5 Things That I Wished for Last Week

By : Professor Datuk Dr. A Rahman A Jamal

This past week has been more hectic than usual and I hardly spent time in the office as there were various meetings and appointments outside ¼¯ÃÀÂ鶹. As most of us would do during these kind of events, I had observed and listened and occasionally offered my comments and opinions. Inevitable, we would usually also digest, ponder and sometimes wished for things or scenarios to be different. Well, here are the 5 things I wished for last week.

  1. I wished that ¼¯ÃÀÂ鶹 will identify and embark on 5 game-changing projects for the nation.

On Monday, the Vice Chancellor called all deans and directors for a meeting to discuss about research and specifically the organizational structure of the research ecosystem which is currently niche- and cluster-based. I like the meeting very much as it brings together the deans and directors in one platform of intellectual discourse to focus on research issues. We spent almost 3 hours of discussion, but I wished we had the time to brainstorm on 5 game-changing research projects that would address the top 5 problems in the nation at the moment. This is even more important now that there is less money in the government’s kitty. Even more so it will force us to focus and gather together our resources across different faculties and institutes to address key national issues. We can make it sound grand like the High Impact Research (HIR) which University of Malaya is now famous for. We can call it the ¼¯ÃÀÂ鶹 Grand Challenges (or solutions) for Malaysia or something that captures the essence of its impact.

  1. I wished someone will explain how we chose members of audit committees.

The past week also saw several important audits happening in the university. For one of the audits (the most important one), the list of the panel members were circulated to the deans and directors. One look at the list has made me wonder as to how the names were chosen. This is an important panel and for its members the task is not just about counting numbers. If I had my choice, I will probably be expecting that each panel member will have at least 100 publications (the century benchmark) to his/her name, an H index of at least 10, citations of at least 500 (perhaps lower for the social sciences), and also have had many post-graduate students plus also a strong and impactful administrative experience. It is high time that as auditees we exercise the rights to know who our auditors and what their credentials are.

  1. I wished the ministry would specify key research projects and open these to researchers for bidding.

This is the week where many researchers are starting to prepare their proposals for the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) and the Long Term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS). These are very open in terms of the subject matter and you could almost submit anything from sea to space so to speak. I wish the ministry (MOE or MOSTI) will bring the top brains together and list down the top 10 problems in the nation for each sector and open this for researchers to come and bid like a real tender process. For example for health, I would probably list the following projects for bidding: 1. A sustainable solution for tackling obesity, 2. Intervention strategies for reducing the burden of diabetes, 3. Biomarkers for early detection of cancers (can be even more specific by choosing the top 5 cancers), 4. A Malaysian risk score for sudden cardiac death, 5. Development of a unified and total hospital information system for Malaysian hospitals. Research teams can submit their proposals and the ministry can shortlist 5 of them and present to a panel (with the right credentials) to be selected. It can be like the LRGS in terms of the requirements and targeted output but this time there are specific topics for researchers to make a bid and show that their team is offering the best value for money for each project.

  1. I wished more clinicians will do fundamental and translational research.

This week UMBI hosted a team of lecturers from the Department of Opthalmology for the second time to discuss about collaborative research. Actually, all seven of the departmental members came and I am so pleased to see the level of passion and interest they showed. We are trying to explore the molecular mechanisms of some of the important diseases affecting the eyes. For many of these diseases, there are phenotypes or clinical behavior which is unique to the Asian population or even more common in Chinese than Malays and vice versa. This is indeed a golden opportunity for research. We managed to firm up two research proposals to be submitted for the FRGS grant. Even if these projects are not successful, we have managed to build an interest group in molecular ophthalmology and I am pretty sure our team will not lose hope and try again. Play at online casinos for free with a no deposit bonus. It is now easier than before to play casino games online with the ease of accessing them either through your computer or mobile device. The convenience allows you to play anytime or anywhere. Joining up with the free allows users to view and check out the casino games without the risks involved in wagering on own funds until they are ready.

  1. I wished we could quantify the academic value of our lecturers and the return on investment of teaching, service and research. A number of deans and directors were called last week for a briefing on the financial status of the ¼¯ÃÀÂ鶹 and also the need for us all to start generating income or increasing the pace to help with the operational expenses. We were told that ¼¯ÃÀÂ鶹 received RM487 million in 2015 when actually the minimum required is RM670 million. I gave my opinions on many of the issues raised. But one that I want to pen in here is that we should convince the ministry and the government that with the investment given all over the previous years, the universities are actually giving out or producing much much more in terms of value. Investing in education is never a loss. For example, ¼¯ÃÀÂ鶹 produces now at least 500 PhD graduates per year. The cost of sending one PhD student overseas is now about RM1 million. It may sounds simplistic but, with 500 PhD graduates per year, that’s a value of RM500 million already. What about the 1200 Masters graduates and the 5000 graduates we produced per year too?. What about the services which our doctors give to patients treated at our Hospital Canselor Tuanku Mukhriz? What about the expertise and consultancy which hundreds of our top professors are giving at the state and national levels. We were also told that 70% of the operational expenses are used for emoluments or salaries. But can we actually put a value to each our lecturers and professors? Let us take our topmost professors who are icons and national figures. What will their ‘academic value’ in terms of ringgit and sen? To my simple mind, the government should give each of the university enough funding to recruit and retain the best. Overall, what our universities are churning out in output are worth more than the amount the government is giving. We should start estimating the worth of our academic standing in terms that the Economic Planning Unit and the Ministry of Finance are using so that they will be agreeable to give us more money.