PETALING JAYA: A Higher Education Digitisation Plan is in the works as part of the efforts to strengthen the nation’s higher education sector, says Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad (pic).
The Higher Education Minister said the plan was expected to be launched in the middle of the year.
She said it was part of the ministry’s Higher Education Welfare Blueprint, whose third strategy was to empower the digitisation agenda.
"We have developed a lot of systems but they have not been integrated yet,” she said when delivering her new year address to ministry staff on Monday (Jan 17).
In this regard, Noraini said a study was being conducted by consultants from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and hoped the findings would be translated into policies and implemented.
The ministry was also working on a national digital learning platform that was in the works to provide opportunities for more individuals to access learning while empowering lifelong learning, she added.
She also said programmes such as the Higher Education Ministry (MoHE) Innovative Digital Educators; MoHE MicroCredential Based Learning; MoHE Immersive Learning Spaces and Hyflex Learning should be implemented.
Noraini added that the implementation of the digitisation agenda would require a lot of costs and that they could not rely solely on the government for funding.
"We need to creatively find space and opportunities for collaboration with other parties that can help the ministry accelerate the digitisation agenda," she said while welcoming corporate bodies to form partnerships with the ministry.
She also suggested a special committee chaired by the ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Abdul Razak Jaafar be formed to monitor the implementation of all digitisation agendas.
During her new year address, Noraini also launched the Higher Education Welfare Blueprint, known as Sejahtera IPT.
The blueprint is the ministry’s medium-term plan, containing seven strategies, to continue the momentum of higher education excellence after it was affected by the pandemic.
Among the strategies were enhancing a safe campus ecosystem, enhancing graduate marketability, strengthening strategic collaboration networks, driving community wellbeing and realising institutional excellence.
