The roles of the universities in the national development of Malaysia

Abstract

Universities in Malaysia have been identified as one of the leading agencies for national development. Like other government institutions universities have to orientate themselves towards meeting national development goals and objectives. Certain roles have been identified and rationalised for them by both academic and government officials. This paper examines the suggested roles of the universities in meeting the education and training objectives as stated in the Third Malaysia Plan, specifically that of expanding their research, planning and implementation capacities. The findings of a questionnaire research study in respect to the perceptions of three groups of population - senior university administrators, senior faculty members and some selected government officials - towards certain suggested roles for the universities are discussed. The findings indicated that there was little disagreement in the opinion of the three groups towards most of the suggestions. However there was a divergence of opinion in respect to three others.