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Mohamad Hasimi Abdullah

2010288956

ED775 / 02

THE READINESS OF UiTM SARAWAK TOWARDS AUTONOMOUS CAMPUS

1.1 Introduction

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is Malaysia's premier institution of higher learning

that has experienced phenomenal growth since its inception in 1956. Today, with its

greatest number of students and staffs, UiTM continuously is moving forward to embrace

new challenges to become world class university. In 2011, UiTM embarked to another

direction which grants its branch campuses to operate on its own, in other words,

autonomous campus. The concept of autonomous normally can be described as acting

independently, freely to choose what to do or not to do. For a start, UiTM Sarawak,

UiTM Perak, UiTM Perlis and UiTM Terengganu have been chosen to be the first to

commence this new way of governance.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

A new governance system perhaps gives way for the change of UiTM from centralized

management system to a self-governing system. With the move, it will change the whole

culture of governance within the campus, thus making the management team adopts new

approaches which suit them best. It is hoped that this autonomous campus system is seen

as the catalyst to bring about much-needed changes in the way UiTM is operated.

Bringing about change into the organization sometimes is not easy. A number of studies

have highlighted how attempts by management to reshape worker identity often meet

with resistance (Eilam and Shamir, 2005; Knights and McCabe, 2000; Ezzamel et al.,

2001; Ezzamel and Willmott, 1998; Jermier et al., 1994; Willmott, 1993). People within

the organizations may resist to change simply because of their affected routine work, or

may be because of details information with regard of the new system are not available.

Furthermore, looking at the situation at the branch campus nowadays, it is very hard for

the branch campus to form its own governance. Lacks of manpower as well as financial

support are those two major factors that contribute to the said situation. Lacks of

manpower mean more jobs to be carried out with limited staff. And at the same time,

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more funds are needed in order to give training as well as to employ new staffs. The

readiness to embark towards this new system is not only lies on the management team

alone but also among the staffs. If the management team is ready and so do the staffs,

there will be less or even zero resistance. As a result, this transition will be achieved its

objectives.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purposes of this research are to:

i. Learn about UiTM Sarawak, especially in term of staffs perception towardsautonomous campus.

ii. Identify and examine the areas in which may prevent UiTM Sarawak from beingan autonomous campus successfully.

iii. Develop a list of most critical factors that will lead UiTM Sarawak towards a verysuccessful autonomous campus.

1.4 Research questions

Several important questions concern in this research are:

i. How would the staffs of UiTM Sarawak perceive and accept an autonomouscampus?

ii. What are the challenges in building an autonomous campus?iii. What are the most critical factors involves in building an autonomous campus?