Students must be involved in drafting campus concert guidelines, says ministry

PETALING JAYA: Student representative councils and student unions must be involved in drafting the Guidelines for Entertainment Activities (Concerts) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), says the Higher Education Ministry.

The ministry’s Higher Education Department has ordered the management of HEIs to ensure that the student bodies are involved in the guideline drafting process after its minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the guidelines needed to have input from the students before it is implemented.

“In connection with this (Mohamed Khaled’s statement), the department is instructing the HEI management to ensure that student representative councils or student unions are involved in formulating the guidelines so that it takes into account the voice and needs of the students as well as the suitability in each HEI and locality before it is officially adopted at the respective HEI level,” it said in a statement Tuesday (Sept 5).

It added that the space and empowerment given to students to contribute to the guidelines is an element of student empowerment as they are the main stakeholders.

It also said that the initial guidelines, which went viral, are still at the recommendation stage and are a reference for HEIs in developing their own respective guidelines.

On Sept 1, the ministry had decided to review the controversial "Guidelines for Entertainment Activities (Concerts) in HEIs" that regulated entertainment activities on university campuses.

A report in Sin Chew Daily said that the guidelines, which were believed to have been issued to universities on Aug 30, stipulated, among others, that male artistes must not be dressed in women’s clothes or vice versa, and that the performers must not display symbols unaccepted by society such as LGBTQ.

They are not to invite the spectators on stage and that the concert must begin by 8.45pm at the latest and should end by 10.45pm.