UM can’t simply revoke student’s degree, rights group tells professors council

Hakam president Gurdial Singh Nijar says Universiti Malaya’s senate is governed by the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971.

PETALING JAYA: A rights group has panned the suggestion by the National Professors Council (MPN) that Universiti Malaya (UM) has the right to revoke or withhold the degree of a graduand who staged a protest during his convocation ceremony, saying such notions are misconceived in law.

Hakam president Gurdial Singh Nijar said the university’s senate is governed by the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 which provides for the adoption of a prescribed and supreme constitution.

Gurdial, a lawyer and former UM lecturer himself, said under Section 53 of the constitution, the board of directors may recommend the revocation of an awarded degree.

“But this power is circumscribed,” he added. “First, the board must be of the opinion that the graduate is guilty of ‘scandalous conduct’.”

Such a label would only come into play if the student had given false information to obtain his or her degree, he said.

He added that the recommendation must be made by not less than two-thirds of the board members and submitted to the chancellor, who must then give the student an opportunity to be heard before taking any action.

“The protest by the student awarded the degree clearly does not fall within the misconduct for which his degree can be revoked,” he said in a statement.

“Arbitrary action of the sort advocated by MPN on the tail of a similar stance by an NGO is not only against the law, but antithetical to the values of academic freedom and the ethos of a society governed by rule of law.”

Gurdial was responding to MPN president Raduan Che Ros, who said university senates have the authority to approve the award of degrees based on the rules of individual institutions.

His comments came after NGO Penggerak Mahasiswa UM launched a petition on social media urging UM to revoke the diploma of civil engineering student Wong Yan Ke.

Wong had carried a placard on-stage during his convocation ceremony on Monday, calling for the resignation of UM vice-chancellor Abdul Rahim Hashim.

He told FMT he had protested against Rahim as the university’s name had been used for racial and political reasons as one of four institutions which organised the recent Malay Dignity Congress in Shah Alam.

UM subsequently lodged a police report against Wong on grounds that he had disrespected the ceremony and disrupted its protocol.

However, Gurdial said there were other ways of engendering appropriate and respectful behaviour.

“In the final analysis, respect has to be earned, not imposed,” he said. -FMT