New PhD regulations to address academic fraud

Plans to set up national directory to register students who earn a PhD automatically from local universities were announced yesterday by the Ministry of Higher Education yesterday.

According to the ministry, PhD titles are among the most commonly abused academic titles in Malaysia. The new method is vital to control the use of "Dr" titles. The move is in line with Act 30 (the University and University Colleges Act) 1971, and Act 555 (the Private Higher Education Institutions Act).

“The setting up of this registry is to facilitate and complement existing laws in addition to the legal safeguards provided under the Penal Code which allows for criminal action to be taken against the production and usage of fraudulent academic titles," said the ministry in a statement.

Additionally, the ministry believes that the move will contribute to the assurance of credible usage of academic titles and enable the public, employers and various organisations to verify the qualifications.

This announcement came after an uproar that have taken the media by storm during the last two months were the academic qualification proclaimed by the prominent speaker Azizan Osman were brought to scrutiny. Osman's websites alleged that the speaker and marketing guru earned several PhDs from local and foreign universities. However, those PhD qualifications were later refuted by universities starting with Universiti Malaya (UM) back in September.