De La SalleUniversity - Manila

Ramon V. Del Rosario

College of Business

MALAYSIA’S HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM: ASSESSING ITS STRENGTHS AND

WEAKNESSES

Submitted by:
ARRIENDA, Brienne Therese B.
FERRO, Ma. Francesca Denise G..
PARANADA, Jose Gabriel M.
TACCAD, Nicole Kaye T.
VIADO, Stefano Emil Raphael C.

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Course Requirement for

The Filipino and Asean (LCASEAN)

Term 1 A.Y. 2021 - 2022

Submitted to:
Date Submitted:
February 08, 2022
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I. ABSTRACT

Malaysia’s Higher Education is one of the many successes of their country as it focuses
on providing education to every social class. However, as ambitious Malaysia is to its projects
there are strengths and weaknesses to their development. This includes the implementation of IR
4.0 coursework and 2u2i academic program and having the challenge to prepare its students for
future job prospects during the digital age. These strengths and weaknesses regarding their
higher education system (HES) add to the existing hindrance of students to achieving academic
success. These weaknesses include discrimination of race, change of language, and the
pandemic. Nevertheless, in these weaknesses, there are solutions to each category such as
educating teachers regarding race, preserving the Malay language, and providing help for online
setup. In order to achieve Malaysia’s educational goals, the government must look into ASEAN’s
existing policies and suggestions to maximize the resources they have right now to develop a
better educational experience for their students. Ultimately, this case study assesses the
weaknesses in Malaysia’s higher education system and how this could ultimately affect their
student's development in the real world, while also exploring the possible ASEAN strategies to
strengthen their socio-economic goals.

Keywords: Malaysia, higher education, strengths, weaknesses

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II. INTRODUCTION
Malaysia’s Higher Education System
Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia are managed and supervised by
the Malaysian higher education sector, which is overseen by the Ministry of Higher
Education (MOHE). The country's education sector has traditionally received the largest
national development budget, reflecting the Malaysian government's dedication to
education. In 2011, Malaysia's higher education institutions (HEIs), which include a wide
range of universities in the country, accommodated over a million students, including
93,000 overseas students from over 100 countries and as well as 89,686 Malaysian
students. According to research, given Malaysia's large population of people of many
ethnicities, there are around 20 public universities, 53 private universities, and 6 foreign
university branch campuses, as well as 403 active private colleges, 30 polytechnics, and
73 public community colleges (WebWay E Services, n.d.).

In research from Grapragasem (2013), Malaysia's educational system has

undergone significant changes. Because of the British colonization of the nation,
schooling was primarily informal, with the purpose of acquiring fundamental survival
skills. A well-structured education policy was formed after several years, on the other
hand. The parliament approved the Education Act of 1966, which established the
National Education System. Through the employment of a unified syllabus and
curriculum, the Malaysian government has managed to use education to ensure the
country's unity and nation-building.

The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) has managed to develop a key

strategic plan for the country called "The Strategic Plan for Higher Education: Laying the
Foundation Beyond 2020." In relation to this, "Laying the Foundation," "Strengthening &
Enhancement," and "Excellence" are the four stages of the strategy, which cover distinct
time periods. Furthermore, this aids the Malaysian government in achieving its goal of
repositioning education for accessibility of academic learning for the public while also
achieving excellence, with the support of MOE. They are also utilizing this to achieve
their aim of assisting the socioeconomically underprivileged while simultaneously
attaining excellence in the development of human capital (Sidhu & Singh, 2008).

Strengths and Weaknesses

In Malaysia, it is the responsibility of the government to provide quality education

to its masses. This country’s Higher Education System (HES) is one of its defining
strengths since its educational frameworks provide opportunities to every student.
Students in Malaysia are favorable for the HES as it not only helps their career
development but also provides a healthy atmosphere of academic excellence, quality
education, and extracurricular activities which positively impacts their studies
(Krishnaswamy, 2019). Moreover, the government plans to improve this academic
success by adapting to IR 4.0, which focuses on incorporating 21st-century materials into
academic learning. One initiative that focuses on IR 4.0 is Massive Open Online Course
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(MOOCs), which is an online learning system that provides a variety of free online
courses and disciplines to students worldwide. This initiative is significant to the HES of
Malaysia as students can easily access quality education anywhere around the world
(Albelbisi & Ysuop, 2020). Another framework that strengthens Malaysia’s HES is the
2u2i academic program which focuses on employment training. This framework helps
better prepare its students for the real world as there will be two years of academic
learning and two years of industrial training (Lawrence, Ching, and Abdullah, 2019).
These educational plans of the Malaysian government will help their country be
competitive and relevant in the emergence of IR 4.0 and will help them stay aligned with
global trends.

However, despite Malaysia’s advance plans to its educational system, there are
some weaknesses in the HES that may hinder the progress of its students and learnings. A
survey conducted by Ghasemy et.al reflects the challenges of the Higher Education
System which includes “Staff Affairs Management; Finance, Budgeting, Grants, &
Fundraising; Time Management; and Achieving Goals, KPIs, & Standards.” (2018).
These weaknesses may harm the educational development of a student as these key
points are needed to keep the university afloat. Additionally, since Malaysia is planning
to adapt the HES to IR 4.0 this new system may not even fully prepare its students for the
digital age as these jobs have yet to be created (Lawrence, Ching, and Abdullah, 2019).
The weaknesses Malaysia faces in its HES mainly concerns the facility and future job
prospects which needs to be addressed in the near future for the success of their students.

III. DISCUSSION

The history of issues in Malaysian education started with the British government.
In this it focuses on uniting all races with one language. The Malaysian Education
System, upon receiving the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). The equivalent to the 0-level
results there are several options for students available for students to continue their
education. In their system it is really hard for students to achieve it and some have a hard
time in their education. The reasons may be from language, race and more. One also big
reason why the students right now may have a hard time in education is because of the
pandemic. The sudden pandemic left a lot of questions in life and stopped everything,
even the education of all.

Race

The Malaysian government implemented an action program in which 55% of

university schools will be for Bumiputeras and the remaining 45% is for Chinese and
Indian students. This caused an issue for the Chinese and Indian students because of how
they were discriminated against. Then in 2010, the Indian community was surprised by
how low their students enrolled for public universities. It became low from 2% to 3%.
The students or Indian students cover about 5% to 10% of the meritocratic system used
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by universities. We can see that in Malaysia there is division in how students are treated
and maybe from that students tend to not do well in university.

Language

Language is always important for all of us. For Malaysia, they made some
changes in language for their education. In 2002, they implemented that in teaching
Science and Math, English will be the language used for those subjects. They
implemented this so that they will not be left behind by other countries using the
language in those subjects. This policy received a lot of criticism by Malay linguists and
activists. They fear that in this policy the usage of Malay language will not be used
anymore in the country. Even the Chinese education groups opposed this policy. So in
2009 the government announced that the policy will be reversed and will use Malay again
as the language used in both Math and Science.

Pandemic

With the virus unexpectedly interrupting our normal lives, it did make a huge
impact in the education system of all. Physical classes were cancelled. People were
worried about how education would continue during these tough times. The solution for
that was the online setup. Schools adjusted to the online setup. The activities they are
giving are appropriate for the setup. The problem with this is that not everyone has a
stable wifi connection. They also don’t have the necessary gadgets and space for an
online school. This can affect a lot of students and even teachers. Another problem is that
the mental health the students will be experiencing will be hard. Studying all day and
being only on your computer cannot help you at all. They will stay out of focus especially
when you have a family who is sick.

Table 1

Solution 1: Educators' knowledge of human rights and race must be developed, trained,
and put into practice
Strengths Weaknesses

● Biases in the educational ● Possibility for educators to focus

community would be reduced
since human rights are utilized to
support this.
● Educators have the ability to influence
students' mindsets and actions.
on one racial issue over another
issue due to preference or
familiarity.
● If promoting human rights and
equality during class was done
poorly some students may take
the educators efforts to offence.
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Opportunity Threat

● Have them attend a seminar to ● Some educators may oppose to the

attend to certain issues. required seminar due to difference in
beliefs.

Table 2

Solution 2: Preserving the Malay language and reinforcing the English language policy
Strengths Weaknesses

● The incorporation of Malay and ● Students have little to no interest in

English language within the teaching learning and preserving their local
and learning process. language.
● Not everyone is capable of studying
● Students will be given more another dialect.
exposure to their native language.

Opportunity Threat

● With a broad knowledge of their ● Different language/s

native language, students could utilize
this to strengthen their nation.

Table 3

Solution 3: Adjustment to the online setup

Strengths Weaknesses

● Easy access to online learning ● With the online setup being used for
materials that will positively help the over a year now, students are used to
students. looking at their computers everyday,
● Low price and free online courses for they tend to lose motivation and focus
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all learners. in doing school work and may affect

● Convenient for everyone their mental health.

Opportunity Threat

● To look for innovative ways to keep ● Online learning is not everyone’s

students engaged in school work. Look cup of tea.
for creativity from the school and the ● Students dealing with mental
teachers. issues.

IV. PLAN OF ACTION

Education, particularly higher education, has been prioritized as a key strategy for
advancing the ASEAN-Socio Cultural Community and ensuring ASEAN's continuing
economic integration by 2015. In several official declarations, higher education in the
region has been identified as one of the crucial initiatives to improve human resource
development in the region. Moreover, the revised ASEAN Work Plan on Education
2021-2025 was adopted by ASEAN member state education ministers in May of 2021.
Greater regional capacity in higher education as part of lifelong learning provision,
strengthened role of higher education institutions in lifelong learning, and sustained and
strengthened ASEAN capacity in higher education harmonization are all expected
outcomes of the new Work Plan's higher education components. In 2009, an ambitious
strategy was launched with the goal of establishing a systematic mechanism to facilitate
university integration across Southeast Asia. The four key priorities for harmonizing the
ASEAN higher education system, which includes 6,500 higher education institutions and
12 million students in 10 countries, were recognized as quality assurance, research
clusters, student mobility, and credit transfers (Olds, K., & Roberston, S., 2014).

According to Equal Rights Trust (2012, November), the reason for discrimination
against different ethnicities in Malaysia, particularly in the Chinese and Indian
communities, is due of their socioeconomic level, which influences the inequality in
students' learning. Furthermore, students are disadvantaged by the government's unequal
financial assistance, which favors Malay schools and students solely. In this regard, one
component of the legal framework's inadequacy is Malaysia's poor involvement in major
United Nations treaties pertaining to equality rights. Hence, the group's proposed action
plan is to reduce, and eventually eliminate, the identification of race with economic
structure through stronger laws implemented by the Malaysian government, as well as
joining direct international and regional human rights treaties with the help of the
ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights in order to enhance the protection of the right to
equality, and to play an integral part in strengthening the regional human rights system at
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the ASEAN level.

Furthermore, education in Malaysia has issues in terms of language, the

COVID-19 pandemic, and general higher education, which are currently being addressed
by the Malaysian government. In addition, the group would choose to propose a plan of
action for these challenges concerning Malaysian higher education. Given that not all
students speak Malay or English as their first language, one step would be to include both
the Malay and English languages in their educational system. Malaysia's primary school
education system is classified into three types: national schools (Malay), type C schools
(Chinese national type), and type T schools (Tamil national type). As a response, it is
significant to combine different types of schools to study English as well, in order for
students to effectively adapt to the development of a global community. Students should
recognize the significance of being able to communicate in English because it will help
them in their communication skills as they can use this in their future employment as an
useful tool for the realization of ASEAN Community 2015 so that they will not face a
disadvantage in reaping the benefits of the ASEAN community.

During the current COVID-19 epidemic, Malaysia has adopted e-learning to

manage the pandemic and continue offering effective teaching and learning at their HEIs,
however students have found it challenging to adjust to the new mode of learning. In this
situation, HEIs should be able to demonstrate good efficiency and transparency to
stakeholders by conducting a survey that includes students' concerns and challenges with
online learning, and then taking actions on the results of the survey. Nevertheless, in
order to further enhance Malaysia's higher education, they should undertake future
qualitative and quantitative research studies to analyze the existing online learning
strategy and to what degree online learning is favored by lecturers and students, with the
support of continuous evaluation and re-strategizing of the ASEAN community's action
plan.

V. CONCLUSION

Malaysia's Higher Education is one of the numerous accomplishments of their country as it

centers around giving instruction to each friendly class. In any case, as aggressive Malaysia is to
its ventures there are qualities and shortcomings to their works. This incorporates the execution
of IR 4.0 coursework and 2u2i scholastic program and having the test to set up its understudies
for future work possibilities during the computerized age. These qualities and shortcomings with
respect to their Higher Education System (HES) add to the current impediment of understudies to
making scholastic progress. These shortcomings incorporate separation of race, change of
language, and the pandemic. In order to incorporate change throughout the country, the change
must start from within and work its way up from there. These are complications that need to be
addressed collectively, not individually. The aid that is being offered by ASEAN is a good step
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towards a better education system that will make Malaysia a finer and greater country for the
current and next generations to come.
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VI. REFERENCES

Albelbisi, Nour & Yusop, Farrah. (2020). SWOT Analysis on The Implementation of
MOOC In Malaysia Higher Education.

Equal Rights Trust. (2012, November). Washing the Tigers Addressing Discrimination
And Inequality In Malaysia.
https://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/Malaysia%20CR%201.pdf

Ghasemy, M., Hussin, S., Megat Daud, M. A., Md Nor, M., Ghavifekr, S., &
Kenayathulla, H. B. (2018). Issues in malaysian higher education: A quantitative
representation of the top five priorities, values, challenges, and solutions from the
viewpoints of academic leaders. SAGE Open, 8(1), 215824401875583.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018755839

Grapragasem, S. (2013). ERIC - EJ1067468 - Current Trends in Malaysian Higher

Education and the Effect on Education Policy and Practice: An Overview,
International Journal of Higher Education, 2014. Current Trends in Malaysian
Higher Education and the Effect on Education Policy and Practice: An Overview.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1067468

Issues in Malaysian Education | K12 Academics. (2013). K12 Academics.

https://www.k12academics.com/Education%20Worldwide/Education%20in%20
Malaysia/issues-malaysian-education

Krishnaswamy, J., Hossain, Z., Kavigtha, M. K., & Nagaletchimee, A. (2019, April 8).
What matters for higher education success of private educational institutions?
senior students' perceptions in Malaysia. Journal of Applied Research in Higher
Education. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JARHE-07-2018-0142/full/
html

Lawrence, R., Ching, L. F., & Abdullah, H. (2019). Strengths and weaknesses of
Education 4.0 in the Higher Education Institution. International Journal of
Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 9(2S3), 511–519.
https://doi.org/10.35940/ijitee.b1122.1292s319

Olds, K., & Roberston, S. (2014, April 13). Towards harmonization of higher education
in Southeast Asia. Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Career Advice,
Jobs.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/globalhighered/towards-harmonization-hig
her-education-southeast-asia

Sidhu, G. & Singh, M. (2008) Addressing global challenges in higher education.

https://www.cedol.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/149-151-2009.pdf
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WebWay E Services. (n.d.-b). The Malaysian Higher Education System - An Overview.

StudyMalaysia.Com.
https://www.studymalaysia.com/international/the-national-education-system/the-
malaysian-higher-education-system-an-overview