Cosmopolitanism and Indigenization in Third World Higher Education: A Case Study of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Abstract

As each passing year documents the problems and soul searching going on in many ex-colonial societies about the purposes and techniques of development, about providing ample opportunities to all citizens, and the building of stable political and social institutions, education continues to hold center stage in many of these deliberations. It is higher education institutions, in particular, that are seen as the key institutions, for within national systems they are seen as the incubators of successive political and intellectual elites. As countries seek to modernize the specialised skills required are to be sought in the universities, the university is to be seen as both producing knowledge via research and training people in the use of this knowledge. The university’s other functions also help to place it prominently within developmental issues. In many countries higher education institutions seek a role as honest critics and the conscience of society, nationally oriented but critical of state policies when the need arises. To be sure this role has not always been welcomed by governments in power but many universities in the developing world hold this as an ideal to be persistently pursued.