REPETITIVE coursework, long working hours and pointless bureaucracy at the university’s administrative level are among many “useless regulations” academics have to go through on a yearly if not daily basis, scholars said.

Some senior academics, including junior lecturers, told The Malaysian Insight about the hassle they have to face, including being treated like “people without brains”.

Dr Sharifah Munirah Alatas, a senior lecturer at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), highlighted several “never-ending” issues plaguing scholars and universities.

“The useless regulations our universities adhere to, are the creation of bureaucratic minds,” said the lecturer in strategic studies and international relations.

“This is what our universities are: bureaucracies, micro-managed by civil servants sitting in their offices at university boards, and in Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA),” she said.

The daughter of renowned sociologist, the late Syed Hussein Alatas, said lecturers have to go through the same monotonous procedures each semester when preparing their syllabi.

She said the syllabi then must be “checked”, and signed off by another academic at the faculty level who has been appointed – on rotation, for a few years – to this administrative position.

“There is a lot of information we are instructed to include in our syllabus, most of which are meaningless to students, and to us lecturers too.

“We need to insert a combination of calculated hours, and alphanumeric codes that represent the technicalities of course learning outcomes, teaching methods, contact hours, self-study hours, course credits, among others.

“Lecturers should not be burdened every semester, to include all this information in each syllabus. It is repetitive, time consuming and dulls the mind. There should instead be one standard process every few years, to update the whole process, making it more efficient,” she said.

Sharifah said the syllabus should have simple, short and comprehensive information about the course, for easy reference throughout the semester.

Another issue she raised was on the “clocking-in”, describing it as a demoralising and highly offensive system.

“One cannot and should not monitor lecturers in this manner. Similarly with their intellectual activity. One cannot treat academics and universities as if they are executives reporting for duty in a company workspace,” she said.

Sharifah, who graduated from the Columbia University in the United States said the clock-in system has never produced more disciplined nor conscientious lecturers over the decades.

“Neither has it produced world class professors with impressive publications on account of them being more disciplined and clocking in.

“If anything, the clock-in system has generated an acute dislike for the dull bureaucratic culture that our universities have adopted. Along with this, we also have perpetuated a culture of ingenious cheating where lecturers still ‘disappear’, and ‘lepak’ (loiter) at the canteen, or a nearby mall, or even sleep on their office sofas for hours,” she said.

Sharifah said most of the regulations and practices set up by local universities are MQA and ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) requirements.

“Faculties should not be micromanaged to this extent. It demoralises lecturers, who end up being micro-managed as well. Such rigidity will discourage more lecturers from teaching,” said the lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of UKM.

Asked to compare between the treatment she received when getting her teaching experience abroad, Sharifah said the gap is huge.

“Here, students as well as academics are treated like people without brains,” she concluded.

A former academic, who declined to be named, echoed Sharifah’s sentiment.

The former communications lecturer at a university in the northern part of the country recalled how he was asked not to state the name of his university by the administration when writing a column for local newspapers during his tenure.

He was also called up by the university’s top officials a number of times when the students’ campus newspaper covered issues the university didn’t like.

“Actually, there are several useless regulations that make the public universities an unexciting place to study and work. One of which is the part of the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, which empowers the student affairs department to control their activities.

“This affects academics if, for instance, they are invited to give talks that would motivate students to be critical of the status quo. The students need permission from the department before inviting such critical lecturers,” he said.

In December 2018, the Dewan Rakyat, in a historic unanimous vote cutting across the political divide, voted to pass amendments to the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA), and the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 (PHEIA), and the Educational Institutions (Discipline) Act 1976 (EIDA).

The first amendment was to remove subsection (c) in section 15(2) of UUCA, which previously banned students from taking part in political party activities within the grounds of universities and colleges.

The second amendment was to remove subsection (c) from section 47(2) of PHEIA, which previously banned students from partaking in political activities on private higher educational institutions’ campuses.

The third amendment was to remove subsection (c) in section 10(2) of EIDA, in order to give students the right to be involved in political activities on campus.

The amendments to these laws also stated that any ongoing disciplinary action against students for participation in on-campus political activities under the Acts will be discontinued when the amendments take effect.

Meanwhile, several junior lecturers from another local university vented their disappointment with some of the university’s “illogical” regulations.

They revealed that some academics were forced to teach subjects they are not familiar with as the university did not want to spend money on part-time lecturers.

Another issue they disclosed was on claims where they said that in certain semesters, payment claims are not allowed to be made.

“So the university has introduced an e-clock clocking system, replacing the old thumbprint method. However this system is unstable and there are many technical issues. On some days the system takes a while to load and at the end, it didn’t enter (attendance),” the lecturers said.

“So to solve this problem the university came up with a ruling that you can only ‘miss’ entering your attendance three times a month, the fourth time you do so it will affect your weekly hours, leave count, pension and more. How about that to solve your own problem.

“Lecturers are tasked to teach other subjects because the university does not want to pay part-time tutors. If you request new lecturers, faculty has to wait for a so-called warrant and this so-called warrant takes months and sometimes years to be approved.

“Normal teaching hours are about 15 to 18 hours a week. Some have to teach up to 20 hours. So let’s say we want to claim because we work longer hours, there are certain semesters that you can submit your claim and in some semesters you can’t. What is the reason behind this, we have never been told,” the group of lecturers said.

They added that to solve the long hours of work, the university decided to fill in as many students as they can in one group.

“The reason we hear is that there is no budget. But we still have to follow the ‘regulation’.

“Lecturers are also not allowed to take leave when a semester is already in progress and in some emergency cases lecturers are required to justify their leave,” they said with a shrug.

A few female lecturers also told The Malaysian Insight that they were not given fair treatment in their yearly assessment.

“Female academics who gave birth were given low marks for their yearly assessment even though they had already submitted all the requirements needed by the university.

“So because female academics can’t teach the entire semester, the grades given were bad. When the record is bad, it can be hard for them if they want to pursue their doctorate in the future.”

The names of the lecturers were withheld over fear of repercussions from the university. The Malaysian Insight spoke to at least six lecturers from various faculties. – July 11, 2022.