Notwithstanding the idea of publicly and privately funded higher education, I thought the idea of granting apex status to the best local university is good. That status works to focus resources into a particular university in order to drastically improve its quality. Improving quality obviously depends on how the money is spent as well as the culture of free inquiry which includes all kind of freedoms. But it is a start nonetheless.
That apex university is currently University Sains Malaysia.
Granted, it may create elitism but higher education should be about elitism. The function of higher education is very different from primary or secondary education. Unlike in primary and secondary levels which function to educate the masses and practicing considerable dose of meritocracy while at it, higher learning institutions should be about intellectual elitism, especially so at upper levels of higher education, in whatever fields that may be. Only the best should be allowed to pass through the gates of ivory towers.
In that spirit, I was under the impression that apex status will only be granted to the best institutions in the country. Never mind the controversy of whether Universiti Sains Malaysia is better than Universiti Malaya but at least these two universities are well-regarded — along with other premiere local universities, namely, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and International Islamic University Malaysia in no particular order; maybe also Universiti Petronas, Universiti Tenaga Nasional and Multimedia University — within local context compared to the rest. The point is that it should only be granted to top tier local institutions.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah has a different idea however.
IPOH: At least three polytechnics will be accorded apex status to change the negative perception that such institutions of higher learning are second choice.
One of the polytechnics might even be alleviated to university status under the Tenth Malaysia Plan, said Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
”Generally, the people still feel that polytechnics are second choice; and polytechnic trainees are second-class students because they failed to enter other institutions of higher learning,” he said yesterday.
The truth was that polytechnic graduates were much sought after by companies, said Saifuddin. [Apex status for three polytechnics, says Saifuddin. The Star. August 18 2009]
From the news report, instead of basing criteria of granting the apex status on meritocracy, the government has plans to use the apex status to change people’s perception of an institution. This is not good.
Instead of becoming a tool of aiding the best rise above the noise and encourage others to up the ante to steal the honor from incumbent holder, it becomes a tool to shape perception. It is not good because it risks debasing the status’ reputation. It just kills the idea that apex status university or institution is the best institution in Malaysia.
This is not to say polytechnics are not automatically a second rated institutions. Malaysians, like what the Minister said, have bad impression of the word polytechnic, be it is applied to local or foreign institutions. Polytechnic can and indeed a great institution. After all, polytechnic is an institution that focuses on technology rather than sciences. In the United States for instance, polytechnics can in fact be universities and they do have magnificent reputation. Rensselaer Polytechnics Institute in New York is one of them. Moreover, many Malaysian forget that the highly-regarded Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California Institute of Technology are in fact polytechnics.
But, the problem is, are Malaysian polytechnics some great institutions deserving of apex status?
Let us do away with the term polytechnic and hypothetically grant all polytechnics the term universities. This is to do away the unfortunate ugly perception the polytechnics entail. Now, given current quality of these hypothetical universities, do they deserve the apex status?
The granting of apex status including, among others, grants for research. Do these hypothetical universities have the skills to do the research?
These hypothetical universities — polytechnics — are really second choice because of their quality, not the term they use.
It is because of their quality that Malaysians associate polytechnics with the idea of second choice, not the other way round. Using the apex status to change perception assumes that the reverse causal relation is true.
Granting apex status to these institutions may work for a while but if standard at these institutions do not improve after some time, Malaysians will realize that the status suffer from inflation and later, dismiss the apex status as a signal of quality altogether.
And when that happens, the whole system will suffer since the best is seen as only as good as, or rather as bad as, these polytechnics.
Any polytechnic, or any institution for that matter, should be granted apex status if and only if it has good quality. If they have the quality, so be it. If they do not, then do not grant them the status.
