,

international) and

• “marketsmart”

Conclusion

• The impact of globalisation-neoliberalism nexus on nation-building agenda of higher education and institutions:

• Spirit and purpose of higher education

• Enterprising non-profit public universities

o Hybrid governance and management approach

o Hybrid financing approach

o Hybrid curriculum approach

Conclusion

• Public universities are navigating between corporatism andnation-building agenda.

Thank You

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