University act amendment to allow student community service - NST

Putrajaya: April 17, 2008 by Hamidah Atan

The University and University College Act 1971 will be amended to allow students in institutions of higher learning to do community service.

Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Idris Haron said yesterday the proposed amendments would be tabled in Parliament in the middle of the year."We want to encourage and give freedom to university students so that they can be actively involved in community programmes, not in politics," he said after launching a human rights seminar, organised by the ministry and the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) at his office.

Haron said this way, students could contribute to the community and they would also be freer to express their views on communal issues.Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin had recently said that the amendments would provide students as well as universities more power and freedom.

A preliminary study by the ministry revealed that the Act as it stands could hamper the creativity and achievement of students and university management.Khaled had also said the amendements would give universities more autonomous power to run their respective set-ups.

On the proposal for human rights education committees to be established in universities, Haron said these would initially be set up at the ministry's level."We will see from there whether the committees can be formed in the universities," he said. The committee's role is to monitor activities jointly organised by Suhakam and the ministry at all universities.Haron said the committee would help Suhakam's efforts to instill awareness of human rights among university students and staff.