Higher Education Ministry and JPA officers who had made public misrepresentations about government recognition of foreign educational institutions, online or otherwise, misleading thousands of Malaysians to spend tens of millions of ringgit on unrecognized degrees and qualifications should be suspended and disciplined

Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  

(Parliament, Thursday): Higher Education Ministry and Jabatan Perkhidmat Awam (JPA) officers who had made public misrepresentations about government recognition of foreign educational institutions, online or otherwise, misleading thousands of Malaysians to spend tens of millions of ringgit on unrecognized degrees and qualifications should be suspended and disciplined. 

The statement  by the  Minister for Higher Education, Datuk Dr. Shafie Salleh in yesterday’s press that the Irish International University and the Cambridgeshire University are bogus universities, with  thousands of Malaysians holding worthless qualifications as a result of a scam which could reach  RM28 million, is probably only the tip of an iceberg.

I  have received a call from a recent Ph.D. graduate from the International Irish University (IIU) who had attended the recent  IIU “International Convocation” held at the International Islamic University in Gombak  and the grand convocation dinner at Meridian Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, and which was graced by the presence of the president of the Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities, Tengku Shamsul Bahrin.

He had spent RM36,000 for the IIU’s four-year Ph.D course solely on the strength of a JPA written certification that the  MBA and Ph.D. qualifications of IIU are recognized by the JPA, provided the first degree is recognized by the government.

Shafie’s confirmation in the press yesterday that  IIU and Cambridgeeshire Universities are “bogus universities” issuing worthless qualifications came  as a shock like a “bolt out of the blue” to him and the hundreds or thousands who had acquired or are acquiring qualifications from these two bodies.

Shafie should make public the  full list of the universities and  colleges, online or otherwise,  which the JPA or the Department of Higher Education had made misrepresentations through written certifications that their qualifications are recognized by the government when this was not the case, the number of Malaysians who had been victimized  by such  government misrepresentation, and   how the Ministry of Higher Education proposes to rectify the wrongs caused by such government misrepresentation which had exploited  and abused the life-long learning culture of Malaysians.

(28/07/2005)