Yap (front, centre) with the Southeast Asian Higher Education Summit (SEAHES) 2016 participants. — Bernama photo
NILAI: The leadership skills and ability of academic leaders in higher education system need to be strengthened to produce well-groomed future leaders and professionals in countries.
Higher Education Deputy Minister Datuk Dr Mary Yap Kain Ching said leaders must be identified and they needed to be well equipped with the theories of leadership training and concept.
“Improvement efforts are ongoing, that is why we are now having a lot of leadership training courses for lectures and the second level of leaders, and we do profiling as well, to identify good leaders or potential leaders.
“The Higher Education Leadership Academy (Akept) has been doing a good job and playing a vital role in establishing leadership.
“Preparing Malaysian youths to thrive in this complex and ever-changing future will also require an equally fundamental transformation of how the higher education system and higher learning institutions currently operate,” she told reporters after the launching the Southeast Asian Higher Education Summit 2016 (Seahes2016) here yesterday.
Yap said Malaysia had developed the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education) aimed at transforming the Malaysian higher education system in facing the global economic challenges and in preparing Malaysia to become a high-income developed country as outlined in Vision 2020.
“The blueprint aims to develop knowledgeable and virtuous talents that contribute to national development through 10 shifts, namely holistic, entrepreneurial and balanced graduates, talent excellence, nation of lifelong learning, quality TVET graduates, financial sustainability, empowered governance, innovation ecosystem, global prominence, globalised online learning and transformed higher education delivery.
“We recognise that the system will need to keep evolving to stay abreast with, if not ahead of, global trends,” she said.
Seahes2016 is a platform for sharing of the best practices and searching for solutions pertaining to issues common to higher education institution in the Asean region. — Bernama