You have to trawl for'varsity seatsEducation is always a hot topic and formerjournalist Juhaidi Yean Abdullah and medicaldoctor Noorhaire Nordin, who is doing hisPhD, with SONIA RAMACHANDRAN sitting in,

, have lots to say

past, 'when you are rejected,that's it.

STUDYLOANFUND

Now if you cannot enter theuniversity of your first choice,your name automatically goesinto the name of the secondchoice and then the thirdcboice ane! so on until you landa spot. That is why now all stu­dents are given many choices.

The onus on the parents andstudents is to really know whatcourse to take in which uni­versity.

Don't limit yourself to saying"I want medicine in Universiti

Malaya, medicine in UKM,medicine in Universiti PutraMalaysia (UPM), medicine,medicine, medicine ..." for allthe universities.

You may be on the border­line for eacb university. Thatmeans you are out, brother.You can't go into any universi­ty because you haven't castyour net.

Like\vise, you don't putmedicine in UM, architecturein UM, biology in UM.

They cannot send you else­where and each time theyrank you, you are on the bor­derlJne.

TRAWLINGFORPLACES

r also think the model forstudent funding in Malaysia,the National Higher EducationFund Corporation, is headingfor disaster. The country cango bankrupt if you don'tchange the model.

When the fITstidea came up,

ON POLARISATION, I SEE

GAPS BETWEEN DIFFERENT

ETHNIC GROUPS IN CERTAIN

UNIVERSITIES.SOMETIMES I

GIVE TUTORIALS AND I SEE

THE MALAYS IN THE BACK

ROW AND THE CHINESE IN

THE FRONT ROW. THEY

DONTMIX.~

- Dr Noorhaire Nordin

Juhaidi Yean Abdullah (right) and Noorhaire Nordin discuss the state of education in this ·country.

the best researchers' but being plans. That's why we keep ori Every year, you hear thesethe best, they are 'more at- missing the target. grouses. -tracted to universities \vith anexcellent reputation in r.e­

searc~ pr®qctjvjty 1Uld canpay them more .. '•..

In addition to having 60 percent of the teaching staff beingPhD holders, researCliuDiver­sities must also have an equalnumber as researchers.

r think these are issues andimpediments.

Noo~ire: Why grants?Why not pump ~ the fundsstraight t6 the resea:fchers?

Juhaidi: These are separateallocations for researchers

and rarioU;; gran~ like theFundamental Research GrantScheme and the Technofund.

Since it is a policy that 60 percent of the teaching staff mustbave PhDs, it then becomes in­cumbent for all universities tosend their teaching staff tocomplete their PhDs.

I think RM1.2 billion was setaside in the Ninth 'M3:!aysiaPlan (9MP) for this goal. Theamount should be enough toeducate 6,500 to 7,000.

I think all 23 universitiessend abont 150 employees todo their PhDs a year.

STRATEGKPLAN juhaldl: This is an issue of

N rh i· "..I supply and demand. There00 a re:. 'S~iItdIr't " are siml!ly not enou01 places.

there be strategIc plannmg for By men!, \ve need to giveour higherlearning then? places to students \vith the... best results.

luhaidi: There was one . Let's say you take a univer-launched by former. prime Slty WIth any of the top !'D. urs­minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad es. Say someone wants to do'Bada\vi in 2007. It was a com- medicine in Universiti. Ke­

prehensive strategic plan. bangsaan Malaysia. They canIt was comprehensive be- only take in, say, 250.cause it encompasses strate- Those who qualify may begies to' achieve those targets more than 250. If the universi­that we have set. ty opel)S its doors to maybe

If was the work of many ex- 590, then it is stretching its re­perts in the ministry, public in- sources by half.stituti0!1S··of hjgper I~ii,¥ning. That means there will beand'a'lso the private sectOr and classes where lecturers don'tindustry. turn. up. So a university would

As a paper, it was compre- do an audit and limit the num­hensive. It's a question of irn- ber of students for eachplementation now. They re- course.main targets. On the part of the ministry,

Youhit one and miss nine. To to reduce disappointment, thebe fair, it is not because oflack system was changed. In theof want or trying.

For examPle, the g6vern­ment has already provided themoney, but where is the outputfrom the universities. Manaorangnya? (Where are thepeople?) If we have the people.then we can send them.

• Not many countries in theNoorhalre: That is a small w.orld c<1.Il provide this kind ofnumber: money. This is a good fulle for

anyone who wants to study.

Junaid!: RM1.2 billion can .• '. '-.finance up to to 7,000. The'·· Noorhalni: Our education9MP ends next year. To get system is supposed to be based6,000 PhDs, how many more on meritocracy but vou stillplans do we need? hear of those lOpstudents who

Maybe three or four more miss out on university spots.

take a lot of effort.Maybe it is going to take

longer than 2020.1 say this be­cause there are serious im­pediments in meeting this tar­get.

You mentioned facilities.Many universities, if you askthem, are going to tell you theywant more.

Another area would be thequality of lecturers, To be ahub of educational excellence,you must have quality teach­ing staff and lecturers, admin­istrators.

According to the strategicplan, we should have 60 percent of lecturers at local uni­versities \vith PhDsby 2010.

Where are we? 2010 is onlvnext year. There are morethan 20 universities in thiscountry ..

Do all the universities have ateaching staff \vith more than60 per cent being phO hold.­ers? I doubt it.

Four universities have beenmade research universities,which brings us to the issue ofthe number of researchersand the allocation given tothem for research purposes.

Is it enough? If you askthem. r am sure they \ViIIsay"yes" to more resources.

There is also the question ofcitations for the work done byyour university and re­searchers in journals. Is thatthere already?

One problem of developing aresearch sector in our univer­sities is that \ve need to attract

UNIVERsmESANDRESEARCH

THE GOVERNMENT HAS

ALREADY PROVIDED THE

MONEY, BUT WHERE IS THE

OUTPUT FROM THE

UNIVERSITIES. (WHERE ARE

THE PEOPLE?) IF WE HAVE

THE PEOPLE,THEN WE CAN

SEND THEM. NOT MANY

COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD

CAN PROVIDE THIS KIND OF

MONEY. THIS IS A GOOD TIME

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS

TO STUDY. ~

-juhaidi YeanAbdullah

Dr Noorhalre: Althoughthe country needs more doc­tors, many students want to bedoctors. Medical seats are lim­ited in public universities andbecause of this, there will bethose wbo will be left out evenif they meet the criteria.

Juhaidl: I have two observa­tions. Frist, we agree thatthere is shortage of places be­cause of the quotas set by pub­lic institutions of higher edu­cation, This also indicates thenumber of lecturers we haveand the facilities we can pro­vide for medical students.

I know the Higher EducationMinistry is trying to ease thissituation. One is to arrangewith more universities around

the world to allocate places forMalaysian students studyingmedicine or taking up phar­macy.

These two, are of course,like the most prized coursesfor students.

The point I'm trying to makeis that this is not in isolationand the government is awareof this and is doing its best toresolve the situation.

Another observation is thatwhen I was in the ministry, Isometimes noted that it is notthe student who wants to gointo medicine or pharmacy.

The pressure comes fromthe parents, grandparents anduncles, who are also doctorsand come from a particularuniversity, and they want theirchild, grandchild, nephew orniece to go to that universityand do that particular course.

It is unfair but some uncer­tain students happen to obtaingood results so the option isopen to them.

MEDICALSEATS

Noorhalre: You often hearpeople saying that we want tobe the education hub of thisregion Dut basically we lackthe facilities and manpower.

luhaidi: We certainly can. Iknow there are efforts beingmade towards that. The mis­sion is for Malaysia to be acen­tre for educational excellencein the region.

This policy is part of the Na­tional Higher EducationStrategic Plan up to 2020 andbeyond. Frankly, it is going to

(From left) Selangor commissioner Datuk Dr Hasan Ali, secretary-general Datuk KamaruddinJaffar, deputy spiritual leader Datuk Haron Qin, spiritual adviser Da~u~ Nik,AbdUlAziz Nik Mat,president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Al:Yangand deputy president NasHaruddln Mat Isa at the 55thPas muktamar in Shah Alam.

. PAGE 13

• zubaidah@nst.com.my

oPPositii>ncoalition.,The. diJIegate, Yasir Mat De­

sa" from Perlis, disagreedslt'oI)gly ¥ 1"if./l outgoing, Pasyouth cl;liefSalabuddin Ay.ub'ssuggeStion that'" Pas, comple­ment fl!; allies to strengthenthe coalition,

"tIad.i' is.settlilg the directionon 'bow to move ahead interms or setti!lg higher goalsfor'the next general electiqn."says y'ajig Razalf Kassl;n. se­nior fellow at the S. Rajarat­nam School of InternationalStudies, Singapore.

DAP electioil'S strategistLiew Chin Tong says the over­all I1tessage of the speech ,IYa5clear, that Pas is couiinitted'toPakaian ijakyat.

He did notrule out some del­egates interpreting i.t as Paswa,ntingto be in'charge shouldPalcatan oust Barisan Nasion­a1fu2013.

Yang" ~azali says: "I thinkHadi knows that the politicalreality is such that Pas bas togrow in the context of a mul­tiracial setting. But he seemsto want Pas to build up its ownstrength."

That i'3!>:!sgearingitseJfUpto be the ~frongest party in the

-next· general election, even tothe point; <if' being strongenough to provide nationalleadership is clear.

What is not clear is wbetherthis aim is to be achievedthrough the Palmtan opposi­tion coalition, or on its own.

tion," Hadi said in his speechtheineMPas leadirlg cb'j'ilge"when opening the party's 55thmuktamar in Sbab A1am.

Pas 'members, now standingclose to Q'1emillion;bavelong

, boiied" tb': 57-year-Old partywould leadthe country.

There have been voices

from the grassroots that Pas,with: itS experience and

stren~; sliould break awayfrom:the opposition alIi~Ce,as they believe the party canmake it oil its own. '

Sucb'argumentS were heardat last year's muktamar' orgeneral assembly, and is likelyto be repeated when deleg{l.tesdebate the preside.nt's speecbtoday. ' ,

But the bard-line uliima(pned down when pressed byreportersabQ.uthis plan for Pasto become the opposition'sleading party an<! towards'friepost ofprinie ,ruruster if it wiIisenough seats ii1the next gener­al election, saying the a!liirncepractised coll~ctiveleadersilip.

"The political scenario canchange. What's important isprinciple and cooperation, notdefending any individuals,"Hadisaid: ..

On 'I:hurs,day. a delegate atthe Youth assembly called forPas tobe at the forefront in 'the

Is thfs~Pas' hint

it wafntsto go solo?DATUK Serl Abdul HadiAwang's offer in hjs presideD-'tial speech yesterday th'!t.Pas"leads and carries', the man..}date" to rule after' the>nextgeneral election is open- 10 in­terpretations.

It may. put the smile on thefaces of the P!!rty faithful, whothink Pas is'now ready to leadand their president\YilJ De thenext prime minister. '.: It can alsifcause uneasinesSaInongits allies. ': ,~;,:~~"-'" Pas is the Seco)1dla:rg~ po'Iitical party in terms iif.mem-

,bership after Umno but the .opposition alIiartce; Pak.",tan.,Rakyat, in which P¥li J<~aili.Ian Rakyat and DAP are theother components, is being ledbyPJ<R.; Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim,

who is de facto PJ<Rleader andparliamentary oppoSitionleader, has always been ac­cepte<! as the !,\ost likely can­didate'to be priIiIe..',in4)istersbould l'akatan talCe over theFederal60vernnient. "

WhM PaS has:,th,e biggestnel\vork,and a well-organiSedelection inatWnery,:thl jJ,artyremains the smallest-of- thethree opposition parties inParliament, holding 24 ofPakatan Rakvat's 82 seats..PieR has 31.-while DAP, ,de­spite ~i'lg the smallest, has28 seats ..

,"Pas is'ready to offeritself,tolead the change and' bear thetrust of nationalleagership inMa,laysia's multir"fial ~ocietyafter the 13th general elee-

:~_,'~ Sj~'t·;:.~~~->::ii:i:,:;r::::Jutiaidii Yean AtJuuuu .•,

f 49'f"~s,a wuriJ'alistf9L ;,eigtit,year~. H,e,was a

.'pres~s,eda[Y tq, fOfmer .

tiig!ie,~ed!J..c\l~9n ministerDat'l\~M.\l~ap~'. ~ ..Moharneqfroin 2004 to

~.2006:Jul:1aldlis nowa,;restaurat~uit':~ .';;",_:"]:, .;:, ;'ll;~r~

• sonia@nst.com.my

Noor:haire: Actually,those,I9rtd ofiliings are jUst comjJle;mentary to what a studept hasto do. I don't have this problembecause the job is alreadythere for me but looking atfriends and relatives, I feelthey are not trying very hard.

Jobs are there: This is -thetechnological age. where we­have the Internet. There is al-·so the newspaper. Someone Iknow who bas a degre~ doesnot have ajob ...

The problem is he does notwant to read the paper or surfthe Net. He does not think ofthe future and does not antici­pate things ..

When you doo't think aboutthe filture and are not seriousabout getting ajob; and you'recomplacent. there is no moti­vation to find ajob.

There are jobs out there,you just need to make an effortto land one.

about that.It's easier that ,Wayas'we all

come from" different back."grounds, wiTh di.iThrent' auns:and different detefutinatioil'S_

STUDENTSAND

UN~Pl6YMENT

Juhaidi: .Is unemploymentstill aserioUs issue?

, rhl-' g9ye,qunent is h~Iping'11th tr\lining, matching, Uni­veT'lities with industrjes, and

. the Hrnnan"ResourceS Min­

. IStry 'giving its fulLsupportHas that helped? Is it still a bigissue? '

juhaidi; Yea/!, I ~use a

RMl09 phqne 0lugping), Butstudents now· have the, moresoplllsticated phones:

NOorDaire: 'On polarisa­tion,lsee gapS b~,tween differ'ent ethnic gfOl\ps in certainW1iversities.

Sometimes I give tutorialsand I see the MaJays in theback row and the Chinese inthe front row. Tbey don't mix.

1didmy degree in UniversitiSaiI)s Malaysi", Kubang J<ri­an, and we mixed' around andhad noprobl,enis. We IJad dis­cussioI\ 'groups tog~ther andduring our ~mmlinity pro­

j~ts, we were pmed with dif­ferentraceS.- ~:~

I don'tknl)w~\vheie thingswent wrong. After I graduat­ed, I worked in Malacca Hospi­tal with many Chinese doc­tors.

To me, there w~re no prob­lems in terms of communica­tion. In fact 1 can speak Can­tonese. I learnt from them. We,used to go out together andhave discussions together.

juhaidi: Do you think themodule on ethnic relations hasbelped?

Noorhaire: Theoretically,it is very good. Practically, I amnot sure.

On politics, I was aware ofthat on campus, but I never gotinvolved with any party.

Some of my friends tooksides but if they talked about

. politics or who they favoured,a rew of us would just cut thetopic off. We just wouldn't talk

Noorhaire: Should therebe a "reyolution" in the highereducation system?

Juhai~j: Yes. It must be acOil'Sciouseffort. The strategicplan is quite revolutionary in aseil'Se because there was noth­ing like that in the past.

When I was in the HigherEducation Ministry and wemeet students, often only fourissues were raised. The mostimportant was money. Stu­dents always had no money.

Ntunber two was the issue ofpOlarisation;tbree was politicsin the camp!lS. and the fourthwas unemployment.

1would)ike to ,hear your ex­perience' »ith money? Howdid you mix with your friends?

Throughout your years inilIa W1iversity, were you politi­cally aware?

And are, many of yourfriends still jobless? I was ,vitha group of students. and theywere asking me a lot of thingsabout how. I had gone intobusiness.

Later, I asked if they weretaking entrepreneurshipcourses. They said yes but theyalso said the courses were ab­solutely of no use.

They were about to gradu­ate but had no idea where toget a loan, and how to start abusiness.

Noorhaire: Regardingmoney, I think it is up to the in­dividual spending pattern. Ihad a full scholarship from thePublic Service Department.

That scholarship funded myentire degree. I never askedmy mother for anything.

It's how you save and spend.I see now it is more about

image. For me, appearancesdon't mean anything. What isuseful is substance.

The same goes for money .We should not buy things toimpress others ..

it was to give financial assis­tance to rural Malay students.Very quickly, that changed toassistance for rural and urbanMalays in public institutions ofhigher learning.

The argument was thatthere were also poor Malays inthe city. Next it was opened tonon-Malays in public W1iversi­ties and colleges only.

After that, a decision wasmade to include everyone.

When I left the ministry in2006, we were looking atabout RM15.5 billion dis­burSed to 900,000 studentsfrom 1997. ,Repayment wasonly about 30 per cent.

Next yelll' we will probablybe looking a! about RM20 toRM21 billion. I thin.lCby 2015,it might well be RM30 or RM40billion.

Of course, there is repay­ment but the shortfall· is stillbig. The existing model cannot'be sustained.