Polytechnics to become varsities

Minderjeet Kaur

PUTRAJAYA: After colleges and teachers’ training institutes, polytechnics are to be turned into universities soon.

Three polytechnics in Selangor, Perak and Johor were yesterday named as the country’s premier vocational institutions and will be turned into polytechnic universities in five years.

They are Politeknik Sultan Salahuhuddin Abdul Aziz Shah in Selangor, Politeknik Ungku Omar in Perak and Politeknik Johor Baru.

These polytechnics will add to the 20 public universities and some 40 private universities in the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also education minister, said the move was to improve the status of polytechnics and attract students with good grades to do degree courses.

He said niche courses such as biotechnology and nano technology should be introduced to attract these students.

He said at present, students with lower grades or those who did not want to continue their education in universities, registered at vocational institutes or polytechnics.

“These places should not be the second or third choice for weak students. I hope by offering degree courses, students who have the potential will join them,” he said after launching the Transformation of Polytechnics programme here yesterday.

There are now 27 polytechnics with 86,000 full-time students. The first polytechnic was set up in 1969 and 300,000 students have benefited.

Muhyiddin said most countries were offering degree-level courses in vocational studies.

“These are becoming important.

For our country’s new economic model, we need manpower specialised in new areas.” Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khalid Nordin said the transformation plan would change the way people viewed polytechnics.

“We want them to be an alternative to other public universities. It should be competitive.” Khalid said the ministry was planning to introduce twinning programmes with local and foreign universities to expand the courses taught at polytechnics.

He hoped this would lead to at least 34 per cent of polytechnic students holding master’s degrees or PhDs.

“We are hoping to kick-start the transformation with the premier polytechnics. In time, there will be more and more premier polytechnics to help the country meet its needs.”

Source

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/20100226082555/Article/index_html