Our education system works internationally

• Main Author: Abdul Razak, Dzulkifli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sun Media Corporation Sdn Bhd 2019
• Subjects: L Education (General)
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/71969/1/71969_Our%20education%20system.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/71969/; https://www.thesundaily.my/opinion/our-education-system-works-internationally-DL814775

ON the sidelines of the Sarajevo Business Forum last week, I visited a few universities in the Bosnian capital. This “internationalisation” is now part of the mission of many universities. I have some difficulty accepting this and have for long envisaged that internationalisation was a “construct” created to serve a western-centric agenda. “Internationalisation” has been around for a long time. The ambience of University of Penang (as USM was initially known) was “international” compared to what it is now. Come to think of it, so was my school in Kuala Kangsar (fashioned after a British residential school). Its students benefited immensely without having “internationalisation” forced upon them. It was part of “education”. So what is the big deal today? The agenda now is more about economics and less about education. Higher education institutions globally are under real economic threat, which has forced them out of their comfort zone.