The King Says...

Hey hey hey, even the King, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail is putting on the pressure to the higher education community to reform itself to improve quality and standards. As reported by Bernama, His Majesty asked university administrators to be prepared to listen to ideas from others although these might not be in line with their aspirations.

"A silent culture is not a healthy culture in an institution of higher education. The ability to view ideas or grievances should be cultivated as this is a platform to practise expressing views at the international arena."

Yang di-Pertuan Agong also asked the local universities to be benchmarked against other established universities (National University of Singapore, anyone?). And in what is can be regarded as a public chiding of our universities:

"Integrity and accountability can be jeopardised by issues such as leadership without clear visions, submission to external pressure, not practising knowledge culture, poor service providers, bribery, breach of trust and graduates who are not competitive and marketable. These issues need to be addressed before any institution can claim its place in the world ranking"

The Minister of Higher Education Datuk Seri Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh was present at the event. But was he listening?