UNIVERSITI Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) will get a new vice-chancellor in January, heralding major changes that will sweep through other public varsities under the Pakatan Harapan government.

Sources told The Malaysian Insight (TMI) that UKM Vice-Chancellor Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali will not have his contract renewed when it expires next month. He will be replaced by Dr Mohd Hamdi Shukor from Universiti Malaya.

TMI has contacted Noor Azlan and is awaiting a response.

PH, in its manifesto, pledged to make universities autonomous, and since taking office, has been working towards this end.

A source said the Education Ministry is in the midst of replacing a number of vice-chancellors at public universities after completing the appointment of new boards of directors for varsities several weeks ago.

To date, only Universiti Utara Malaysia and the International Islamic University Malaysia have seen their vice-chancellors replaced, in August.

With Noor Azlan out, his position as chairman of the board of the university’s subsidiary, UKM Holdings, will also be vacated.

His appointment as board chairman several months ago had caused internal controversy, as it went against the then Higher Education Ministry’s procedures.

The corporatisation process, approved in 2016 by the ministry, made it clear that there must be a separation of powers between the vice-chancellor and chairman of university companies.

Noor Azlan became UKM vice-chancellor on January 1, 2014, replacing Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin. He will return to his former duties as a lecturer at the institution’s business school.

Noor Azlan, who is the head of the National Professor Council’s economy and management cluster, is among university heads said to have campaigned for Barisan Nasional in the 14th general election.

His brother is Bagan Serai MP Noor Azmi Ghazali, who left Umno-BN on June 24 to become an independent. Yesterday, Noor Azmi was accepted into Bersatu, becoming the party’s 15th lawmaker.

Noor Azlan, an economics lecturer, worked in the Prime Minister’s Department between April 2006 and September 2009 on secondment from UKM. He served in various capacities, including a stint in the Economic Planning Unit. Prior to that, he was the Economics and Business Faculty dean and UKM Graduate School of Business chairman.

Last week, Noor Azlan was publicly criticised by Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik after UKM blocked political activist Hishamuddin Rais from giving a talk at a forum at the institution.

Maszlee had said university leaders should facilitate students who organise programmes in the form of academic discussions.

“They must be in line with the ‘New Malaysia’, which is pro-discussion, rather than becoming a deterrent.”

The talk’s organiser has admitted that it did not receive permission from the university administration, but said the programme had gone on twice this year without a hitch.

TMI was made to understand that Noor Azlan disagreed with Maszlee’s approach, and stressed that universities have the right to set their own rules on programmes organised on campus.

He is of the opinion that UKM should be autonomous, as guaranteed by Maszlee previously. – November 29, 2018.