KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 (Bernama) -- The repeal of the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (AUKU) must be followed by the creation of an equivalent legal framework to guarantee the continuity of governance and quality of the country's higher education at the global level.
Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) chief executive officer Prof Datuk Dr Mohammad Shatar Sabran said any changes to the higher education legal framework must be made comprehensively and carefully to avoid gaps in terms of regulations, governance and institutional monitoring.
He said the higher education system needs clear guidelines and procedures to ensure that university management and administration remain orderly and accountable.
"Any decision regarding the abolition of AUKU must be preceded by a comprehensive approach as recommended by the Ministry of Higher Education (KPT), including a comprehensive assessment of the implications of changes to the higher education ecosystem.
"This approach is important to ensure that efforts to strengthen the country's higher education system do not affect the government's agenda to make Malaysia a global education hub," he said in a statement today.
Mohammad Shatar said any proposal to abolish AUKU cannot be viewed lightly because the act is one of the important instruments that provides guidelines and a governance framework for the journey of higher education institutions (IPT).
Mohammad Shatar said the quality of national education today is highly regarded by the world and efforts to build the quality of national education that have been implemented since Merdeka need to be further strengthened.
In this regard, he called on the public to give full trust to KPT in its efforts to discuss matters related to the act.
He said it was also in line with the Malaysian Higher Education Plan (RPTM) 2026-2035 which was launched in January through the agenda of the One Higher Education Act.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, while delivering the PKR Presidential Policy Address in conjunction with the PKR 2026 National Congress yesterday, announced that the government would abolish AUKU to provide greater freedom and democratic space for the student movement in the country.
Anwar said the decision was made following a memorandum and the views of the student leadership who wanted comprehensive changes to AUKU.
-- BERNAMA