| Summary: | The Malaysian economy experienced an economic boom in the mid-1990s. At the same time,
the demand for higher education increased tremendously. In 2005, there were more than 18
public universities and 27 private universities and university colleges in Malaysia and more
than 500 private colleges offering a variety of courses ranging from the certificate level to the
degree level. Some of these institutions offered their own diplomas or degrees and others work
in collaboration with local or foreign colleges and universities.
Two main factors have contributed to the growth of higher education in Malaysia, namely the
economic slowdown as a result of the Asian crisis, and the democratization of education by the
Malaysian government. The rapid development of tertiary institutions in the country was
mainly dominated by the traditional mode of learning, namely the face-to-face education.
However, with the advent of the internet era, the demand for higher education increased and
more flexible approaches to learning, namely the open and distance learning was seen as a
practical mode in getting higher education today. Consequently, two institutions were
established to provide such learning modes, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Unitar) and Open
University Malaysia.
Open University Malaysia (OUM) was established in August 2000 as a substitute to the many
distance learning programs provided by the public universities at that time. It is believed that
public universities should focus on the traditional face-to-face mode of learning and a separate
institution should be established to focus the development of education through the new
technological modes of learning. Consequently, a consortium of 11 public universities in
Malaysia agreed to establish METEOR Sdn Bhd, (a holding company owned by the public
universities), and the Ministry of Education invited METEOR to form the Open University
Malaysia. Since then, more than 41 types of diploma and degree programs have been launched
with a total enrollment of about 38,000 students in January 2006.
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