KUALA LUMPUR: The Higher Education Ministry has established the Private Higher Education Institution Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah IPTS) in recognition of the strategic economic growth industry.
Minister Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad said the task force, comprising officials from government agencies and private higher education institutions (IPTS), would identify issues and challenges by the institutions and seek the best solution to ensure that they prosper and remain competitive on the global stage.
"I understand that our IPTS ecosystem is still plagued by several issues pertaining to inflexible policies and regulations, high cost of promotion and unsustainable financial management. This situation is compounded by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic," she said at the ministry's monthly assembly yesterday.
She said the Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities (Mapcu) has predicted student enrolment to drop by 84.1 per cent, with RM6.9 billion in estimated losses.
She said apart from public universities, IPTS played an important role in the higher education ecosystem with its significant contribution to the country's economic growth, or RM31.5 billion in courses fees and students' cost of living.
Noraini said the ministry had also established the Pemandu committee and technical committee to improve governance at public higher education institutions.
"The Auditor-General's report previously showed that there were repeated issues at higher education institutions that could be improved, particularly in financial management, project management, governance of subsidiaries and other matters."
Noraini hoped that the committee would serve as a platform for discussion among the ministry's top management and public universities in seeking solutions to improve the governance of universities.
Noraini said the entrepreneurial agenda at higher learning institutions should be empowered, given a fresh look and content to produce competitive entrepreneur graduates, who possess the mental fortitude to face career challenges.
To achieve that, she said higher education institutions must review their curriculum and academic programmes to ensure that entrepreneurship dimensions could be mainstreamed.
She said the ministry was hoping to double its initiatives to provide new skills or enhance existing skills among graduates through reskilling and upskilling programmes, apart from focusing on matching graduates' skills with industries.
"This could be done through a strategic collaboration approach with government agencies, institutions or any relevant bodies."
The minister was referring to the Department of Statistics' findings which showed a 3.9 per cent unemployment rate in March from 3.3 per cent in February. - BERNAMA