5S and digitalisation revitalise Higher Education

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Disclaimer : Perpustakaan Tun Abdul Razak, UiTM

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5S and digitalisation revitalise Higher Education

UNIVERSITIES worldwide face unprecedented challenges due to Covid-19.

In Malaysia, fragility of university leaders can be seen on how they handle Covid -19 pandemic.

Students lamented on full fee payment but they cannot use university's facilities – students were asked to learn at home.

Several universities have offered fee discount which is reasonable. However, the idea of going to university to acquire new knowledge and skills is disrupted. Online technology alone is not the magic solution. Online learning without "human touch" is education without soul.

Recently, I read two masterpieces on higher education, Chris Brink's the Soul of a University and the other one by Clark Kerr – Higher Education: Paradise Lost? Both scholars deliberated on the altruistic meaning of a university and why that meaning is lost.

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Based on Platonic, Newmanian and Humboltian ideas of a university – raison d'etre for a university is to build scholarly community as a vehicle to build human civilization by advancing beneficial knowledge via academic freedom and autonomy. University is the bedrock of intellectualism.

However, government, financially constrained, expects public universities to shoulder part of the financial undertaking while employers want universities to become more responsive and less introspective – to become the engine of growth for social and economic prosperity.

Due to the budget cut, some high quality and renowned professors are eventually replaced by novice lecturers or even part-time or contract lecturers to save the operational budgets. In addition, feedback from employers who interviewed our graduates indicated that our graduates lack of robust communication skills, poor critical and analytical thinking, limited reading, and lack of wisdom.

With the advent of IR 4.0 and the digital transformation dominating the education and t raining landscape. The quality and skills of our university graduates are important to the success of economic transformation. Hence, a pertinent question to ask is: Are we preparing our university students for IR 4.0? Anecdotal evidence shows that the Artificial Intelligence (AI) talents among Malaysians are still low.

How many of our graduates and engineers who can design sophisticated robot, drones, or autonomous vehicles? Besides the advanced countries, comparable countries such as Turkey and Iran have developed their own capability to manufacture their own sophisticated drones that are capable of competing with US and European military drones. How many Malaysian

universities and companies that have labs that can produce smart drones or smart humanoid robots such as Sophia, Jia, or Ross?

During the early detection of corona virus, several top universities have embarked on complex research to develop the vaccine such as University of Oxford, joint venture with a

pharmaceutical company.

Did Malaysian universities play an active role in researching and testing the vaccine? Where is the hi-CoE (High Centre of Excellence) for virology in Malaysian universities? If the next virus attack, are our top universities ready to take action – are we preparing the talent, infrastructure, and speed to find solution to the critical problem?

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It is timely that the minister of higher education has emphasized in her annual speech recently that speed in the prime mover to solving problem and provide solution in proactive way. He r emphasis of 5S – Speed, Synergy, Solidarity, Strategic and Standard – is opening the pathway for university's transformation. Global prominence of our university could be achieved if we uphold the gold standard in higher education.

Intellectual synergy manifests in creativity and the fluidity of ideas. The academic leaders should make synergy as way of academic life by alienating silo thinkers and workers. By putting the thoughts and energy together, academic and non-academic staff could bring the university to a greater height.

Next, solidarity is an important aspect of university excellence. Comradeship and esprit de corp must be nurtured so as to fortify the collegiality among the staff and administrators to empower group spirit, enthusiasm, devotion and to defend the honor and reputation of the university.

In terms of strategic thinking, university leaders should obtain critical information and data to make informed decision based on reason and wisdom. In his magnum opus "the Republic,"

Plato wrote about the virtues of an ideal state ruled by leaders who used reason, virtues, and wisdom as their prime art of governing.

New model of academia should focus on developing the higher order thinking capability. Indeed, the society is questioning the value of a university degree – it is no longer seen as an automatic passport to a well-paid job. In fact, the issue of low salary of Malaysian university graduates should be addressed in a holistic way. Another challenge is the employability and marketability of higher education graduates.

In Malaysia, unemployment rate is at 4.7 per cent in 2020. In the context of higher education, it was reported about 200,000 university graduates who are still unemployed. This could be due to the depressed economy during Covid-19 pandemic.

In the era of global university ranking, we need a dynamic and far -sighted academic leadership in higher education. It is not merely a hype but a concrete strategy to build better future for our nation. However, it should not be blinded by unrealistic perception. As Plato's Allegory of the cave – highlights the deceiving of quixotic and paradoxical of the perception.

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Those in the "cave" may not have an accurate idea of what is happening outside the cave. Cave vision could have blinded the greater purpose of a university. Even though we are still playing the ranking game but we should not be subdued to the "Ranking Trap". If without synergy and solidarity, ranking is only romanticized by top university leaders at the expense of academic staff's sweat and stress.

In Malaysia, 1.2 million higher education students with 130,000 foreign students. Investment in higher education is worthwhile for the future nation building in terms intellectual, economic, environmental and quality human resources and to steer the country into the next century.

Future of Jobs report by WEF predicts that more than 50 percent of workers need to acquire new skills or reskilling by 2025. Ministry of Higher Education has introduced KPT -PACE voucher for reskilling training programme for university students and graduates. A university's long-term success and sustainability depends on our academic staff ability to innovate and to adapt.

University ought to hire academic "socrats" rather than academic "bureaucrats."

Furthermore, the greening of the university – physically and intellectually is indispensable. In brief, excellent academic leadership that will thrive in the 21st century will turn threats (eg., Covid-19) into opportunities. The high-ranking universities of the future are expected to be led by well-respected world-class academics.

Maintaining the quality is sine qua non for sustainable university. The higher education minister has put forward a roadmap for higher education. Evidence shows Malaysian universities have soul and paradise is not lost – they just need to be rejuvenated in 5S mold.

The writer is Professor in Technical and Vocational Education, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris