Private higher education institutions face fine, jail sentence if offering unaccredited courses

KUALA LUMPUR: Any private higher education institutions (IPTS) found offering programmes not accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) risk being hit with a fine not more than RM100,000, a jail sentence not exceeding two years or both, Parliament was told.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said any IPTS that have not received proper accreditation but had confused the public by claiming otherwise can be charged under Section 96 and 97 of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency Act.

"These two Sections provide any parties who enrol students under a course that claims to be an accredited programme without proper certification commits an offence, and upon conviction, may be imposed with a fine of not exceeding RM100,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both," he said in reply to a question from Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan).

Bung Moktar had asked the Higher Education Ministry to state the efforts taken to control the growing number of private higher education institutions that are not accredited by the MQA.

"In fact, under Section 97 of the Act, any promotion or advertisement of courses that are not accredited by the MQA can be charged and upon conviction, face a fine of not more than RM200,000, or jail for a period of not more than two years or both," added Khaled.

In addition to the laws, he said that strict approval and monitoring framework are being implemented, and the ministry will also act based on public complaints received through the official complaints channel,adding that the ministry only received one complaint last year.

"Actually there are two approaches taken by the ministry to safeguard the quality and integrity of the IPTS.

"As of Jan 2023, there are a total of 416 IPTS across the country, including 56 universities, 34 colleges, 316 university colleges and 10 campuses from international institutions abroad.

"And it is greatly contributing to the development of the country following the enrolment of a total of 513,000 students studying here," he said, out of which 59,000 are international students.

Khaled noted that such figures contributed an estimated RM31.5bil to the local economy in 2020 alone.

"So, we really give full attention to the issue of quality," he said, adding that there are strict rules imposed to monitor the establishment of new IPTS.