Nobody Needs a Ministry of Higher Education

Send us Fan MailMalaysia is debating the repeal of the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, and I want to go further: abolish AUKU, and abolish the MQA with it. Speaking as a former academic who felt the injustice of that Act first-hand, I don't see the equity in a law with the power to suspend students and force out staff — or the need for a qualifications agency layered on top of professional accreditation bodies that already do the job. Architecture already has LAM. Medicine has its own. So what exactly is the MQA for, beyond the "graduate on time" targets and publication counts that push supervisors and students towards work nobody believes in?Then the harder question: what is a university actually for? I sketch an alternative — learners accumulating credits across institutions, seeking out the professors who genuinely teach rather than the ones distracted by research, verified by employers rather than certificates. Universities were built around the campus in an era before any of this was possible. Architecture education in particular has drifted towards rewarding form-making and software fluency when it should be teaching students to identify problems. Education is going to change whether we like it or not, and repealing AUKU is a step in the right direction.© 2026 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob. AI generated image.Support the showDo subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere!