Five Universities Given Autonomy To Excel- Minister

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- Universiti Malaya (The University of Malaya), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia), Universiti Sains Malaysia (University of Science, Malaysia), Universiti Putra Malaysia (Putra University, Malaysia) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (University of Technology, Malaysia) have been given the autonomy to become innovative and competitive institutions, said Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin Thursday. He said the four aspects covered by the autonomy were governance, finance, human resource, academic management and student intake. "The autonomy was given with the aim that there would be no more excuses for the universities not to excel. And to excel, they must have autonomy and not be tied down by government rules and processes," he said during a press conference after delivering a 2012 new year message to his ministry at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, here. Although student intake would still be managed by the Universities Admissions Unit, the five institutions have been given the power to review criteria, and to select and announce results based on students' first preference. Mohamed Khaled said the ministry would continue to fine tune the implementation of the powers to prevent overlap, particularly in the process of student selection. On another development, he said the ministry lodged a report at the Putrajaya police headquarters yesterday, in relation to the alleged sales of 1Malaysia Book Vouchers, as reported in the newspapers. "A finance officer from the ministry has lodged a police report yesterday. We obtained information from several websites on offers to cash in the vouchers. We hope it'll be investigated by the police," he added. He was commenting on reports which had surfaced on university students misusing the vouchers by selling it on the internet or using them to buy reading material which were not beneficial. --BERNAMA