Budget cut does not affect Higher Education Ministry, says Idris

Malaysia’s oldest public research university, Universiti Malaya, is among the many varsities that will see a budget cut. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, October 24, 2015. A drop of RM2.4 billion in allocation will not affect the Higher Education Ministry in its effort to promote education, said its minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.

He said the reduced allocation was due to Putrajaya's adversely affected income as a result of the fall in national oil and commodity prices.

“We must understand the current challenging economic situation, and the government can still afford to provide the ministry with quite a comfortable budget. Admittedly, it is less (than the previous budget) but it is to train the universities to be more efficient in its implementation.

“The government can still afford to come up with a balanced budget like last year, despite the current economic uncertainty,” he told reporters after attending the sixth Higher Education Ministry Tour programme, “Soaring Upwards”, in Ipoh today.

Idris was commenting on the 2016 Budget tabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, which allocated RM13.378 billion to the ministry.

The allocation is 5% of the total budget, as compared with the RM15.785 billion in last year’s budget.

Putrajaya is still going ahead with the 1Malaysia book voucher programme worth RM250 a student for 1.2 million higher education students, and to check its abuse, it can only be used at recognised books shops only.

Idris said Putrajaya would always make evaluations if there were other needs in the coming budgets.

“The government will give due consideration when we conduct studies, and there will be needs which will have to be upgraded, especially in the field of research, which will impact heavily on the stature of universities in the country,” he said. – Bernama, October 24, 2015.