Higher Education In Malaysia: Researches and Publications Essay

Apart from the traditional role in teaching and learning, HEIs have increased responsibility to generate new knowledge in the form of research and publications (Morni, F , et.al, 2009). The latest Malaysian strategic plan in Malaysian Education Blueprint 2015-2015 that have been announced recently has highlighted that the aspiration of HEIs will focus more on outcomes rather than inputs (MoHE, 2015). 'Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia Pengajian Tinggi' or PPPM (PT) aspiration will continue from 2015 until 2025. The report stated that the number of research articles published by Malaysian universities increased more than threefold between 2007 and 2012, the highest increase in the world, and the number of citations grew fourfold from 2005 to 2012. The five Malaysian Research Universities (RUs) alone contributed 70 per cent of these publications. Moreover, from 2007 to 2011, the number of patents filed by Malaysia's universities grew 11 per cent each year, placing Malaysia 28th in the world for new patents during that period. Malaysian public universities have also intensified their role as solution providers for industry and community, generating RM1.25 billion in revenues from 2007 to 2012 from research and consulting services.
Prior to this, the report of Malaysian Higher Education Action Plan (2007-2010), has stated that success in R&D is critical in higher education for at least three reasons. Firstly, to produce the intellectual property and innovation required to move the country higher in the global value chain, and create new jobs and opportunities. Secondly, R&D is to create new knowledge and valuable new findings necessary to enable Malaysia to become a leading education hub. Thirdly, it is to develop the necessary human capital to continually innovate across all sectors of the economy. Hence, it is clearly indicated that the success of R&D in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are very important. In this connection, the government should have reformed their funding mechanism to fulfill the research needs trends and utilize their existing academics in order to create knowledge and share their expertise in conducting research.
Although many countries were now instituting their own systems that all differed considerably (for example, United Kingdom [UK], Australia, New Zealand [NZ], Hong Kong), Ahmad (2013) Schiller and Liefner (2007) argued that since developing countries like Malaysia have multi political system, economy and education culture, they need to develop and adopt a suitable model to suit with the countries' culture. Further, implementation of PBRF models in New Zealand appears to be a differently to the RAE UK systems in terms of reporting framework, the issues of confidentiality and regarding individual quality categories (Boston, 2002). For this reason, it is very important to find a key factor to develop an appropriate system and meets the criteria of the education system in Malaysia.
Therefore, this research will explore and make an analysis of one of the funding mechanism on the distribution of government research funds to Malaysian Public Universities which is Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF). Basically, the outline of this research will be elaborated in the following sequence.