This is the advice of an international expert in socio-economic development in Southeast Asia.
Prof Patrick Ziegenhain, a visiting professor at Universiti Malaya’s (UM) Asia-Europe Institute, was referring to the reduction in the budget allocated to the higher education ministry for this year.
Last October, in tabling Budget 2017, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that funding for the higher education ministry was set at RM6.117 billion. This was down from the RM7.575 billion allocated in 2016.
Commenting on the budget cuts, Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh explained at the time that it was in line with the government’s plans to reduce public university reliance on public funds which had reached 80-90% and was unsustainable.
He noted that though the funds for operational expenditure had reduced, funding for development expenditure had been increased to RM1.034 billion or about 157%.
Ziegenhain pointed out that Indonesia had instead put greater emphasis on higher education.
“In Indonesia, they are increasing the budgets for universities. In fact, the funding for higher education in Indonesia is better than ever before.
“This is why you can see the works of more Indonesian academicians being published in reputable journals.
“The Indonesian government is giving financial incentives to local scholars for international publications,” Ziegenhain, from Germany, said.
According to a 2015 article on Indonesian news site, republika.co.id, the financial incentive is Rp100 million (RM32,900).
He said in recent years, Indonesian universities had started catching up with Malaysian universities.
Ziegenhain said according to the 2016 EF English Proficiency Index, Malaysia was ranked 12 (high proficiency) in the world for English proficiency, ahead of Philippines at 13 (high proficiency), Vietnam at 31 (moderate proficiency) and Indonesia at 32 (moderate proficiency).
But Ziegenhain said in 2011, Indonesia was ranked 34 (very low proficiency) and Vietnam was ranked 39 (very low proficiency), and that the progress of both countries was reflected in the 2016 rankings.
Ziegenhain said while Malaysia was still ahead of its neighbours when it came to higher education, it shouldn’t be cutting the budget allocated, as public universities were a key factor in a country’s ability to further progress.
Following the reduction in the higher education ministry’s budget for this year, public universities were badly affected, with some losing millions in funding.
Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) alone suffered cuts of RM563.07 million, while Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) suffered budget cuts of at least RM100 million each.
Subsequently, a group of university students, led by activist Anis Syafiqah Yusof, called on Putrajaya to review the reduced budget set aside for public universities nationwide.
FMT also notes that Universitas 21, the leading global network of research universities, ranked Malaysia in the 13th spot, ahead of Indonesia, Thailand and Japan when it came to government allocation for universities.