The higher education system in Malaysia: Metropolitan, cross-national, peripheral or national?

Abstract

This article initially outlines Clark's overall theoretical formulation of viewing higher education institutions in terms of academic organization governed by elements which are unique to the system and a disciplinary logic. These unique attributes have, according to Clark, a cross-national convergence. The article then goes on to demonstrate through an analysis of the origin, growth and development of a study of the Malaysian higher education system that the overall theoretical formulation of Clark has an inherent weakness, as it under-plays the role national policies and environmental imperatives play in determining national higher educational systems. However, Clark's theoretical framework, barring these limitations, does provide a useful tool to systematically study how higher education systems are organized and governed in different cultural milieux. In spite of their wider environmental constraints, specific higher education systems have evolved and retained certain basic features and elements which are cross-national in character.