Transformation of Higher Education Status: Issues on Faculty Workload

The Malaysian Public Universities are undergoing the process of transformation which requires efforts from every components of the universities, especially the academic staffs, in order to achieve high rankings internationally and to fulfil their Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for the purpose of promotion and appraisal. These ambitions have increased the workload of academic staffs and extend their workloads from teaching to other myriad of responsibilities such as; research, consultation, administrative and community services. This paper examines the impact of transformation of university status and the workload of academic staff. Data was collected through interview with the top level management from four different categories of universities such as APEX, Research, Focus and Comprehensive University. Thematic content data analysis technique was used in analysing the data collected. This paper finds that the transformation of higher education status has intricated the workloads of academic staffs with less benefits. The workloads and job specifications of the academic staffs are different in accordance to the categories of the universities. Meanwhile, all public universities are bound to follow the dictated scheme provided by the Public Service Department of Malaysia. This study suggests that the contract of service of academic staffs to be revised and to include clear terms on the improvement of scheme and benefits for academic staffs in public universities. (C) 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk