Rescuing Malaysian Higher Education from Neoliberalism

Students at a lecture at a Malaysian university | Photo: World Bank Photo Collection on Flickr

In an article by New Mandala, Ngo Sheau-Shi asserts that the trend toward the neoliberalization of higher education, characterized by market-driven practices, privatization, and financial austerity, poses serious threats to educational equity, quality, and academic freedom in Malaysia.

In the Asia-Pacific region, these trends are most visibly manifested in the dramatic expansion of private sector enrolments, reflecting a broader structural shift toward market-oriented governance. Between 2006 and 2018, private tertiary enrolments in the Global South increased by 121%, significantly outpacing the 80% growth recorded in public institutions.India alone accounted for 39.8% of global private enrolment growth, becoming a pivotal case of the privatisation turn in Asia.

Recent developments in Malaysia, a middle-income economy with relatively high rates of tertiary enrolment, typifies this neoliberal trajectory. The incumbent federal government’s boasts of support for the sector obscure are at odds with the reality of chronic underfunding and stagnant academic wages.

At first glance, between 2010 and 2013, Malaysia’s annual higher education budget grew from around RM13 billion to nearly RM16 billion, before dipping to approximately RM12.1 billion in 2017 (see Graph A above). From 2020 onward, the budget shows a steady upward climb, culminating in its highest nominal level, approximately RM18 billion by 2025. However, the figures in question fail to account for inflation, yet political discourse and media reporting frequently highlight the apparent upward trend in education funding from 2018 onward as proof of governmental prioritisation of the sector.