Higher Education and Socioeconomic Development in Malaysia:
A Human Resource Development Perspective

by

Introduction

One of the early government publications to document the overall and long term objectives of education in Malaysia was the Second Malaysia Plan (2MP, 1971). These objectives, which focus on four areas, have been used to guide all national development plans. They are to:

1. Consolidate the education system to promote national integration and unity;
2. Orientate and expand education and training programmes towards meeting the manpower needs of the country;
3. Improve the quality of education for the building of a progressive society oriented towards modern science and technology; and
4. Improve research, planning and implementation capability to meet the above objectives.

Based on the above guiding principles, the objectives of Malaysia's higher education system may be summarized as follows:

1. To promote national integration and unity;
2. To meet the high-level manpower requirements of the country; and
3. To build a progressive society, oriented towards modern science and technology.
   

The focus of this paper is on the second and third objectives of higher education, viz., meeting high-level manpower needs for the country's socioeconomic development, and building a progressive society, oriented towards science and technology. The last forty years saw dramatic growth of higher education, measured in many ways: physical infrastructure, faculty and student enrolment, and the diversity of curricula, reflecting a diversity of objectives or directions to take in the next millenium.

Since political independence in 1957, when Malaysia¹ had only one university, the country has adopted nine 5-year economic development plans, reflecting a philosophy that economic development should not be left entirely to free market forces. The initial phase of socioeconomic development (in the sixties and seventies) emphasized the rural or agricultural sector, aimed at uplifting incomes, employment and educational opportunities. During the eighties and nineties, emphasis shifted to the development of manufacturing, industrial and service sectors. In the next millenium, there are clear indications that Malaysia wants to develop and apply information technology and produce more knowledge workers. For example, the development of the Multimedia Super-Corridor² is intended to move the country in this direction. Furthermore, there are now eleven public universities and three private ones, besides scores of private colleges (564 altogether), to propel the country towards this goal. Almost all of these institutions make information technology a required subject of study.

The objectives of this paper are to: (1) trace the development of higher education in Malaysia since independence; (2) trace the path of socioeconomic development in the country; (3) establish the interdependence between growth in higher education and socioeconomic development, and (4) highlight the specific role of universities in the human resource development in the country.

 

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