Abstract

University system in Malaysia has been going through major transformation in recent years. At the level of institution, this has resulted in restructuring their governance systems to accommodate the changes and transformation activities. This paper reports on a study that seeks to understand how a selected Malaysian public university managers perceive themselves to be handling changes in the sector. The trends and issues on institutional governance, management and administration form the background for discussing academic freedom, budget allocation, staffing, quality assurance and the career path of Malaysian academics and managers in the public university system. The perspectives, insights and concerns gleaned from the interviews provide somewhat complementary views of the Malaysian public universities governance system. With some reasonable compromise between collegiality and autonomy and modern corporate management approaches, the future of the Malaysian higher education system within Asia is predicted to be much more favourable.