`


THERE IS NO GOD EXCEPT ALLAH
read:
MALAYSIA Tanah Tumpah Darahku

LOVE MALAYSIA!!!


 


Wednesday, December 17, 2014

USM puts the chicken before the egg

Expensive research buildings do not qualify a university as 'Apex'.
COMMENT
31_Oktober_2011_-_USM_salah_guna_peruntukan_S.HarianA barely utilized RM21 million research centre, hardly three years old. Another RM14 million research centre right next to it, still in development due to stalling. A RM314.5 million grant to send USM to the top of the lists as an Apex-status university.
And to think that the university originally asked for a RM789.5 million in grants from the government – your tax dollars – to see it accorded the status of a premier university.
USM claims that is has only received a portion of the RM314.5 million grant that was approved, though it declines to say how big the portion is. Nor has it given any detail as to how it has been used.
Regardless, when your students complain that your shiny new research centre barely has any equipment, it sounds like RM21 million was way too much to spend.
It’s an endemic problem when it comes to ambitious universities, eyes so full of the moon that they trip over the earth. They want the biggest campus, the best architecture, the biggest buildings, all the trappings to lure unsuspecting prospects who think the quality of education matches the money you pay for it. The logic behind it is very simple; the more it looks like a top-class university, the more people think it’ll perform like one.
One would be tempted to explain it as a sort of Napoleon complex, and it may even be true. But the fact is that in the chase after a glorious campus, USM has forgotten the true meaning of an Apex-status university – the quality of the education it imparts.
Education is not necessarily imparted only with high class facilities. You could learn particle physics under a tree with a good professor. Investing in quality educators is the key to improving the reputation of the institution and convincing prospective students that USM is indeed the place to go to should they want quality education.
The status of “Apex” should not be a defined and fluffed by new buildings and ritzy facilities. It should instead be an indicator that the institution is in fact worthy of possessing equipment like a microscope that can see beyond the nano scale. It is the quality of the academic staff that qualifies the university to extravagant government grants, that will push students to attempt research that is ground-breaking and revolutionary, and that will put Malaysia’s USM on the map as relevant and worthy of the status of “Apex”.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.