Fauziah Md Taib and Chan Huan Chiang

1
Human Capital Development
Role and Contributions of Private Higher
Education Institutions

• Fauziah Md Taib and Chan Huan Chiang

2
Background

• Growing importance of human capital in knowledge
  economy
• Drastic Demand for Higher Education HE
• To improve access and equality
• Massification of Higher Education
• Private Higher Education PvHE absorbs the
  excess demand from Public Universities
• Globalization Effect
• Malaysia as Hub of Educational Excellence
• Growing number of foreign students
• Internationalization agenda

3
What is Human Capital Development?

• Ultimate objective of economic development
• Enriching human lives
• Not just about material enrichment but to
  increase the capabilities of people to lead full,
  productive, satisfying lives.
• Source Griffin and McKinley (1992)

4
Human Capital Development Indicators

• Lead a long life (life expectancy at birth)
• Enjoy Good Health (Morbidity Rate)
• Access to accumulated stock of knowledge
  (enrolment and literacy rates)
• Sufficient income to buy food, clothing, shelter
  and
• To participate in decisions that directly affect
  their lives and community
• Live in peace and harmony (crime rate)
• People with soul

5
Role of Tertiary Education

• Two competing roles
• Job Sieving Model (Technocracy)
• Positive Externality (Society and Culture, Values)

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Job Sieving Model (Technocracy)

• Building up skills to secure job (main objective)
• Employers use paper qualifications to sieve job
  applicants, those without would not be
  considered.
• A person is equipped with skills and knowledge to
  produce goods services for oneself
• Counted as an aggregate becomes the sum of the
  nations production (GDP)
• Private gain
• 100 individual returns
• Private Investment
• Low investment result in low technocracy, vice
  versa
• Encourages Locked Door syndromes

7
Positive Externality (Society,Culture,Values)

• HE as a means to get
• Behavioural change in desired direction
  Behaviourist
• Develop capacity and skills to learn better
  Congnitivist
• Become self actualised, autonomous Humanist
• Model new roles and behaviour Social Learning
• Construct Knowledge Constructivist
• Wholesome Society materialism spiritualism
  New Sciences
• Source Ashworth, Brennan, Egan, Hamilton and
  Saenz (2008)
• Returns to Society
• Public Investment

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Social Choice

• HE delivery system in any economy is the balance
  between job sieving (p) and societal benefit role
  (1-p).
• A choice along the continuum is more appropriate
  NOT a pure p or 1-p.
• The ratio is effectively social choice
• Who should make the choice?
• Elected representatives on behalf of the society

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A Tough Choice

• The process of technocracy must also translate
  into a more robust and wholesome society (people
  with soul).
• A society should not just become
• progressive in technocratic sense but also
• progressive in societal sense (necessary and
  sufficient condition)
• Achievement of only one aspect would cripple the
  society
• Technocracy alone Rich people but locked doors
• Scholarship alone Society loving folks but not
  much technocracy learning

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Social Choice Examples

• The US model though seen as the epitome of
  development is a very locked door community
• Some examples of countries that have overcome
  locked door society
• Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland
• High income levels, small population with
  philosophy and culture play a big role in
  schooling curriculum
• Singapore American model but with high state
  control

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Current Delivery Systems

• In Malaysia, currently there are dual systems of
  delivery
• 20 public universities
• Over 500 private universities
• Public universities are publicly financed
• Private universities are self financed
• Are they playing the same role?
• Should they be playing the same role?

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Contribution of Private HE (thus far)

• Since the suite of acts passed in 1996-1997
• New Education Act of 1996
• Private Higher Education Institutions Act 1996
• Private HE has become increasingly significant in
  serving to complement Msia HE system,
  particularly in terms of
• Improving access to tertiary education
• Contributing to foreign exchange earnings
  Malaysia as a hub of educational excellence

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Contribution Vs Role
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Role of Private Higher Education

• Essentially, What is the expected contribution
  by the Private HE?
• Should not be different than that of public HE.
• Goal is the same but the routes may be different
• Objective is to achieve wholesome society
  (technocracy and people with soul)
• Recap- Not just about material enrichment but to
  increase the capabilities of people to lead full,
  productive, satisfying lives.

15
Common Complaints

• Poor race relation
• Poor soft skills
• Alarming crime rate
• Moral issues (Lack of Adab)
• Attitude problems
• Unethical people, compromised independence
  Subprime Crisis, Enron, Fraudulent/ creative
  Accounting
• What is the source of the problem?

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Source of the Problem

• Old Science (Newtonian and Cartesian) Man is
  machine, parts of a whole, etc.
• The New Science Quantum Mechanics, Relativity
  and Complexity Theories tell us that there are
  no parts at all, that the world is all of a
  piece, holistic.
• Everything is interrelated, equilibrium is
  elusive and fleeting. Small and even trivial
  causes can have massive effects. (inseparable web
  of relationships).

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Wholesome Society HE Role

• How to achieve it?
• Curriculum
• Teaching technocracy or skills Vs teaching
  philosophy
• How much of Private HE contents concurs with
  philosophy?

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How Do We Produce Wholesome Society?

• Is the present curriculum wrong?
• Should it contain more philosophy, values based
  contents?
• Are we not doing it now?
• What else are still lacking?
• Present Problem
• Doing it just for the sake of LAN/MQA compliance?
• Implementation problems
• The heart does not present

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Proposed Solutions

• Elected representatives must make the choice on
  behalf of society.
• Once the social choice is decided (how much
  component of technocracy and philosophy, soft
  skills should be),
• this would also determine the share of public
  financing of the individuals higher education

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Financing of Societal Role

• Government should be funding the component for
  societal role (philosophy and soft skills, 1-p).
• Why?
• Students only want to pay for technocracy (p) so
  that they can enter the job sieving market
• Private HE providers reluctant to offer as it
  adds to delivery costs
• Force it!
• It becomes compliance issue students and PvHE
  providers just go through the motion with little
  emphasis and resources!

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Proposed Solutions

• Government uses tax money to pay for the teaching
  of societal role (1-p) type courses in PvHE
• The investment in societal benefits is NOT
  subsidy but is viewed as buying the social
  order
• To live peacefully, everyone must pay
• Philosophy, soft skills type of courses are NOT
  SUPPLEMENTARY But
• CORE MATERIALS
• Aim To become and Intellectual Society NOT
  Intelligent Society

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Proposed Solutions (cont)

• Any revamp must be on the basis of wholeness as
  demonstrated by the new science paradigm
  everything is interconnected.
• Cannot treat technocracy and inculcation of the
  fundamentals of philosophy in isolation.
• Man is not machine (Le Mettrie, 1748)
• Not necessary additional budget but more through
  reallocation of government public expenditures.

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Challenges

• Implementation
• The paradigm has to shift. Business not as
  usual..
• 40,000 heart neuron has to accompany the
  23,000,000 brain neuron to make an impact
• Awareness for values, scholarship, ethics,
  principles must be inculcated.
• Demand must be created. Government to play the
  marketing role too.

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How to Implement?
Approach
Objective
Suggestion
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Summary

• Human capital development strategy is a long hard
  thinking process.
• It starts with a strong foundation and holistic
  perspective.
• Short cuts, corner-cutting measures would not
  result in a sustainable and successful
  development.
• Both public and private HE has to play the same
  role in producing wholesome society together with
  people with soul human with ADAB!
• Government has to make the social choice (ratio
  between technocracy and societal benefits) and
  finance the latter part.
• The societal benefits courses should become part
  of the core curriculum NOT supplementary

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Thank You !

• QA