“I previously instructed the ministry to allow universities to expand by giving them space to decide on their own priorities.

“The old bureaucratic system where the ministry makes decisions on behalf of universities must end now,” he said at an event at Universiti Malaya.

Anwar encouraged universities to expand certain programmes, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI) studies.

“Although we may have little funds to start with, I would certainly encourage universities to expand their AI programmes.”

He said universities must speed up progress in such fields to keep up with what is happening in the world.

Anwar also called for a review of the nation’s preschool education system to curb the widening social gap.

“If only 80% (of children) attend preschool – with perhaps 40% of them being good, 40% somewhat mediocre and about 20% very weak – it means less than 50% of them are good.

“This means that we are actually widening the gap between urban and rural areas, the urban rich and urban poor, rural poor and remote poor.”

As such, Anwar, who is also finance minister, said preschools under the education ministry need to provide additional facilities for all students in the country, even if this means the government had to bear extra costs.

“Let’s start with the basics, just like how we spent RM1 billion to refurbish school toilets last year,” he added.