Higher education in Malaysia

Education in Malaysia is overseen and under jurisdiction of Ministry of Education (MOE) ,

entrusted to provide quality education to all Malaysian in order to make our country a center of
education exellence as well as to level of education of the citizen especially to the young generation
as they are the future of our country, education is the best way to make Malaysia a better country.
Education of Malaysia are divided into different sector at different age stage, there are
preschool education, primary education, secondary education, post-secondary education and tertiary
education. Malaysia higher education is started at post-secondary education, which is after SPM,
student may apply for higher education either on private or local sector according to the relative
requirements. The higher education sector is responsible for the operation of higher education
institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia and is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Higher Education
(MOHE). An MOE source had state that education in Malaysia always enjoy the most national
development budget which symbolises the commitment of the Malaysian government towards
education which pay hard to achieve the vision and mossion of MOHE, which is to make Malaysia
a centre of higher education excellence by the year 2020 as well as to build and create a higher
education environment that is conducive for the development of academic and institutional
excellence and to generate individuals who are competent, innovative and of noble character to
serve the needs of the nation and the world.
Malaysia's HEIs (i.e. public universities, private higher educational institutions, polytechnics
and community colleges) housed more than a million students in 2011, of which about 93,000 were
international students from more than 100 countries. In contrast, there were about 89,686 Malaysian
students (27,003 receiving sponsorship and 62,683 self-funded) who were studying overseas in
2011. With a multi-ethnic population of about 28.3 million, Malaysia had 20 public universities, 53
private universities and six foreign university branch campuses; 403 active private colleges, 30
polytechnics and 73 public community colleges in 2011. These HEIs offer a wide range of tertiary
qualifications at affordable prices. It is a huge transformation of the higher education sector in
Malaysia when compare to the late 1990s, there were approximately 7 public universities, 200
private colleges and totally no private universities. This dramaticall changes had show that
education in our country is developing well and transformed Malaysia to an education hub,
especially in South Esast Asia. The education business provides a major stream of income to the
national GDP, and the Malaysian government has given considerable attention to developing this
sector.
Recently, government had invest many money in the education sector which can be seen
when education sector enjoy the highest national development budget. Several private scolarship

and education loan either from public or private institution had give a big hand to develop the
higher education sector to a higher level, as more students can continue their further study in higher
education no matter in private or public institution. The arising of higher education institutions also
give more choices to the citizens to choose their best insitution for further study in the most suitable
institution. The chart below had show an regular increasing of the enrolment by level of study in
public and private universities in Malaysia, indicate that there are more and more students involve
in higher education every year.

Chart above had show the difference of enrolment in public and private universities. The
arising private institutions in Malaysia had give more choices for the students, however it doesn' t
affect the number of enrolment of student in public institutional. It is mainly due to the higher cost
and fee of study and higher requirement of private sector. However, there are private colleges have

come out a kid of institutional linkages with foreign universities to offer some different types degree
programs and professional qualifications. Programmers that linked with foreign universities are
known as transnational education programs and including twinning programs, distance learning
programs, credit transfer programs and external degree programs, which mean students can get
foreign certificate although study in Malaysia without going oversea, which help a lot to students
who are not afford to further their study in oversea and indirectly increase the reputation of
Malaysia' s education as foreign universities willing to link with local private institution. (Molly,
2004)
In the 11th Malaysia Plan, some startegies had made to address issues related to the higher
education in Malaysia, that are:
Enhancing Programme Effectiveness and the Quality of Students in Higher Education
Strengthening Research and Innovation for Better Outcome
Attaining excellence in IHE governance
These are important strategies help to develop our higher education system and to forecast and
overcome the problem and issues may faced by the Higher education in Malaysia in the future.
In a conclusion, higher education play an important role in Malysia which it indirectly
decide the future of Malaysia. Therefore, MoE should put more efforts, planning and strategies to
bring our higher education system to a higher level so thus our young generation can get better
education, thats our vision 2020 may come true in the future.

References

Anantha, R.A.A. and Krishnaveni, N. (2012) AN ANALYSIS OF GLOBALIZATION AND

HIGHER EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA. Available at:
http://www.saycocorporativo.com/saycouk/bij/journal/vol5no1/article_15.pdf (Accessed: 13
July 2016).

WebWay E Services (2015) The Malaysian higher education system - an overview.

Available at: https://www.studymalaysia.com/education/higher-education-in-malaysia/themalaysian-higher-education-system-an-overview (Accessed: 13 July 2016).

Transforming Education System (2015) Available at: http://rmk11.epu.gov.my/pdf/strategypaper/Strategy%20Paper%2010.pdf (Accessed: 13 July 2016).