WITH the dawn of a new Malaysia, the Pakatan Harapan government has a unique opportunity to change the course of this country in relation to providing the citizenry with the knowledge and right attitudes of what constitutes a civilised developmental agenda.

In the previous government, the leadership had let the university academia slide into being a factory producing graduate workers while the academics busy themselves with papers and research that would help purely with self-promotion.

A new framework for academia needs to be designed in order to harness the talents and vigour of academics to help develop our society to a level that we can all face the challenges of globalisation, technological development, racial and religious conflicts and new economic structures.

There are three types of academics basically in a university; a Lecturer, an Associate Professor and a Professor. There are, of course, other grades in between and within the post itself but that is basically it. The main role of the Lecturer is the teaching of specific subjects, usually for an undergraduate degree course or a Masters course.

The Lecturer must strive to teach the subject in the best method possible to impart the required knowledge. There is also an element of inspiring and questioning at this level that should be encouraged to the students. The Lecturer spends almost 80% of his or her time perfecting this teaching responsibility by developing tools of learning like books, manuals and instructional videos. The other 20% of the Lecturer’s time should be devoted to some writing and research of moderate quality and number.

The Associate Professor is a post meant for Lecturers who have conducted meaningful research and produced publications that his or her peers have acknowledged the expertise. The Associate Professor must have supervised PhD level students and taught one undergraduate subject to impart his or her expertise to the course.

The Associate Professor should also be involved with some public speaking activities as well as media writing to impart some of this knowledge to the public. The Associate Professors should have books expounding the boundaries of his or her expertise to the doctoral students and academics.

The Professor is tasked with three equally important roles. The first role is to supervise doctoral candidates with young Associate Professors or Lecturers to deepen and widen fields of knowledge. Publication of papers would be a priority in this activity as well as the training and moulding of the next generation of scholars.

The second role is to form centres of knowledge at the level of national institutes so as the groundwork for knowledge generation and dissemination is assured when the professor leaves the university or retires. The institute would be the bustle of activities with discourses, forums, seminars and talks to inspire and gather scholars as well as the public and those concerned to be made aware of the impact to society at large.

The third important role is to be out there in the public through membership or chairmanship of government committees, non-profits and other organisations to ensure that the knowledge generated gets converted into policies and ideas or activities that would change the direction of the nation and the perception and behaviour of society.

This requires many media writings and interviews as well as public lectures to various levels of society. Professors should also be invited to special Parliamentary sessions to lecture on their fields and its impact on society.

I have asked a few of my friends who are intelligent and well-read MPs about research in some areas and they cannot name any of the research centres in public universities. How can MPs make good decisions when the latest findings in research are not available? The writing of books about the complex knowledge into readable materials for public consumption is a must for a democratic nation that relies on the ordinary citizen for votes and elections of officials to steer the country.

Prof Dr Stephen Hawkins is a household name as is Prof Michio Kaku as they have written books for laymen to understand the structure of the cosmos. Although there exist a thousand professors in Malaysia, only a handful have written significant books that the layman can understand. The appointment of professors without his or her work being made to be understood by the general populace is a travesty to the real meaning of academia.

The professor should be the conscience of the nation by advising and even criticising the political leadership in issues of his or her expertise without fear or favour. In Malaysia, that would be a tall order indeed when professors of public universities are more inclined to support whatever policies or decision that the government of the day takes. Since the Council of Professors has become part of the Prime Minister’s machinery, this development gives the thinking citizenry little to respect or trust in the consciences of these academics.

Promotion exercises

The promotion exercise of academics should not be based, as in the present, purely on a numbers game. In the present system, it is how many papers, what kind of numerical value of impact and how much and how many research grants can be secured. This phenomenon has given rise to three important issues.

Firstly, researches who have discovered new and important information seldom spend any time at all following through their discoveries and turn them into important policies or educational material that would help change society. They are always in a hurry to produce more and more papers and so they would start off new research with new partners in order to get the numbers up.

Secondly, it has given rise to the academics swapping names on papers that they have no clue to the research areas and directions. I knew of a lecturer who averages three papers a year but when she joined a large research group, her papers jumped to 25 papers the following year!

Finally, this number game takes out the seriousness of peer referees who would be able to evaluate the contributions of an academic at the knowledge level and at the societal impact level. Although referees are still used, their importance pales in comparison to the numbers inputted into the computer before any academic can apply to be considered for promotion. Presently, all academics must ask the permission of the computers before applying for promotion!

The appointment of Associate Professors must include an interview session with not only the Vice-Chancellor and deputy but also with at least two or three members of the profession or field outside of the university who do not answer to the VC. For the appointment of Professor, a few important members of the public must be there to ask questions on how the candidate’s performance measure against the impact of his or her knowledge to society.

Role of VC and Deans

The ideal Vice-Chancellor should be a visionary manager to ensure that each faculty and academics get the financial and infrastructure to generate, disseminate and develop knowledge. The VC should stand as tall as the Deans of each faculty as an aid to each Dean’s vision for that particular field of knowledge.

Each faculty, to me, should have its own think tank or Board of Advisors that would consist of professionals, academics and members of the society in order to ensure that the knowledge generated is appropriate and useful for the development of the nation and people. The board, along with the VC, shall decide the nominees of Deanship because it is the Dean who shall lead each faculty into new discovery or use of knowledge.

Presently, in Malaysia, Deans are nothing more than glorified clerks counting student numbers and other administrative stuff in Excel sheets. Ideally, it is the Dean who should forge ahead to make partners with other institutions to help develop the staff as well as the students and recruit new and dynamic academics to the faculty. The Deans are also important figures in society to answer issues plaguing the nation that lies within his or her expert areas. Has anyone ever heard a Dean respond to any issue in this country? Hardly any. Thus, the Deans should be the movers and shakers of academia, not the VC.

No one should really care much about the VC, he or she should just be a manager listening to the Deans. Not so in Malaysia. The VC is King, Emperor and Lord of all he or she sees in the campus. His or her word is law. This Kingship element of the VC should stop immediately. Academia is a horizontal relationship of organisation, not a vertical one like a feudal court.

I would therefore strongly suggest the following reform agenda for our public university. First and foremost is to remind every VC, Dean and academic that a public university belongs to and is accountable to the public, not just to a particular Ministry. For the appointment of the VCs, Deans and Professors, there must be some public representation in the committee that has no conflict of interest with the university or the ministry. The committee members from the public need not have a PhD but a strong sense of social commitment.

I would strongly advise that each faculty have their own Board of Advisors which act also as a think tank group to help channel part of the research activities of the faculty. The members must include citizens who can contribute to that particular field even though he or she does not possess a doctoral degree. The VC of universities must listen seriously to the Dean and the Board of Advisors to the faculty in matters of academic expansion, new courses and promotion criteria for the academics.

I would suggest that universities spend at least half of their activities and prove that their presence has made significant changes in society through their research, publication, public talks and seminars. The seminars which I have attended draw only the presenters as participants and none from the public at large. That won’t do.

At the end of every year, each VC along with the Deans must present to a room full of journalists, MPs and ADUN where and how his or her university has contributed to the development of the society and nation in the important respects of safety, health, social and religious harmony, economy and environmental sustainability. If some researcher has discovered a massive black hole somewhere, well and fine but that is not a priority for us in this country at the moment. Research funding of more than a million ringgit must face a public inquiry as to its relevance and effectiveness as well as the contribution to our society.

Finally, I hope that the above suggestion can be taken up by the Ministry to reform and rethink the roles and responsibilities of our precious public universities. Let the universities, once again, be the beacon of hope for our nation and not a gravy train for selfish academics to carve their financial niche and social status. – June 23, 2018

* Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi

UCSI University

* 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.