Rot in pursuit of research

DR Manimalar Selvi Naicker’s letter “When diagnoses are wrong” (The Star, May 14) has made a pivotal observation on research projects done at universities by postgraduate students who have no or minimal knowledge of research methods. I thank her for her candour and courage in speaking the plain truth.

In 2012, I wrote a letter to a local English daily explaining how the quality of research in Malaysia’s public universities was compromised due to glaring flaws in the system. The editor of the newspaper called me to verify certain details and warned me that the letter would not be well received by the universities in particular. My letter never saw print.