RM50 mil to boost Malaysia’s top business schools: Khaled

PUTRAJAYA: The government yesterday announced a RM50 million allocation in grants to boost two local business schools which have been chosen as the country’s best.

The Graduate School of Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the Graduate School of Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) will each receive RM25 million.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said that of the amount, RM13.5 million would be used for infrastructure spending.

He said the balance RM11.5 million would be used to facilitate the development of human resources, to enable them to offer competitive emoluments and benefits to attract the best academic and research talent.

Mohamed Khaled was speaking at the launch of Malaysia’s Top Business Schools and the 5th International Business Postgraduate Colloquium 2008 here.

Also present were Higher Education director-general Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi, UPM board of directors chairman Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Syed Jalaludin Syed Salim, UKM Vice-Chancellor Datuk Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin and UPM Vice-Chancellor Datuk Dr Nik Mustapha Raja Abdullah.

In terms of administration, Mohamed Khaled said it would be revamped to ensure complete autonomy, transparency and accountability of the top business schools.

“The administration of our top business schools will be separated from mainstream university administration, through a management board of directors comprising members from the ministry, university and other elected members.

“With the prescribed autonomy, each top business school will have the ability to constructively devise action plans towards achieving its goal as a global centre of excellence in the field of business and management,” he said.

Mohamed Khaled said, with the facilitation and recognition provided to the institutions, the Master of Business Administration (MBA) programmes in the top schools need to achieve a local: international student ratio of 60:40 within the next five years.

On Oct 24, last year, the Cabinet accorded the two schools, out of 11 business faculties nationwide, as the top business schools in the country, with the objective of achieving international standards in offering graduate courses in the fields of business and management.

The selection of the schools is based on the criteria of the World Top Business Schools and Asian Top Business Schools, with eight domains namely, quantity and quality of academic staff, quantity and quality of research and teaching, quantity of postgraduate students, quality of postgraduate students, innovation, professional services and gifts, networking and linkages and support facilities.

Mohamed Khaled said the domains for the two schools would still be evaluated from time to time, as a benchmark to ensure the success of the programme, while other schools would also be evaluated to qualify them to join the programme.