DAP’s youth wing has slammed Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli over his expression of support for the Universities and University Colleges Act (Auku) 1971, calling it a clear contradiction of the principles of institutional reform championed by Pakatan Harapan.
Koh Ling Xian, the wing’s varsity affairs bureau chief, said supporting the autonomy of universities while simultaneously defending Auku was “contradictory”.
“The justification that public universities need Auku because they are funded by taxpayers or government allocations is fundamentally flawed,” he said in a statement responding to Rafizi’s remarks when debating the 13th Malaysia Plan yesterday.
He said repealing Auku did not mean that universities would lose their funding.
“Instead, the government can introduce a new, progressive Higher Education Act that ensures continued funding while guaranteeing genuine autonomy for universities,” he said.
Koh said that in the same debate, Rafizi had proposed a model in which funds would be channelled directly to students and universities granted “full autonomy”.
However, he said the autonomy Rafizi envisioned clashed with the powers granted to the higher education minister under Auku.
“How can ‘full autonomy’ be realised when the Act continues to allow political interference in the appointment of vice-chancellors and university board members?” he said.
He added that the issues highlighted by Rafizi, particularly the education system’s failure to produce the graduates needed for a high-complexity economy, were largely rooted in the continued existence of the Act.
A special committee to study the abolition of Auku was formed in 2019. It found that abolishing the Act would require the drafting of a new constitution for every public university – a time-consuming process potentially disruptive to university operations.
The committee was subsequently disbanded. In March last year, a coalition of student groups called for its revival and the retraction of the amendments made in 2023.
The Universities and University Colleges (Amendment) Bill 2023, which was passed by a majority voice vote in the Dewan Rakyat, involved six provisions to improve governance, from the management of activities to student discipline.
Koh, too, urged the government to re-establish the special committee and to form a technical task force comprising all relevant stakeholders to draft a new Higher Education Act.
“Such reform is critical to ensure that Malaysian universities can move forward and compete on a global stage,” he said.
