Support for Research Governance and Management in Malaysia

Status: Completed project

Duration: 2015-2016

Project lead: The Association of Commonwealth Universites, United Kingdom

Project partners: The University of Malaya, Malaysia

Funder: The British Council, United Kingdom; Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) through the Newton-Ungku Omar Fund

Summary: Between December 2015 and March 2016 the ACU and the University of Malaya, Malaysia, ran a mini project to support research management and governance in Malaysia. The project – comprised of two workshops in Malaysia and a one-week study tour in the UK – sought to review the current Malaysian research management and governance framework, identify needs and areas for improvement, compare Malaysian practice with some of the best practices in the UK, and make recommendations for improvement in Malaysia.

The first workshop was open to Malaysian universities only and identified needs and areas for improvement. The second workshop, which included UK research managers and representatives from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in Malaysia, discussed case studies in the workshop’s focus topics: locating research management within the institution; designing research management systems; research management and institutional performance; and developing research managers.

During the study tour, representatives from the MOHE and five Malaysian universities visited five UK universities, as well as the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), The Wellcome Trust, and the Digital Curation Centre in Edinburgh. The study tour provided an opportunity for both Malaysian and UK institutions to discuss and share best practice in research management and governance, and to view specific examples of institutional practice.

Outputs: A report on the workshop was produced, and is available in our publications database.