RETHINKING HIGHER EDUCATION GOVERNANCE: LEADERSHIP, ACADEMIC INTEGRITY, AND POLICY CHALLENGES IN MALAYSIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJEPC.1163068Keywords:
Academic Governance, Higher Education Leadership, Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), Private Universities, Quality AssuranceAbstract
This paper discusses the critical function of academic experience, academic expertise, and knowledge of quality assurance agencies such as the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) for vice-chancellors and deputy vice-chancellors. The increasing number of non-academics appointed to senior management positions in private universities has fostered a series of universal issues because of a declining governance foundation, academic integrity, and the further marketisation of education. Evidence from compliance reports, public inquiries, and policy review has confirmed that the focus on profit over pedagogy is having a detrimental impact, resulting in decreased quality of teaching, the failure of quality assurance to be effective, and decreased quality of graduates. These failures of educational leadership have immediate ramifications and heightened implications over the short and long term for decreased institutional reputation, employment opportunities for potential graduates, and destruction of public confidence in the higher education system. Educational technology is often an investment wasted by leaders who lack or do not have an academic background or knowledge, which disrupts what could be a pedagogical transformation, turning life into extensive marketing, which means there is less chance for education. Due to the ongoing promotion of this pattern and without any tighter regulation and intervention, Malaysia may end up with a two-tier structure to its education, which separates the academically managed institutions from “credential factories” to profit from students. This paper also offers recommendations for a restructuring of leadership positions, academic governance, and innovating a transparent and sustainable governance system to clarify the underlying purposes of higher education, as well as its actual existence, to protect and transfer knowledge to develop and advance society. This study adopts a policy-oriented narrative review approach, synthesising secondary sources to provide a conceptual analysis of higher education governance.
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