Suchergebnisse

Academic freedom is probably one of the most misunderstood concepts in academia, but is a fundamental pre-requisite to achieve the purpose of a university in becoming a knowledge and truth-seeking institution in our society. This article specifically examines academic freedom in Malaysian public universities, by first, unpacking the concept of academic freedom as well as the complementary concept of institutional autonomy. Having made clear the definition and concept of academic freedom, the article highlights three major impediments of academic freedom in Malaysian public universities resulting from legislation, lack of institutional autonomy and influence of external agencies. The understanding of these impediments is vital for the future development of public universities to fulfil their purpose as public authorities for knowledge and truth in Malaysia.

The phenomenon of super-diversity in Malaysia is inevitable, and one of the causes other than the influx of migrants is refugees. Managing refugees in Malaysia indicates the loopholes in a collection of literature and practices. This article is a research note addressing the contemporary findings on challenges in managing refugees. Also, it discusses the timeline of migration in this country, which occurred in three contexts of before, during and post-colonial periods. Although Malaysia is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention of 1951, it still hosts more than a hundred thousand refugees of various origins. Thus, the challenges demand the state to deliberately manage arising issues on security, logistical accommodation, legal aid, and health provision. Following these new challenges and current demands, the government must move forward with effective and efficient ways of learning the best practices from the developed nations to manage refugees with a paradigm shift of accepting super-diversity and refugees as a reality rather than as issues. Institutional change is necessary to review the "paper citizens" mindset into pragmatic management on new possible markets and talents for human capital and development.