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Academic governance and leadership are two inter-related concepts that set the tone and direction for the development of higher education at the system as well as institutional levels. This article examines the academic governance and leadership in Malaysian higher education by focusing on two national higher education strategic initiatives: the National Higher Education Strategic Plan 2007-2020 and Malaysia Education Blueprint (Higher Education) 2015-2025. From analysing the two national strategic initiatives, we discuss the ways in which academic governance and leadership have been articulated at the systemic and institutional levels. We find that, centralisation persists despite corporatisation and granting of autonomy status, and leadership has become subjected to external yardsticks of quality, performance and standardised transformation agenda, driven predominantly by the ideology of neoliberalism and New Public Management (NPM). Unpacking these drivers of policy provides a basis for reflecting on the purpose, philosophy and fundamental idea of universities in Malaysia for nation building and societal development.

Cambodia and Malaysia are two Southeast Asian countries at dissimilar levels of socio-economic development. Their higher education systems are also on different developmental paths with varying motivations driving their respective development and progress, but the governance of higher education across these two systems has one striking similarity. Both systems see neoliberal principles and ideologies as a means to guide the development and governance of higher education, while the States, to varying degrees, still exert significant control and 'guidance' over the development and institutional governance. This similarity, albeit at varying degrees, can be seen through examining the issues and challenges concerning the governance of higher education in both countries such as reforms in autonomy and accountability as well as the state-university relationship. Beyond recognising this similarity, we argue the need for considering alternative paths of development for higher education in these countries, particularly alternatives that are more suitable and appropriate for the local needs and contexts in each of the two countries.

This study aims at testing a few tenets of affective events theory (AET) from a predictive perspective in the context of Malaysian private higher education sector. Specifically, we examined the impact of workload and autonomy on academics' job satisfaction through interpersonal conflict and affective states. Additionally, the impact of affective states on job satisfaction via job performance was considered. We gathered data from 325 academics and analyzed them through partial least squares methodology. Our findings corroborated AET tenets considerably. The importance of the joint consideration of workload and autonomy in positively contributing to job satisfaction was highlighted. In addition, positive affect was identified as a stronger predictor of job satisfaction (as an attitude) and job performance (as an affect-driven behavior), comparing with negative affect. Specifically, positive affect was the strongest construct in increasing academics' job satisfaction in our theoretical model. The findings indicated policy relevance at both the macro and institutional levels and had managerial and practical implications for future research direction in human resource management in the private higher education sector.

Are Asian universities different from those in Western countries? Premised on the hypothesis that Asian universities are different because of hybridization between Western academic models and local traditional cultures, this paper investigates the hybrid characteristics in Malaysian universities resulting from interaction between contemporary external influences and local traditional practices. At the system level, the interaction between external ideology of neoliberalism and local ethnic-based politics has resulted in ethnized neoliberalism in the higher education system. Hybrid characteristics at the institutional level have been operationalized into the domains of governance and management, programmes and curriculum, teaching and learning, and research and service. Based on three types of universities in Malaysia--mainstream, Islamic and Chinese community-based--we argue that Malaysian universities are hybrid universities because many of the policies and practices are distinctively different from the Western academic models. Indigenization of the Western models had taken place resulting in unique form of university governance and management, Islamization of curriculum and the Asian cultural ethos of the campus in Malaysian universities.

The future of Malaysia as a high-income and competitive nation largely depends on its pool of highly skilled human capital. Hence, the issue of human capital development has taken centre stage in numerous reform agendas of Malaysia. This paper seeks to provide examples of policy initiatives aimed at facilitating the management of highly educated talent in Malaysia. It subsequently considers the role of higher education institutions, particularly the universities, as attractors, educators and retainers of intellectuals, in shaping talent. In conclusion, we argue that more significant underlying shortcomings of talent development are derived from the still transitional nature of the reforms and incomplete structural changes occurring in the national system, and that a change in mindset is the first necessary step towards nurturing and developing a human resource talent pool.

The process of globalisation has undoubtedly impacted countries, bringing about different challenges for each country, region and locality. Many countries have responded positively to the demands and challenges through a societal transformation process with an emphasis on developing tertiary education, research and innovative capacities. Drawing upon our experience with two cases of newly developed learning regions, Kuala Lumpur city-region and Iskandar Malaysia region, we examine Malaysia's effort at transforming its higher education system in the context of learning region objectives. Key government policies, namely, the Tenth Malaysia Plan, the National Higher Education Strategic Plan 2007-2020, the Economic Transformation Programme as well as documents of the learning regions' master plans were included in the document analysis. Although it remains to be seen how the learning regions will emerge, the experience in transforming higher education based on the learning region concept is highly relevant to developing countries that are attempting to shift their traditional economy to a more knowledge-intensive economy.

Policy decision-making in Malaysia has long used an approach based on intuition, ideology, or conventional wisdom. But as Malaysian society matures within an increasingly complex policy environment, a move toward an evidence-based approach to public policy-making is called for. This paper discusses the experience of the National Higher Education Research Institute ("IPPTN") in its attempts at linking research to higher education policy formulation. The main aim is to understand the perspectives of the "IPPTN" researchers regarding the use and impact of higher education research on policy-making, and the challenges they experienced. The findings provide insights into the future of evidence-based higher education policy-making in Malaysia and the "IPPTN's" capacity and capability for evidence-based policy research.

This paper examines the nature of the leadership crisis in Malaysia's public universities. Our main concern is about the leadership at the top levels of university management, and the administrative hierarchy as perceived by both outsiders and insiders. Critics have lamented that Malaysia lacks people with international stature to lead its public universities to greater heights; however, they stop short of outlining good, feasible leadership plans for public universities. This paper contends that the primary reason for the malaise underlying the Malaysian university leadership crisis is that there is no proper system in place to appoint the most able, talented, authoritative and respected scholars to lead Malaysia's public universities. This paper also argues that the current provision in the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, regarding the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor, is obsolete and not aligned with the aspiration of treating universities as independent, trustworthy and autonomous entities. It is contrary to international best practices of selecting university leaders through an extremely competitive and rigorous search. Arguably, Malaysian universities need leaders--academics (in the first instance) cum administrators--who are inspirational, visionary, respected for their scholarship, and progressive in their approach. The leadership crisis in Malaysia's public universities is approaching such a critical stage that nothing less than a total reform has to be instituted, not only of the law in relation to appointments, but also of the practices and cultures, which currently do not promote meritocracy.

This article investigates the changing state-university relations in Japan and Malaysia. Its main objective is to identify and examine possible lessons for Malaysia, based on the Japanese experience. Notably, since the late 1970s, Malaysia has been looking towards Japan as a model for socio-economic development (the "look-east" Policy) and this article was written with the same underlying thrust. Of particular interest in this article is the Japanese experience with the Incorporation of National Universities in 2004. Malaysia has corporatised all state-controlled universities since 1998 but has stopped short of implementing the kind of institutional autonomy, which resulted in precarious state-university relations in Japan. Based on the situation in Japan with regard to incorporation of national universities, what steps should Malaysia take in order to develop a higher education system and higher education institutions that are comparable to that of matured higher education systems? (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

In Malaysia, the national government has seen fit to steer higher education policy in a direction that is in the "national interest". This notion of "national interest" is best exemplified by the changing relationship between the State, higher education institutions and the market. Since the late 1960s, we saw the gradual but steady erosion of university autonomy with the increasing dominance of the State. The recently launched National Higher Education Strategic Plan 2020 and the National Higher Education Action Plan, 2007-2010, which operationalised the Strategic Plan, promises greater autonomy for the universities. While this increased autonomy for universities could be regarded as Malaysia's response to deal with emerging issues in higher education management and governance, the amendments to the University and University Colleges Act, 1995 have not resolved the issue of wider autonomy from the Malaysian treasury regulations for public universities. For the State, in the present climate of political and economic uncertainty, giving full autonomy to the public universities is seen to be inappropriate and untimely. The State considers public universities as still heavily dependent on the State for resources, and thus the need for regulation and supervision.