International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Research Volume 1, 2014
org/ijmser
A Compare Study on Advanced Education
between China and Malaysia
Lai Yifei; Li Keyang
*
Economics and Management School, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
*lyf37319@163.com
Received 4 April 2014; Accepted 16 April 2014; Published 21 May 2014
© 2014 Science and Engineering Publishing Company
Abstract
From the viewpoint of comparative education, there are
obvious differences in the course of facing to the
internationalization, pluralism and popularity development
in the higher education between China and Malaysia. The
text compare and analyze the differences in the system, scale,
structure and function between the two countries’ higher
education-as well as the problem emerge from the
development reform course. It could offer inspire and
reference for the reformation and development of Chinese
higher education.
Keywords
China; Malaysia; Higher Education; Compare Study
Introduction
The Chinese government attaches high importance and
pays much attention to the reform and development of
higher education. With the relying on science and
education to rejuvenate the nation as the first and
foremost task recently, it has formed into strategic
guidance and policies. While education has become
significant forces to propel economic development and
social advancement, higher school become valuable
properties and resources, and the relying on science
and education to rejuvenate the nation stratagem goes
increasingly into everyone's heart.
At the same time, reform of Malaysia's higher
education strides forward continuously as well. Since
the independence of 1957, Malaysia's higher education
has carried everything before it. From 1990s, Malaysia
education policy has focused on developing higher
education struggling, and made heavy investment into
it.
Through drawing comparisons in several aspects
between two countries during the development of
higher education, this article probes into some
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problems of our higher education reform, in order to
provide our higher education development with some
kind of inspirations and references.
Comparison in Internationalization of Higher
Education between China and Malaysia
Since the foundation of China, the internationalizing
process of our higher education has experienced all
kinds of situations. In early days after liberation,
education was situated in unidirectional imitation and
former USSR state. On the guideline ideology, it
emphasized on the political and economic function of
higher education, but neglected higher school's
particularity, its development rules, as well as its
universal principle. During the 10 years of the Culture
Revolution, our higher education suffered extreme
destruction. Owning to self-closure and deviation from
world trends, the gap with other countries had
broadened.
After the year of 1978, our higher education entered a
new historical era. Since then it has walked up into a
healthy road of resuming, developing and reforming.
With China's economy joining with that of the world
and its entering into WTO, the internationalizing
process of higher education stepped on the pace. From
the start of reforming and opening to now, 700,000
people went abroad for academic activities,
distributing in 108 countries and areas and reading for
almost all the existing subjects. Presently, our
universities develop comprehensive
intercommunication and cooperation, such as
exchanging students, exchanging visits and
cooperating academic researches with other countries.
However, with our notions being far from changing
over and our understanding about or our attentions
paid to educational internationalization being not
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www.seipub.org/ijmser International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Research Volume 1, 2014
nearly enough, we do not quite comprehend the
“game rules” of international educational cooperation
and competition, which is against trends of the times.
It is extremely incommensurate with China as a great
educational country that recently our higher
educational internationalization is low and our efforts
are far from enough.
Comparing with that of our country, Malaysia's
educational development course is much smoother. As
a capitalist country, they have always been
persevering in their particular road to higher
educational internationalization, taking western
developed countries’ pattern as blueprint. Considering
the situations of their own country, Malaysia makes
great efforts to strengthen internationalizing
cooperation with foreign universities and higher
educational institutes and upgrade their own
educational level, with the hope to build Malaysia into
regional educational centre of Asia, and take up a
position in the international educational market. In
recent years, Malaysia is not only taking an active role
into international cooperation by way of setting up
flexible forms such as: running schools together with
universities abroad, admitting credits with each other,
allowing foreign universities to set up their branch
institutes and etc., but also trying to promote its higher
educational system amalgamating with that of foreign
countries through setting up new academic course
models as "2+1"or "3+1",and therefore build up a
favorable image of Malaysia education opening policy
in Asia.
Comparison in Pluralism of Higher Education
between China and Malaysia
Plural Founders of Schools
Malaysia saw a great development on education with
one public school at the very beginning of her
independence expanded to nine and a few private
schools exploded to more than 500.It was the
development of both public & private schools that
escalated rapidly the position of Malaysian High
Education in Asia.
Under the passive impact of Russian High Education
system China had abolished private schools and
colleges for a long period of time .The private schools
and colleges suffered from a kind of obvious
discrimination .They , “the non–national citizens”
couldn’t obtain the same status & reputation of the
public schools to enjoy the absolute right of awarding
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the degrees .In recent years ,although private schools
gained some visible progress ,they failed at present to
play an important role of advancing the popularity of
high education because of their weak groundwork ,late
efforts & non –appropriate of the government .
Plural Ways of Originating Schools
There were not only General University but Advanced
Professional Colleges in Malaysia .By the means of
Integrating General education with professional
education; Malaysia established an innovative
education system to serve the economy effectively.
What’ more, Malaysia actively set up a series of
educational modes such as tele-education and online
education breaking the traditional simplex face-to-face
mode in the classroom .As a result ,more and more
youths could receive high education in Malaysia .
China still existed, and a fair, equal & open system of
high education development did not take shape .There
was still a gap between China and other countries in
spite of some present achievements on online
education & lifelong education in China.
Plural Educational Objects
The Chinese high education aimed at producing those
graduates with the intermediate or advanced
comprehensive abilities such as firm foundation, broad
horizons, great competence and good quality.
Nevertheless, Malaysia draw lesson of financial crisis
and set on training those academic applicable and
killed talents in order to meet different demands of all
trades and professions, optimize the structure of
workforce resource of Malaysia & promote the
recovery development of Malaysian economy.
Plural Teaching Strategies
The education of Malaysia maintains that such many
kinds of teaching methods as the didactics, seminar
and case analysis .Both the leading role of teachers and
the principal role of students were brought into full
play .It put emphasis on educating must meet the
economic innovation, encouraging students to raise
question or put forward different views on the same
question, and training students’ innovative
consciousness and creativity.
At present, Chinese University still lacks plural
characteristic and vigor in personnel training .Though
our country pursues quality–oriented education at
present, universities of the professorship are generally
unable to offer stronger technical, suitability vocational
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education ,still kept and satisfied with systematic
theory teaching .Talents trained by these universities
do not meet the eager demand of the society ,even
bring new talent’s imbalance between supply and
demand .The high-level, high quality innovative
talents that the university especially the key university
trains are insufficient in quantity and their lack of
technological innovation ability are unfavorable to
improving Chinese scientific and technical innovation
level .The long-term deficiency of university’s high
level innovative personnel training ability make China
in weak status in the competition of overall national
strength .
Comparison in Popularity of Higher
Education between China and Malaysia
The popularity of higher education reflects the
expansion of demand for the high-class talented
required by social economy and technology
development. It emphasize on the cultivation of the
talented with each level and type, concern about the
quantity of the talented. It is one of the targets that not
only pursued by the developed countries but also by
the developing countries. According to the higher-
education development stage theory (AME sociology
professor Martin-Troy), that is "essence-popularity-
universality". There pointed out the concrete index of
the right-age (18~21 years old) enrollment rate: the rate
within 15% is the essence type; the rate between 15%
and 50% is the popularity type; the rate above 50% is
the universality type. Currently, most developed
countries have already entered the popularity stage.
As a developing country, Malays’ person from 19 to 24
years old who accepted the higher education have
reached 13%.It’s obvious that Malaysia′s higher
education level has already approached to the
popularity.
Take the current circumstance of our country for
example, the national collage recruitment is 1080
thousand in 1998 and reach 3200 thousand in 2002
which is the triple of 1998’s.To the end of 2003, various
national higher-education students have reached 16
million, the gross enrollment rate has reached
15%.According to the international-passing caliber, our
country’s higher education is walking up to the
popularity, on the turning period of the talented
education. But the higher education's conception,
content and form of teaching, standard of learning,
management and strategy--as well as the scale and
function of collage are still settle in the talented stage,
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which has no change in quality. Therefore, it still exist
many problems compared to Malaysia. In summary,
the primary reasons are as follows.
The Ideas of Educating the Talented Restrict the
Course of Popularity.
The clear characteristic of popularity is that it takes the
need of the market for the resources as the start and
cultivates the talented with each category and each
level. Furthermore, it gradually become the specialized
subject with relevant technique and be used as the
knowledge.
Malaysia gradually canceled some teaching content
which not accommodate to the times development,
strongly promote the information technical (IT)
education; stand out the position of English in IT. Add
many courses, such as information, industry
manufacture, space engineering, craft engineering,
maritime engineering, microorganism engineering and
physic engineering. Our country’s higher education
is placed in the administration-oriented planned
model. The currently higher-education setting, layout
and structure are formed in the planned economy
system. The layout of subject is not suiting to society
and economy development. Many subjects have
already obviously lagged behind ages, while some
subjects which are bad in need haven’t included in the
higher-education category. As a result, the talented
cultivate under such model have bad
market-adaptation. Leading to the phenomenon of
disjoint and error in the higher-education and market
demand aspects. It doesn’t incarnate the role of market
choice and market orienting.
The Management System Restrict the Course of
Popularity
The popularity of higher education means: on one
hand the collage must become the body of market to
participate in the competition, realize the effective
collocate of teaching resources, exert the best efficiency;
on the other hand, promote the cognition of industrial
notion, let it as the knowledge industry of the whole
national economy with conduct, whole and fundament.
Transform the Scholl-running system and change the
investment mechanism.
Malaysia's higher education primarily practices the
“enterprise” which aims at the public university, that
is the free university from the administrative
authorities of kinds of regulation inside, circulate as
business companies. The government hopes to adopt
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the management method, save the fiscal expenditure, utilization rate is low. The number, scale, structure,
advance the administration efficiency, and prevents facilities...etc. of the collage still can't satisfy social
the losing of the talented from the public university at public’s need for entrance. the higher education of
the same time. famous and undergraduate school is basically placed
in" selling party" market; on the other hand, because of
Our country's higher-education undertaking doesn’t
the reasons of the system, management method and so
become the body of market in the real sense. In the
on, many school especially the altitude specialty school
development policy of some places and most people’s
enroll students to be used as the Life Line, and
thought, high education is seen as the welfare and
primarily put the energy on enroll students, and
commonweal undertaking, neglected its industrial
blindly expand the enrollment scale, before you can
characteristic. It's extremely disadvantageous for the
say Jack Robinson, the number of the students is
higher education developing to the popularity which
exceed ten thousand. But the condition is very poor,
school-running and investment mechanism still suffer
and the teaching resources are absent. The education
the tie of the planned economy system in some certain.
develops quickly, only in regard to teachers’ troops
The Level of School-running Restrict the Popularity development, which is very slow. The rate of the high
teachers and the students in altitude specialty school
Malaysia reforms the single governmental school-
exceed to 1:20, some even exceed to 1:50, most teachers
running form, encourage private. In the seventh
‘teaching task over-emphasize, teacher become the
development plan of Malaysia, government break the
prelist machine. To open the lesson, they have to retain
restriction order to private school-running for the first
teachers, some senior high vocational school hire the
time, admit the private enterprise invest to running
teacher from the outside even hold 50% in all the
school. From then on, privatization has been widely
teachers. As to the teacher's qualifications, educational
advocated as a mechanism which could enhance
background and the level of structure, the title of a
efficiency, satisfy public choice, and alleviate
technical post, profession ability and so on, that is a
government budget. It concretely represent in three
long story.
aspects: firstly, increase the ratio that private section in
the higher-education budget, significantly lift the Therefore, after the popularity of the higher education,
tuition standard. According to the estimate, tuitions the antinomy focus on higher-education resources and
will geminating increased after privately owned; the people’s accepting, and pay attention to the
Secondly, enhance the contact between the higher education quantity very much. And this kind of
education and private section, such as further improve condition must change.
teacher-educate system, make it match to demand for
The Ability of the Social to Bear Restrict the Course of
the science and technology specialist. Thirdly, promote
Popularity
the role and deal which higher-education organization
played, encourage the private section to exert the more The popularity process of higher education in practice
positive effect in providing higher education. is also the course of the society and household
consumption structure has new change. Under the
Hereafter privately owned policy, the number of
planned mode, higher education is considered as a
private higher-education organizations and the
planned and welfare education, individual basically
practice number within the suit age to enter high
doesn’t burden relevant education fees. However, in
schools have increased evidently in Malaysia. the
the popularity stage, although the nation offering a
student number to occupy the competences have
part education budget, high teachers of primarily prop
increase from 9.1% in 1985 surge to 34.7% in 1995.In
up are common people. Higher education which is a
1996 the private university quantity of the Malaysia is
kind of importance investment that can't omit will
354,increase to 415 in June in 1997,but until 1998 June,
bring into the citizen's consumption structure system.
there have already registered 577 private colleges in
From this angle, popularity of higher education in
the Ministry of Education. Establishment of the private
practice is also popularity of higher-education
schools breaks out the phrase of government-operated
investment, closely related with society economy
situation. Not only increase the quantity of enrollment,
development level and national income.
but also form a competition situation, so as to increase
the teaching quantity. Malaysia government declares that Malaya University
and some national university will gradually business
In our country, the higher education is limit and the

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International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Research Volume 1, 2014
enterprise from 1996. The student in these universities
won't enjoy high government subsidy again, and on
the contrary have to pay a considerable school fees of
large number. This measure aggravates the economy
pressure on the student and its family, therefore some
financial situations make some students unable
continuously enter higher school, compelled
abdication education. Afterwards, the Malaysia
government gradually, slowly increases the charging
of higher school, and the student loan measure
matches, alleviating the pressure on students and their
families. Make sure that the entire students who have
hope can acquire the opportunity of accepting the
higher education but not to the excess for the school
fees are too high.
As our country is broad and the development of every
locality is unbalance, higher education also assumes
"dualistic structure" as economy development. Big city
have already followed into popularity. But in
countryside especially the far mountain area of side,
the rate of entering the higher school is very low. The
main reason that results in this condition is that the
gap between economy development and the income
level is broad. Farmers, lay-off workers and people
who belong to the low-income community and lots of
the poor are fragile to accept higher education; many
people are not able to take out the funds to afford their
children. This is the main obstacle which prevents
higher education become popularity.
The Tag
Through the analysis and comparison above, we can
see that the reformation and development of our
country's higher education will cost a long time. It's a
changing and dynamic process which is related to the
level of social economic development and people's
living conditions, and a process which demands
continuously improvement of its system, scale,
construction, function and so on. Higher education can
push forward the process and lever of modernization
of our country's higher education only when it is
international, diverse, popular, and takes the
advantages of other countries' higher education and
serves the students, teachers, community economy and
social development.
Advantages of others can be absorbed. As a
developing country which is more developed to some
extent, Malaysia has good experience which both has
common advantages of other developing countries and
can be regarded as a guide of this field in the
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development of high education. So the value of it can
be seen by other developing countries. Towards
current problems of the development of high
education in China, we can enhance them through the
ways below:
Firstly, to obtain optimal profit of education economics
and social benefit, we should pay more attention to the
adjusting effect of the market, and distribute properly
the education resources using economic lever.
Secondly, try our best to increase the way we get the
education investment, and the importance of receiving
money from foreign countries should be seen, while
enlarging the amount of the money into education
from the government;
Thirdly, advance the reformation of higher education
system, regulate and optimize its market and thus
construct a higher education system that is diverse and
open, and form a pattern in which public school is the
majority and several ownership patterns exist.
Fourthly, to exert absolutely the major college's
potential energy, create high quality education and
well-known brand. And exert absolutely the
well-known brand and college's superiority of science
and intelligence. Establish schools in various forms
with the local government, reducing the gap of
development of higher education and the level of
school's handling between the areas. Then making the
resource of higher education better and improving the
whole higher educational level of the nation.
At last, to shorten the distance with the universities of
developed countries and get more resources,
universities at home should communicate with those
of foreign countries and setup more and more
programs collaborated by both sides while improving
themselves.
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