PUTRAJAYA: Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin has given his assurance that the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Act 1976 or Act 173 will be amended to provide more autonomy and freedom to its students.
Khaled said this was because the university was not subject to the Universities and University Colleges Act (AUKU) 1971 unlike other public tertiary institutions.
"It is true that UiTM is not subject to AUKU but there are clauses in the UiTM Act that are similar to the clauses in AUKU.
"We want to amend AUKU then the UiTM act must also be amended. The act will be amended similarly to what was revised in AUKU," he said at the AUKU town hall session here today.
Also present during the town hall session was Deputy Minister Higher Education Datuk Mohammad Yusof Apdal.
Khaled said if the amendment is not made, it may invite similar problems including the existence of demands from pressure groups.
"Otherwise UiTM will fall behind or (students) will challenge the minister to debate.
"If we can achieve something by sitting down, we negotiate; discuss, and we do not need to debate to find who wins or who loses," he said.
Earlier during the town hall session, students posed a question to the minister on the freedom of UiTM students to participate in activities because the university was not subject to AUKU.
In a separate development, Khaled said all institutions of higher learning will continue to follow the Health Ministry guidelines on Covid-19.
"Perhaps (the surge of cases) happened at schools, but no matter what we will follow the guidelines issued by the Health Ministry," he said.
Khaled said this when asked about the increase in Covid-19 cases, especially involving the education cluster.
