December 4, 2012
The University: Revisiting a Vision as good as Mission
Comment
by Prof Shad Saleem Faruqi*(11-27-12)@www.thestar.com.my
It is time you look during how a universities can be loyal to their noble job as a counterpart of humanity's good birthright rsther than than be in danger of selecting show over substance. A UNIVERSITY is a church of guidance as good as a warehouse of a believe as good as believe of a past. It is a small box of art, culture as good as science as good as a mir=ror of humanity's good heritage. At a same time it is a laboratory for contrast out a new prophesy of a future.
In some-more than four decades as a teacher, you have witnessed a ebb as good as flow of most educational movements. Some of them give me a feeling which you have been selecting show over substance.
Industrial links: In sequence to rebut a charge which universities have been ivory towers with no tall regard of governmental needs, all universities have fake close relations with a professions, industries as good as commerce. Curricula have been devised to prove Qualifying Boards as good as intensity employers. Students have been compulsory to do durations of apprenticeship. Captains of attention have been mostly recruited as adjunct professors.
All this is laudable. At a same time it contingency be realised which a orientation towards industries as good as a professions distorts university preparation in some ways. A balance is needed.
Lack of magnanimous education: The purpose of universities is to advance believe as good as set up characters as good as not just careers. In their mania with slight veteran goals as good as employability of graduates, most universities adopt curricula which have been bereft of a arts as good as hu! manities . This scarcity as good as misery is accentuated because, distinct most countries, veteran courses in Malaysia do not need a grade during entrance point.
If a university is loyal to a worth, it contingency provide holistic preparation as good as produce well-balanced graduates who have professionalism as good as idealism, an understanding of a realities as good as a prophesy of what ought to be. Merely provision technically-sound though morally-neutral tellurian cogs in an industrial wheel to minister to tall production figures, will not in a prolonged range lead to enlightened growth of tellurian capital or of society.
Research: The consequential core factor in a university's eminence is qualified academicians with proven investigate abilities as good as a solid joining to lead as good as enthuse their wards to transport up a mountain path of knowledge.
A university cannot turn an acclaimed university unless it possesses a vast series of scholars who have been a voice of a professions as good as who not only reflect a light produced by others (knowledge application) though have been in their own right a source of new enlightenment (knowledge generation).
However, importance upon investigate is heading to a series of inauspicious tendencies. Teaching is being neglected. Committed teachers have been being bypassed in tenure as good as promotions in foster of entrepreneuring researchers.
Instead of singling out as good as ancillary good researchers wherever they have been found, a Malaysian approach is to anoint some universities with RU (Research University) status as good as showering them with special grants. Innovators in non-research universities have been thereby prejudiced.
Research has various components: Capacity, Productivity as good as Utility.
The initial (capacity) can be developed. Sadly, mostly it becomes an finish in itself. The second (productivity) does not necessarily follow from a first. The third (utility) is mostly ! lacking. A good understanding of investigate has no impact upon a lessening of a problems of society. Prestige as good as distinction overrule public purpose. We need better criteria for investigate grant eligibility.
Seeking best students: At a risk of sounding heretic, you instruct to contend which this modern mania with seeking "the best students" is not conducive to social justice. Highly motivated, intelligent as good as articulate students have training a pleasure. But what is even some-more satisfying is to take typical students as good as convert them in to unusual persons; to cover typical clay in to functions of art.
It is submitted which entrance points should be flexible. They should be based upon holistic criteria. They should take note of initial environmental handicaps. They should be responsive which equitable access to believe is a factor in tolerable development. They should further a university's purpose to support in social as good as mercantile progress; to cut poverty; to assistance a disadvantaged.
Entry points have been reduction critical than exit points. How a student ends a race is some-more critical than how he/she began it. All universities should be compulsory to run some remedial programmes for under-achievers as good as to rehearse affirmative movement for all marginalised sections of a population.
Over-specialisation: Our system is committed to training some-more as good as some-more upon reduction as good as less. Production of sufficient professionals as good as technocrats for a industries as good as a job marketplace is an overriding role. However there is clear evidence which half or some-more than half of a graduates finish up in roles outside of their university training.
In an age of globalisation, mercantile booms as good as busts, as good as tall stagnation rates, there is a growing disconnect in between what students investigate as good as what their successive careers are.
It is therefore, necessary to si! ght stud ents for multi-tasking, multi-disciplinary approaches; to have split-degree courses; as good as to produce graduates who have career flexibility as good as who have been able to conform to different hurdles during work.
Community service: Universities contingency offer multitude as good as not just by producing graduates for a job-market. All university courses contingency have an maudlin component as good as contingency hover a order in between being people-oriented as good as being profession-oriented.
The curriculum contingency be so devised which staff as good as students have been concerned in a amelioration of a problems of society, in schemes for eradicating poverty, protecting a en-vironment, providing fresh water, charge control, insurance from disease, adult preparation as good as giveaway legal, medical, blurb as good as technical advice.
Tailor-made, short term courses for targeted groups should be devised to enrich lives. These courses should have no formal entrance requirement. Town-gown relations should magnify to links with NGOs, GLCs as good as general groups which have been concerned in rational quests similar to environmental sustainability.
Globalisation: Internationalisation of believe is consequential for humanity's
advancement. However, to be truly global, you contingency not omit citadels of excellence in Japan, Korea, China, India as good as Iran. It retards a progress as good as prevents us from addressing problems peculiar to a clime which a tertiary preparation suffers from a debilitating Western bias.
Our course structures, curricula, textbooks, as good as icons have been all European as good as American. It is as if a whole of Asia as good as Africa is as good as regularly was an egghead desert. The conflicting is true.
Asian universities contingency set up their garlands of believe with flowering plants from most gardens. That would! be loya l globalisation.
* Shad Saleem Faruqi is Emeritus Professor of Law during UiTM
Read More @ Source More Barisan Nasional (BN) | Pakatan Rakyat (PR) | Sociopolitics Plus |
No comments:
Post a Comment