Statement 
by Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Kepong 
on 19.6.2002
in Kuala Lumpur

We propose that the Malaysian Government adopt an effective system to monitor the courses provided by public and private institutes of higher learning, IHL, so that local and foreign students are not shortchanged

The policy of the Malaysian Government is to make this country the centre of excellence in education. The people hope that it can achieve this objective. Meanwhile, foreign students enroll in twinning courses in private IHLs and postgraduate studies in public IHLs.

For example, in 1996, private IHLs took in 1,298 foreign students, reaching 15,003 in 2000 and 13,435 in 2001. They came from China, Indonesia, U.S.A., India and South Korea.

In 1996, public IHLs had 2,565 foreign students mainly in postgraduate courses, going up to 4,770 by 2001. They were from Indonesia, China, Singapore, Sudan and Libya.



MONITOR

IHLs need local and foreign students. This is not just for economic reason, but also academic exchanges or cross-fertilization among local and foreign professors and students. Cross-fertilization promotes excellence.

A centre of excellence in education requires many factors such as merits and ross-fertilization. There must be various talents.

Local media report some students have been shortchanged on entering private IHLs. Some, including those from China, claim that they do not get courses that have been promised. The Education Department must investigate these complaints to find out the truth.

The Education Ministry must have strict monitoring of all courses provided by public and private IHLs to ensure that students will not be cheated. We believe that this type of surveillance ought to be improved. The ministry has to appoint and train reliable personnel to do this job. Does it have enough experts to monitor hundreds of public and private IHLs?