JOHOR BARU: An amendment of the Private Higher Education Act will enable public-funded private higher education institutions (HEIs), such as Southern University College (Southern UC) here, to set up foundations to finance their opera-tions.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said presently, private higher education institutions had to be registered as private companies, which created problems for public-funded HEIs.

He said private institutions like Southern UC and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC) were not profit-driven and found it tough to operate on the model of private companies.

An amendment to the Act would resolve this issue, he added.

“University colleges like these depend on public donations to ope­rate.

“Their fees are not high because they are not profit-driven.

“They do make money but the profits are then channelled towards expanding the campus or facilities, as well as offering additional cour­ses.

“An amendment to the Act will enable them to set up a foundation where funds could be poured into running the campus,” he said in a press conference after attending Southern UC’s 26th convocation ce­remony yesterday.

Dr Wee said the matter was en­dorsed by the Cabinet and the first reading for the amendment had

been done.

He added that the amendment is expected to take place in the next Parliament sitting.

Southern UC, well known as the state’s community-initiated institution, was set up in 1990 by Johor Chinese education enthusiasts and received the university college status in 2012.

Dr Wee also encouraged higher education institutions to restructure their courses to take on the challenges posed by the Indus­trial Revolution 4.0, where technology could lead to job losses.

He added that jobs such as data scientists, data professionals as well as robotics and genetic engineers would be highly sought after.

On the general election, Dr Wee, who is deputy MCA president, said the party was adopting a realistic approach.

“We are not like the Opposition, which is all talk. We want to do our jobs well first before talking about winning,” he said.

He gave the assurance that the MCA candidate list would have a good mix of new and old as well as women.

Dr Wee, who is also Johor MCA chairman, said state leaders deci­ded that all general election war rooms in the state would be opened by June 30.

Traditional MCA seats in Johor include eight parliamentary seats and 15 state seats.

-The Star-