I READ with interest the news report entitled “Varsity’s decision to close faculty leaves students in the lurch” on May 26. As a former staff member of Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University College (KLMUC), we shared the same parent with Unitar International University, which is the ILMU Group, the private equity firm owned by Ekuinas.

The controversy arising from the closure of the Unitar’s Faculty of Architecture and Design pretty much mirrors what had occurred at KLMUC earlier when we were being told by ILMU Group that it was closing us down, the licence will be surrendered back to the Higher Education Ministry and as announced to the staff earlier, a potential merger with Unitar is on the card.

Since this new event at Unitar, it made us – among those who were being retrenched by ILMU earlier – wonder what exactly is happening between KLMUC and Unitar under ILMU’s leadership?

As reported earlier, Unitar cited cost for the closure, which is totally unacceptable considering the fact that education is not a business commodity.

The senate of the university must come clean in giving proper justification and not simply issuing half-baked public statements. Students were complaining that the closure was done in a hush and rush, according to the whims and desires of ILMU.

With this latest blatant episode, we are left wondering if the rights of the students and the professionals in Malaysia’s private higher education institutions are protected under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 or better known as Act 555?

How could Unitar (read: ILMU) give a flimsy excuse in shutting down a faculty in a hurry without ample notice given to the students? Where is Unitar’s vice-chancellor, who is supposed to address this matter publicly?

On the other note, as former KLMUC staff member, I cannot but to relate this episode with what KLMUC had undergone earlier and this surely raises a spectre on the credibility and ability of ILMU Group and Ekuinas in managing private higher education institutions.

What is their main intent when they first went into the higher education sector? As private equities, they are profit-driven entities governed by a certain time frame in which at some point, they must exit to generate value for their shareholders.

In short, private equity like ILMU is just treating private higher education as its cash cow without having proper understanding the governance and due processes of managing a higher education institution.

I hope the ministry would come clean in investigating this fiasco and probe into ILMU’s governance and practices in managing my former workplace, KLMUC, and now Unitar.

Students’ and lecturers’ interests shouldn’t be made as sacrificial lambs at the altar of profit by short-term business entities like ILMU Group. – May 28, 2017.

* Multatuli Max is a The Malaysian Insight reader and former staff member of KLMUC.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.