UNIVERSITY BEING MONEY MACHINE JUSTIFIES THE RANKING GAME CRAZE

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 This is a repost from Soul of Univesity FB group on 17/8/2021:




Sometimes earlier our leaders made the grave mistake of treating universities as income generation machines.
Last year a minister proudly announced that Malaysia received RM13 billion (directly and indirectly) from enrolment of international students. I say, if RM13 billion is what you want, our rubber glove industry alone brings in that much in a year. Why nobody ask the ministry of defence or the ministry of health how much money they make? Everybody knows that their values are not measurable in RM.
Suddenly everybody forgets the real values of universities and started putting RM in the equation. Now every academics, every Vice chancellor has to think about income generation. This mistake further justifies the ranking game, as it is a marketing strategy to attract international enrolment, that is, to bring in more money. They argue, on top of paying fees, these international students also rent houses, buy car, buy groceries., beli nasi lemak, roti canai. (Itu yang jadi 13 billion tu). This is a sad justification for having universities.
Good universities strive on intellectual values, money comes into the universities because society see these values. Now universities strive to attract money, (e.g. over exertion to raise ranking); while their values are judged by how many nasi lemaks are bought by foreigners.

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