Malaysia Higher Education: Developments and its Future Outlook

Malaysia higher education went through the stage of establishing the first institutions before 1957 when Malaysia gained its independence, and afterward, it has passed through four stages of development.The present study aims to illustrate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of higher education developments in Malaysia as one of Iran’s serious competitors in Asia. In the qualitative developments section, the research method is documentary study, and in other sections, the research method is statistical evaluation.The findings show that Malaysia has gained significant achievements especially in developing access capacities and creating equal opportunities through developing two programs named 2010 and 2020.This country, projecting an independent structure named “the Management Department of Private Higher Education” in the Ministry of Science, has a great tendency to develop private universities and attract foreign students. Five major policies regarding Malaysia higher education are increasing academic autonomy, quality promotion, and increase in attracting foreign students, reconstructing teacher training and restructuring student admissions.Concerning the quantitative components section, we distinguish an increase in capacities and considerable progress in most areas. However, this development was accompanied by some harms and challenges such as the inequality in the ratio of professors to students and quality assurance issues.