Is privatising public universities a prescription for deeper decline?

 

MALAYSIA’S higher education sector stands at a precipice. Public universities, once pillars of national aspiration and social mobility, grapple with chronic underfunding and now, whispers and actions point towards a radical solution: privatisation.

Framed as a path to financial sustainability and competitive autonomy, this shift is presented as a necessary evolution but is privatising our public universities truly a healthy development, or a dangerous gamble that risks exacerbating the very decline it purports to solve?

Is mixing public and private healthy? The popular view is no. Instead, private higher education should be left to the fully private universities, which have demonstrated recognised global credibility.

Proponents offer solid rationale: Public coffers are strained and universities suffer under bureaucratic government controls, stifling innovation in hiring, curriculum development, and research focus.

Privatisation, the logic goes, would free universities from such shackles, allowing them to raise tuition fees, attract corporate partnerships, and commercialise research more aggressively.

Professor Datuk Dr Ahmad Ibrahim

Universities are free to set salaries to attract top talent, design relevant programmes quickly, and manage resources efficiently without layers of red tape.

With more resources and autonomy, universities could invest in cutting-edge facilities, recruit star academics, enhancing Malaysia’s reputation.

While it sounds easy, this seductive vision hides profound risks for a nation wrestling with inequality and the core purpose of public education with the most glaring danger being the gutting of accessibility.

Public universities are the primary gateway for students from B40 and M40 families. Privatisation inevitably means significantly higher tuition fees.

This risks creating a two-tiered system: premium education for the elite, and underfunded alternatives—or no tertiary education at all—for the less affluent.

This directly contradicts Article 12 of the Federal Constitution and decades of national policy aimed at widening access. Social mobility, already strained, would suffer a severe blow. When universities become financially autonomous corporations, the pressure to generate revenue becomes paramount.

This risks distorting their core mission. Will lucrative programmes flourish while crucial but less profitable fields wither? Does research prioritise quick commercial wins over fundamental, long-term inquiry vital for national progress?

Privatisation doesn’t automatically eliminate bureaucracy; it often replaces state control with complex corporate governance and shareholder pressures. Who then ensures these newly private entities remain accountable to the public interest?

Robust mechanisms to prevent profiteering, protect academic freedom, and ensure fair representation in governance are essential but challenging to design and enforce. While potentially attracting some international stars with higher salaries, privatisation could accelerate the exodus of local talent.

(Image: mStar)

Academics and students facing skyrocketing costs domestically may find opportunities abroad—even in neighbouring countries offering quality public education—far more attractive. This hollows out the national intellectual core.

Privatisation treats the symptom but ignores the deeper disease. Much of the current malaise stems from historical underfunding by the state itself, politicised appointments, administrative bloat, and sometimes rigid adherence to outdated pedagogical models.

Simply changing the ownership structure without tackling these internal inefficiencies and ensuring adequate, stable public investment in national human capital is unsustainable.

The challenges facing Malaysian public universities are real. However, privatisation of public universities is not the answer, with potentially catastrophic social costs.

A healthier approach demands courageous reform within the public framework whereby the state must recommit to higher education as a strategic national investment, not a cost centre.

This requires sustained, significant budget increases tied to performance metrics focused on quality, research impact, graduate employability, and equity, not just rankings.

Universities should be granted substantial operational autonomy—in hiring, finance, curriculum—while remaining publicly owned and funded. They should also establish independent, merit-based boards with strong academic representation. Autonomy must be paired with clear accountability frameworks focused on public good outcomes.

Universities must further be encouraged to supplement, not replace, public funding through ethical research commercialisation, endowments, executive education, and alumni partnerships without compromising access through exorbitant fees for core undergraduate programmes.

(Image: The Malaysian Reserve)

Needs-based scholarships must be massively expanded. Universities must aggressively tackle internal inefficiencies, reduce administrative bloat, modernise teaching methods, and foster truly meritocratic cultures.

Streamlining bureaucracy is crucial, regardless of funding source. Curriculum and research must be realigned to address Malaysia’s specific challenges—sustainable development, technological leapfrogging, social cohesion, and ethical governance—rather than slavishly following global trends.

Privatising Malaysia’s public universities is not a healthy development but a desperate gamble with the nation’s future human capital. While the quest for financial sustainability and autonomy is valid, sacrificing equity, accessibility, and the core public mission is a profound mistake.

True health for our higher education sector requires renewal: a recommitment to robust public funding coupled with deep, courageous internal reform and a steadfast focus on serving all Malaysians.

We need universities that build the nation, not just balance sheets. The alternative is not progress, but a deeper, more entrenched decline which is better to empower the nation’s 100% private universities. 

The author is affiliated with the Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy Studies at UCSI University and is an Adjunct Professor at the Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Universiti Malaya.

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.

-nFocus Malaysia.