No hike in public varsity fees
Published on: Sunday, October 23, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: There will be no increase in public university fees despite the lower operating budget next year. Budget 2017 saw the combined operating budget for public universities slashed by about 19 per cent to RM6.2 billion from RM7.57 billion this year. Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh (pic) said it is part of the Education Blueprint 2015-2025 to reduce the dependency on government funding by public universities from 90 per cent to 70 per cent by the end of the period. ADVERTISEMENT He said in achieving this, the universities were to generate their own income but that the cut was not an excuse to raise fees. "Under the Education Blueprint 2013 – 2025 (Higher Education), it was obvious universities relied up to 90 per cent on government funding to stay afloat. "This is very unsustainable. Many universities all over the world only relied around 40 or 50 per cent on public funds," he said at the Penampang Community College Open Day, Saturday. Citing further cuts are anticipated in years to come, Idris said the release of the Higher Education Ministry's "Purple Playbook" is a guideline on how universities can source to enhance their income and that a Key Performance Indicator had been established some years ago to evaluate each university's performance on this end. ADVERTISEMENT The Purple Playbook is one of three guidelines launched by the Ministry in July this year to look into ways universities can enhance their income. These include publishing their journals, training, alumni pledge, endowment, waqf, unlock assets and commercialisation of products, he said.
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"The professors can use their expertise to generate an income, get research grants while universities can unlock their assets to enhance their income," he said. Also present were the college's advisory committee member Datuk Seri Clarence Bongkos Malakun, Penampang Umno Chief Datuk John Ambrose and the Higher Education Director-General Amir Md Noor. Touching on another budget-related topic, Jusoh said taxi drivers would be out of work whether they like it or not because not only Uber is giving them a hard time but technological breakthroughs such as the driverless vehicle would render drivers obsolete. He added the ongoing field run of the technology in Singapore could see "Uber Driverless" taking to the roads in the next two to three years or so and replacing taxi operations there for good. "This is a sure thing. I was in San Francisco with the Prime Minister some years ago and witnessed the premier ride on a driverless vehicle there. "Whether we like or not, drivers will lose their work due to technology," he said, and likened the problems faced by taxi drivers to the construction of bridges that killed the water taxi businesses when he was younger.Idris admitted that the water taxi operators also raised their grouses to the Government over the bridges much like what the taxi drivers are doing now. "Technology is bound to change the way we live and making it cheaper for people to connect and communicate. "What next? Tyre-less cars like bullet trains in Japan and China? Then what will happen to the rubber tappers?," he asked. Towards this end, he wants college communities to continue to enhance the lives of many by giving the people the skills they need to improve their livelihood. He said college is the institution for life that continues to teach the communities on the latest updates on technologies and how to harness them."This is why we are constructing various community colleges in every parliament constituency," he said. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Earlier, Datuk Amir said the participation of communities in community colleges has hit over two million people across the country. College communities provide the communities the flexibility to take up short and medium term courses in skills and technology and provide access to higher education advancement to diploma level and beyond.