[ad_1]
KUALA LUMPUR: The Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) development plan and efforts to produce graduates who handle the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic are likely to be hampered if the 2021 budget allocation to the institution is reduced to the half.
UiTM Center for Media and Information Warfare Studies Director Dr. Ismail Sualman said that as Malaysia’s largest higher education institution with 35 campuses and more than 100,000 students across the country, it requires a great assignment to balance student fees and campus needs.
“When there is a certain reduction, it will hamper our efforts to strengthen UiTM. We are currently aiming to be among the top 500 in the world. If allocations are going to be cut in half here and there, we are concerned it will hamper our planning.
“As the largest and most well-known bumiputera institution, many plans must be implemented to raise the UiTM on par with other leading universities in the world, and that requires the development of infrastructure and digital infrastructure (communication and technology),” he said. said.
UiTM will receive an allocation of RM1.1732 billion, a reduction of almost RM700 million compared to RM1.861 billion announced in the 2020 Budget.
Ismail emphasized that the university still needs to increase research and development for a new online learning curriculum with the Covid-19 pandemic, so that graduates can get a job instead of being unemployed.
Sharing the same sentiment, alumni secretary for mass communications Haniff Ghazali opined that the pandemic had changed everything, including a reorganization of the curriculum as part of preparations for students to face the work environment in the new normal.
“In the Covid-19 era, there will be careers that will disappear and new ones will emerge. Therefore, UiTM needs to develop personality and identity in its graduates if it wants to position them as contributors to the economy.
“It is useless if there is a new ‘wisma’ (building) or office, but the graduates still have their ‘jaguh kampung’ (village champion) mentality and don’t think globally.
“We are complicit if we repeat the same old things when UiTM contributes to the dumping of unemployed graduates in the market. For this reason, the development of education, identity, spirituality and personality is fundamental, not just physical ”, he explained.
Meanwhile, the president of the UiTM Academic Association, Abd Rahim Awang, said that the reduction would affect the teaching and learning process, as well as research opportunities and cooperation with external communities.
This issue was also recently raised by former education minister Maszlee Malik in the Dewan Rakyat in which he believed it would hamper the development of the university and its students.
