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PEKAN, Saturday 12 March 2011 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak reminded lecturers in higher learning institutions (IPT) to refrain from resorting to politics to secure positions, but should instead concentrate on their role as educators.
"Don't resort to excessive politics...to the extent that when it is time to appoint a Vice-Chancellor or Deputy Vice-Chancellor there are too many poison-pen letters and so on that I receive.
"I notice that politicking in universities are sometimes more intense than choosing a candidate for the election. This is an unhealthy culture in the university and I am ashamed if the university lecturers are more inclined towards politics than teaching which is their main task," he said in his speech during a visit to Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), here today.
Also present were Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin and UMP Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Daing Nasir Ibrahim.
At the media conference later, the Prime Minister said, an educator should be satisfied when he or she had succeeded in developing the students' mind instead of filling up a management position.
"The question of who becomes the Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor should be handled objectively through the evaluation process," he said.
Meanwhile, Najib said the IPT should play a role in narrowing the gap in skills to fill up the need for human capital in achieving a high-income and developed nation status.
"In terms of technical qualifications, there are still weaknesses in our country. That's why we have to review our planning so that we can fulfill (the human capital) through the role of the IPT in our country," he said.
Thus, he said, the role of the universities would be scrutinised so that more emphasis would be placed on churning out the manpower needed by the industry.
"That's why new universities such as the UMP has become a technical university involving the technological fields and its model is based on the Karlsruhe Technical University, Germany," he said.
At the function, the Prime Minister also launched the UMP green technology project, developed jointly by its subsidiary company, UMP Green Technology Sdn Bhd and Urban Environment Industries Sdn Bhd, involving the development of recycled base oil from used lubricating oil using an extraction technology that was expected to be able to resolve the problem over the disposal of used lubricating oil.
Source: Bernama
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