Malaysia can become the world’s education hub in 20 years’ time should the momentum in the country’s higher education system remain positive as it is today, according to Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh.

He said various initiatives were being implemented by the government to transform higher education in the country which saw the improvement of ranking for local universities in various rating lists in the world.

“Since 2012, the position of our higher education in the Universitas 21 (U21) ranking has moved 11 positions ahead from 36th to 25th position at the moment...we can see that the position of Universiti Malaya, which has always been up and rising, is targeted to be in the top 100 universities in the world within two years.

“In Asean, we can see that five of the top eight universities are from Malaysia and our research universities are in the one percent of the best research universities in the world,” he told reporters after delivering his speech at the ‘Industrial Revolution 4.0: Undergraduates Challenge’ forum at the National Student Leadership Conference (Pemanas) 2017 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday night.

Idris said with all these achievements coupled with a holistic and balanced approach in the higher education system, Malaysia would be able to become like Andalusia, which was once the world’s focus as a centre of knowledge.

At a different forum, Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid said schools were still allowed to use the cane for students who disobeyed rules or have discipline problems.

Speaking in the "New Millennium Education: Negaraku Mentality" forum, he reminded participants to be more creative and innovative in facing the 4.0 industrial revolution.

Themed "Undergraduates, Malaysia’s New Millennium Architects", Pemanas, held in conjunction with the Umno General Assembly 2017, is a programme organised by Umno’s Education Bureau.

- Bernama