SERDANG: Local universities are urged to be more innovative and self-sufficient in coming up with programmes for their own expansion towards meeting objectives set under the Universities Transformation Plan (UTP), which is key towards the realisation of the Malaysia Education Development Plan (PPPM) 2015-2025.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said crucial to this evolution will be the local universities themselves moving beyond traditional structures and evolve into more dynamic bodies capable of significantly reducing the burden on the government by being self-sufficient.
"It is very difficult when, as Prime Minister, every year I need to defend the need to not increase the cost of education, when in reality the costs all around it are in fact increasing," said Najib.
"Thus it is the universities and the stakeholders who need to come up with their own programmes to ensure that funding for their own expansion can be generated from within. They all have assets, all of which can be monetised. They need to work towards coming up with ideas that can generate funding and in doing that, help the government," said Najib.
"This is a national policy which we will establish under the national transformation plan towards an advanced economy and beyond," he said.
The Prime Minister gave an opening address before his meeting with the higher education practitioners at the Universiti Putra Malaysia, here yesterday.
Also present were Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh and his deputy Datuk Mary Yap, as well as representatives of all government institutions of higher education.
Idris had earlier briefed delegates of recent milestones achieved by local institutions including the advancement in prosthetic research by Universiti Malaya, which drove Malaysia into a global ranking of second in number of researches in that area behind the United States.
He also announced the new motto of the Malaysian Higher Education system, 'Soaring Upwards', as the PPPM hopes to establish local universities into the top 25 in the world by 2025.
The PPPM, besides targeting top 25 ranked universities by 2025, will also see the need for higher education to be accessible locally to 2.5 million students annually from 1.4 million currently, which Najib again stressed on the importance of universities themselves coming up with their own programmes from expansion.