Research Article

Capacities level among the academic staff in a Malaysian public higher education
 

*Muhammad Faizal A. Ghani¹, Mohd Helmee Firdaus Salehudin¹, Zuraidah Abdullah¹,Norfariza Mohd Radzi¹, Faisol Elham¹ and Muhammad Jawad Tajuddin²

¹University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

²Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: mdfaizal@um.edu.my

 
Received 02 January, 2013; Accepted 16 January, 2013

Abstract

This research aims to develop a competency model for faculties of higher education institutions in Malaysia. The model involves the listing of the main features and implementation strategy for the development of academic competence. Specifically, this research aims to answer the following questions: a) is there any significant difference between locally and internationally educated faculties in terms of capacities? b) Is there any significant correlation between the following demographics and levels of capacity? i) teaching experience, and ii) academic position; and c) What is the level of capacity effectiveness among faculties? This research applies a quantitative methodology through survey research. The sample includes 120 students in a public university evaluating 10 faculties; 5 locally educated and 5 internationally educated. The instruments involve a modified questionnaire from an original instrument by Tengku Noorainun Tengku Shahdan (2011) The data analysis will use both statistical descriptive analysis – mean and standard deviation – and statistical inference analysis – Spearman’s r correlation and Mann-Whitney U. This research found that there is no significant difference between locally and internationally educated faculties in terms of capacities when p = 0.267 (p > 0.05). For the second research question, this research found that there is no significant correlation between teaching experience with capacity level when p = 0.314. On the other hand, there is a significant correlation between academic position with capacity level when p = 0.032. For the third research question, this research found that both locally and internationally educated faculties have a high level of effectiveness and satisfactory when the overall mean score is more than 3.80. The implication of this research is faculties must pay more attention to developing themselves through scholarly works.

Keywords: Comparison, capacity, locally educated faculty members, internationally educated faculty members, public university.