Analysing higher education policy design towards developing a framework of international student experience in Malaysia

In spite of the annual increase in the number of internationally mobile students travelling across borders for higher education, a holistic overview on the students' study and living experiences is lacking. International studentsencounter various difficulties in adjusting to academic, social and lifestyle challenges faced tlu'oughout their duration of study. As such, the main aim of this study is to develop the "international student experience" conceptual framework capable of facilitating higher education practitioners in designings policies and initiatives to support the international student population. The context selected for this study is Malaysia as international student recruitment underlines the country's agenda 111 international ising its higher education system. Towards this aim, five policy documents from four countries well - established in international student recruitment, namely Gennany, the Netherlands, ew Zealand and Australia were coded and analysed following conventions outlined under the discourse analysis method. It was found that higher education institutions play central role in international student management, in collaboration with various participants within and outside the institutions. The design of policies significantly impact interpretation and delivery of "intemational student experience"across higher education systems. This include how each policy statement is written, the inclusion of policy instruments binding the participants to their responsibilities, the level of operation and tangible sanctions outlined, the legitimation and enforcement of policy statements among the participants, and the values and principles projected to the participants through the policies.As such, the design of policies defining the "intemational student experience" in the Malaysian higher education system must take into consideration the overarching principles underlying intemational student recruitment, targeted intemational student population, autonomy to higher education institutions, regulated segments, legal enforcement across public and private higher education institutions, empowered network of participants, and flexibility for future expanSIOn

A guided search non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm for the multi-objective university course timetabling problem

Copyright @ Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.The university course timetabling problem is a typical combinatorial optimization problem. This paper tackles the multi-objective university course timetabling problem (MOUCTP) and proposes a guided search non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm to solve the MOUCTP. The proposed algorithm integrates a guided search technique, which uses a memory to store useful information extracted from previous good solutions to guide the generation of new solutions, and two local search schemes to enhance its performance for the MOUCTP. The experimental results based on a set of test problems show that the proposed algorithm is efficient for solving the MOUCTP

Searches for heavy long-lived charged particles with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

Searches for heavy long-lived charged particles are performed using a data sample of 19.1 fb−1 from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√ = 8 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess is observed above the estimated background and limits are placed on the mass of long-lived particles in various supersymmetric models. Long-lived tau sleptons in models with gauge-mediated symmetry breaking are excluded up to masses between 440 and 385 GeV for tan β between 10 and 50, with a 290 GeV limit in the case where only direct tau slepton production is considered. In the context of simplified LeptoSUSY models, where sleptons are stable and have a mass of 300 GeV, squark and gluino masses are excluded up to a mass of 1500 and 1360 GeV, respectively. Directly produced charginos, in simplified models where they are nearly degenerate to the lightest neutralino, are excluded up to a mass of 620 GeV. R-hadrons, composites containing a gluino, bottom squark or top squark, are excluded up to a mass of 1270, 845 and 900 GeV, respectively, using the full detector; and up to a mass of 1260, 835 and 870 GeV using an approach disregarding information from the muon spectrometer

Infected pancreatic necrosis: outcomes and clinical predictors of mortality. A post hoc analysis of the MANCTRA-1 international study

: The identification of high-risk patients in the early stages of infected pancreatic necrosis (IPN) is critical, because it could help the clinicians to adopt more effective management strategies. We conducted a post hoc analysis of the MANCTRA-1 international study to assess the association between clinical risk factors and mortality among adult patients with IPN. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to identify prognostic factors of mortality. We identified 247 consecutive patients with IPN hospitalised between January 2019 and December 2020. History of uncontrolled arterial hypertension (p = 0.032; 95% CI 1.135-15.882; aOR 4.245), qSOFA (p = 0.005; 95% CI 1.359-5.879; aOR 2.828), renal failure (p = 0.022; 95% CI 1.138-5.442; aOR 2.489), and haemodynamic failure (p = 0.018; 95% CI 1.184-5.978; aOR 2.661), were identified as independent predictors of mortality in IPN patients. Cholangitis (p = 0.003; 95% CI 1.598-9.930; aOR 3.983), abdominal compartment syndrome (p = 0.032; 95% CI 1.090-6.967; aOR 2.735), and gastrointestinal/intra-abdominal bleeding (p = 0.009; 95% CI 1.286-5.712; aOR 2.710) were independently associated with the risk of mortality. Upfront open surgical necrosectomy was strongly associated with the risk of mortality (p < 0.001; 95% CI 1.912-7.442; aOR 3.772), whereas endoscopic drainage of pancreatic necrosis (p = 0.018; 95% CI 0.138-0.834; aOR 0.339) and enteral nutrition (p = 0.003; 95% CI 0.143-0.716; aOR 0.320) were found as protective factors. Organ failure, acute cholangitis, and upfront open surgical necrosectomy were the most significant predictors of mortality. Our study confirmed that, even in a subgroup of particularly ill patients such as those with IPN, upfront open surgery should be avoided as much as possible. Study protocol registered in ClinicalTrials.Gov (I.D. Number NCT04747990)

Public Universities and Budget Cuts in Malaysia

Malaysian public universities have experienced drastic budget cuts over the past twoyears, which did not bode well for Malaysia’s academic community. This articlepresents an overview of the situation, explaining the rationales behind the budgetcuts, adjustments made by public universities, and unaddressed gaps

Making the Gap Year a Reality: Six Issues for Consideration

Starting in 2017, Malaysia has introduced the gap year for students in public universities, where they are given the option to take a year off for industrial training, pursue their interests in the arts, or work on volunteering projects. The intention is for the students to gain exposure, discover their potential and develop intellectually. How might the country make the gap year a meaningful experience for its students? This article offers six issues for consideration

A critical analysis of Malaysian higher education institutions’ response towards COVID-19: Sustaining academic program delivery

The COVID-19 global pandemic has caused massive disruptions in many sectors of society including higher education. Although the mainstream news outlets and social media have discussed how Malaysia’s higher education system coped with the disruptions caused by COVID-19, a fuller narrative needs to be properly documented. This qualitative narrative review involved an analysis of various types of publications including scholarly articles, world organizations’ reports, university documents as well as commentaries and reports from mainstream news outlets and social media that directly focus on the topic. It is evident from the review that Malaysian HEIs’ priority was in safeguarding student and staff welfare in terms of their health and safety. While providing emergency aid to students and support for institutions, the Ministry of Higher Education together with HEIs developed administrative measures to safeguard the delivery of programmes through remote online learning. The analysis confirmed that while online learning is considered appropriate during an emergency period, the digital divide clearly still exists, posing the greatest challenge to Malaysia’s recovery post COVID-19. The critical review on the immediate impacts of the pandemic on teaching and learning point to key recommendations for leadership, student welfare, and the importance of flexible education and evidence-based policymaking

The AIMS impact, 10 years on: internationalisation at home of ASEAN higher education institutions

Internationalisation has been infused into the core activities of higher education institutions in ASEAN for the past 15 years. Various efforts have been taken to ensure that internationalisation is infused into the higher learning institutions. The efforts are impart through collaborations between the higher learning institutions with various organisations and associations such as ASEAN University Network (AUN), The ASEAN International Mobility for Students (AIMS), Support for Higher Education in ASEAN (SHARE) and various others. AIMS is a regional mobility programme designed with the objective of encouraging regional mobility among students and staff of ASEAN higher education institutions (HEIs), consequently support and accelerate ASEAN’s vision of an integrated community. The objective of the paper is to review the impact of the programme on participating HEIs, 10 years after it is implemented in the Southeast Asian region. It is argued that the biggest impact of AIMS is the introduction of the internationalisation concept to ASEAN HEIs. Participating HEIs benefit through internationalisation of curriculum, where they incorporate international, intercultural, and/or global dimensions into the content of the curriculum. Their student and staff population also experience development of intercultural competencies through various on-campus integration programmes introduced. Above all, the overarching intention of organising AIMS is to stimulate internationalisation at home among the ASEAN HEIs. Each initiative has to be ‘by design’; in other words, through deliberate design and planning, in order to benefit the overall campus community

Internationalisation of Malaysian higher education: policies, practices and the SDGs

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the policies and practices of internationalisation of higher education in Malaysia, and to specifically explore how Sustainable Development Goals are translated into policies and practices. Design/methodology/approach: This paper takes a chronological and historical approach to examine policies and practices on internationalisation of higher education in Malaysia. This includes identifying patterns, trends and shifts on internationalisation at the system and institutional levels. Findings: At the system level, Malaysia has transformed from a sending to receiving country, from being an aid recipient to an equal partner, and from a host to a provider. At the institutional level, internationalisation transforms from a fad to a norm, and from having unilateral collaboration to setting up multinational collaborations with international partners. Equally important, the paper discusses the role of internationalisation to address the global Sustainable Development Goals, and identify policy gaps at the national level and the de facto practices of Sustainable Development Goals at the institutional level. Originality/value: This paper charts the changes of internationalisation of higher education in Malaysia, and importantly, shows gaps to incorporate the global Sustainable Development Goals and to relate this global agenda to the internationalisation of higher education