Functional and Dysfunctional View of Higher Education

Abstract

This paper aims to delve into the dysfunctions of our higher education industry and trigger higher
institutions to go back to the basics and consolidate the four pillars of learning advocated by UNESCO - learning to do, learning to know, learning to be and learning to live together – in order to allow for the advancement of academia and socio-behavioural development as an integral part of the core curriculum. Higher education has produced quality workforce for nations including Malaysia whose higher education provides Malaysians with the platform to strive and acquire as much knowledge as possible to keep up with the ever-changing environment and requirements of industry players. The establishment of the nation’s National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) has also complemented the aforementioned achievement by giving out loans in order to provide equal
opportunities for students who wish to pursue studies at tertiary education, hence, the contribution to the education of a critical mass of bureaucrats, technocrats, managers and professionals in various fields. Higher education has also educated and trained foreign students in a wide range of fields of human knowledge and these graduates have contributed to the development or reconstruction of their respective societies and nations. On the other hand, the dysfunctional views of higher education has criticized that as a system, higher education allocates power and money to those who are considered the most “fit” and credible according to socially established standards, as a result contributing to the widening of social class differences and the narrowing of prospective opportunities. Having higher education credentials and career experience have indeed helped individuals advance economically and professionally into larger salary brackets, assimilate into higher class cultures, and increase their cultural capital or political influence but those who are unable to obtain access to higher education will experience a disadvantage in each of these realms. Students’ motivations for attending universities and colleges from primarily seeking to “develop a meaningful philosophy of life” to being “very well off financially” at the conclusion of their higher education. By determining who is best by the academic standards of an institution, higher education has also stratified those who succeed within the structures of a university and those who do not or never make it there. Therefore, higher education as a resource from which individuals can access merit, social mobility, and ultimately power, has heighten class mobility for some and stunt it for others. Most public and private higher learning institutions nowadays has also taken in students even with minimum eligibility, in line with the policy of widening access to higher education but the quality of education is still not quite up to par to accommodate and develop these category of students. Academicians also grumble that due to the rush of initiatives and activities, there is little time to think and limited time too for “pauses of wisdom”. Last but not least, the influx of foreign students has also caused a lot of problems in higher education institutions and the society at large. It is high time for leaders and academicians to sit down, ponder, reflect and take initiatives to insure that higher education institutions provide academically qualified students with not only quality education for them to succeed in life, but also an education which will result in their valuing discipline, being caring and giving individuals.