Can Malaysia Say Never Again to the Brain Drain?

Turn the clock back to 2010 and Tan Zhongshan sent Malaysia into a frenzy for being top student in his final-year law examinations at the University of Cambridge. With his parents over the moon and the country abuzz with pride that one of our own had accomplished such a feat, Tan quietly went on his way and amassed a huge collection of awards amidst the whole furore on top of receiving First-Class Honours in the Bachelor of Arts (Law) at Queen’s College, Cambridge. These included the ‘Slaughter and May” prize, given to the best overall performance and awarded by the Law Faculty, the Norton Rose Prize for Commercial Law, the Clifford Chance Prize for European Union Law and the Herbert Smith Prize for Conflicts of Law. College Dean Dr Martin Dixon called Tan the most able, dedicated and one of the most likeable students he has taught in more than 20 years at Cambridge.

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Sadly, like many stories of students who have gone on to bigger and better things, achieving the seemingly extraordinary, this one has a similar ending. Tan has taken his expertise abroad. In fact, he left Malaysia during his pre-university studies itself, opting to take his A-Levels in Singapore, quickly being spotted, snapped up and offered the prestigious Asean Scholarship by the Singapore Ministry of Education, a stark contrast to the events involving the JPA Scholarship that has made the rounds recently. Yet another brilliant mind that was born and brought up in Malaysia and yet, somehow, lost to another country. Has it become a customary rite of passage that anyone who is brilliant seeks to leave the country and take with them their amazing talents?

The main reason for these students to leave the country is opportunity — whether it means being passed up for scholarships, not given the course of their choice at university, low quality of education, better job prospects and a stronger currency. The most troubling part of the scenario is Tan is not the first brilliantly captivating and enthralling mind to seek greener pastures taking with him his invaluable potential, but that he will not be the last. But why does it happen? Is the heart of the matter our quality of education? Is Malaysia doing enough in terms of quality of education and direction?

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While many would swiftly respond with emphatic no, the devil is indeed in the details, or in this case, facts. In the recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject, University of Malaya (UM) lead the way with 5 subjects in the world's top 50, achieving a remarkable 23rd in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, 26th in Developmental Studies, 33rd in Mechanical Engineering and 38th in Chemical Engineering. Next up to the plate to bat were none other than Taylor's University and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) which both ranked 29th and 32nd respectively for Hospitality and Leisure Management. The magnificent news even made it to the Yahoo Finance page. Last, but not least, there’s Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. The 15-year-old UTAR was ranked in the 101st to 150th band in the recently published Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings 2017, alongside Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Remarkably, UTAR also made it into the Top 120 bracket of THE’s Asia Universities ranking 2017. So, in terms of the quality of education found here in Malaysia, while many assume that countries abroad have offerings of far better quality, looking at the facts, Malaysia isn’t too far behind and is improving constantly every year. So, if quality of education isn’t the issue, then wherein lies the problem?

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Perhaps the first clue can be found in the recent re-emergence of the story of Dr Lam Shu Jie, the Batu Pahat native who back in 2016, lead a team of researchers that may have found a solution to the antibiotic-resistant bacteria commonly known as “superbugs”. While it was said it would take at least five more years to get to the first human test stage, it was a remarkable achievement which was covered by numerous publications. In a Facebook post by Bhagat Singh Nejar, he said she was one of the best students in SPM, but failed to get a JPA scholarship. What that in mind, she left to Australia to complete her degree. She started at Melbourne University, doing so well that she was awarded a scholarship by Australian government to do her master’s. To try and comprehend her accomplishment, one only needs to look as far as the headline abc.au ran: ‘25-year-old student discovers possible alternative to antibiotics’.

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Her story re-emerged of course because of another student, Teh Xin Yi, who scored 11A+ in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examinations, and yet somehow failed to obtain a Public Services Department (PSD) scholarship. The Ipoh lass had applied for the PSD's Special Programme to study engineering in Japan, South Korea, France and Germany (JKPJ). Her tale of misfortune drew the ire of Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, who posed a question to the PSD as to how Teh was denied the scholarship when was one of only 102 students to score straight A+, while the JKPJ Scholarship had 200 spots up for grabs. This is then clearly one of the major issues of the brain drain. Brilliant minds don’t seem to get the recognition they deserve here, and so leave to get it elsewhere.

While the easy thing to do would be to jump to conclusions as to why this happened, one thing is certain, the PSD needs to start giving out and publicising very clear guidelines as to how candidates and narrowed down and finally chosen. Currently, only the bare minimum requirements are ever made public. Criteria such as a minimum number of As, household income, current state of health and so on. This stirs up dissatisfaction to many who do meet the minimum requirements but eventually don’t get chosen. Perhaps one could argue that just because you have the minimum number of As doesn’t not automatically mean you get the scholarship.

While this is indeed true, when you look at the case of Teh, the numbers just don’t add up. The minimum number of As require to apply for the JKPJ scholarship was 7. She scored 11A+. The JKPJ Scholarship sponsors a total of 200 students. Teh was one of only 102 students nationwide who scored straight A+ across the board. How then did she get rejected? The PSD needs to clarify the entire process with detail, and why certain students are excluded or rejected from scholarships they seemingly deserve. Amidst high tension that only seem to grow by the day, the threat of revoking certain student’s PSD scholarships for speaking out only adds fuel to the fire. If the PSD truly wants to put this matter to rest and help Malaysia keep the era-altering minds that seem to slip through our grasp, there needs to be more transparency in the selection process. Cases like Teh need to be fully explained, and if she was wrongly rejected, there should be a full inquiry as to why. Total and utter transparency by the PSD in the distribution of their scholarships, which is the most popular one in all of Malaysia, should become a norm.

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Then there are the agencies that were created with the sole purpose of drawing talent to Malaysia through initiatives in ensuring the development of our nation’s economy. A prime example would be TalentCorp, which is the go-to agency for leading employers to solve their critical talent needs. They connect government and business, ensuring leading employers get the talent they need in Malaysia with the necessary skills. How do they do what they say they do? Through multiple programmes across all platforms at every level. Such programmes include those that promote awareness to students still in Malaysia through Structure Internship programmes. The Structured Internship Programme is a collaborative programme between the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) and TalentCorp that encourages companies to provide practical learning experience through internships for students from local public and private institutions of higher education. The agency also conducts outreach programmes such as Graduate Career Fairs. TalentCorp collaborates with various overseas student organisations to connect Malaysian employers to the communities of Malaysian students living abroad who may have the potential to become employees.

Students who participate in their career fairs get the opportunity to meet with top Malaysian companies in priority sectors, and some may even be able to secure a job placement back home in Malaysia ahead of their graduation. Making sure to cover all bases, TalentCorp does not forget to catalyse upskilling existing talents already in Malaysia. As part of the government’s efforts to strengthen human capital development, a tax incentive for industry-recognised professional certification programmes was included in the 2015 budget. The objective of this incentive is to encourage companies to invest in developing their employees to pursue professional certifications. All this just means that TalentCorp seem to be doing their job, and trying to keep, bring back, as well as motivate, nurture and improve the talent in Malaysia. The only area in which TalentCorp may lack is in terms of exposure, for many Malaysians may not even be aware of the existence of such an agency, let alone the array of programmes they conduct.

With transparency in the allocation of scholarships, the remarkable strides local institutions, both local and private are making in pushing the boundaries of education in Malaysia, and agencies like TalentCorp constantly pushing the envelope in keeping and nurturing talent in Malaysia, we possess all the ingredients that the nation needs to keep talents like Tan Zhongshan, Dr Lam Shu Jie and Teh Xin Yi and truly the pride of the nation.