Kuala lumpur: The repeal of the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (AUKU) is expected to significantly enhance students' roles in academia and professional fields, according to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. He expressed confidence that the move will encourage student involvement in decision-making and the generation of new ideas.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Ahmad Zahid, a former student activist, shared his hope that students would no longer need to resort to demonstrations or other forms of protest. He emphasized that the absence of AUKU would allow student leaders to develop a broader perspective, free from the constraints previously imposed on their thinking. Speaking at the 2026 Malay Education Convention, Ahmad Zahid highlighted that the abolition of AUKU would grant universities greater autonomy, which would be evaluated based on improvements in learning quality, graduate mobility, and research impact.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had announced on August 15 that the government planned to repeal AUKU to provide more freedom and democratic space for student movements. Additionally, Ahmad Zahid, who also serves as the Rural and Regional Development Minister, proposed the creation of a Malay Education Mobility Index. This index would track Malay students' educational progress, considering factors such as socioeconomic background, academic performance, study pathways, employment, skills alignment, and income growth. He stressed the importance of focusing on measurable outcomes rather than just programme numbers or funding.
Ahmad Zahid called for the UMNO Education and Research Secretariat to collaborate with academic institutions to develop a framework for the index. He tasked Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir with further developing the proposal, with assistance from Tan Sri Idris Jusoh, Pro-Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).
He also identified three key educational challenges: bridging knowledge and capability gaps, ownership of knowledge, and translating education into economic value. He noted that in the second quarter of the year, 35.2 per cent of workers with tertiary education were in jobs that did not match their skills. To address these challenges, Ahmad Zahid proposed five key missions, including strengthening UiTM's role in Bumiputera advancement, developing a Malay-language Digital Knowledge Infrastructure, introducing performance-based university autonomy, and increasing the Bumiputera Knowledge Endowment Fund to at least RM1 billion by 2030.