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Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public Universities

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 International Review of Management and
Marketing
ISSN: 2146-4405

available at http: www.econjournals.com

International Review of Management and Marketing, 2016, 6(S7) 73-82.

Special Issue for "International Soft Science Conference (ISSC 2016), 11-13 April 2016, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia"

Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public

Universities

Noor Ashikin Basarudin1, Asmah Laili Yeon2*, Nurli Yaacob3, Rohana Abd Rahman4
1
School of Law, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia, 2School of Law, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia, 3School
of Law, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia, 4School of Law, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia.
*Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
Malaysian Public Universities are undergoing the process of transformation which requires efforts from every components of the universities, especially
the academic staffs, in order to achieve high rankings internationally and to fulfill their key performance indicator for the purpose of promotion and
appraisal. These ambitions have increased the workload of academic staffs and extend their workloads from teaching to other myriad of responsibilities
such as; research, consultation, administrative works and community services. In light of this, the benefits received by the academic staffs are
disproportionate with their workloads. This research examines the relationship between transformation of higher education status, the workload of
academic staff and the proportionality of benefit allocated to them. Data was collected through interview with the top level management from four
different categories of universities such as Accelerated Program for Excellence, Research, Focused and Comprehensive University. Thematic content
data analysis technique was employed in analyzing the data collected. The findings shows that the transformation of higher education status has intricate
the workloads of academic staffs with less benefits. The workloads and job specifications of the academic staffs are different in accordance to the
categories of the universities. Meanwhile, all public universities are bound to follow the standard scheme provided by the Public Service Department
of Malaysia. This study suggests that the contract of service of academic staffs be revised to include clear terms on the improvement of scheme and
benefits for academic staffs in public universities.
Keywords: Transformation of Higher Education Status, Workload of Academic Staffs, Employment Benefits
JEL Classifications: K1, K12, K120

1. INTRODUCTION these targets, the curriculum and pedagogical methodologies

were improved periodically to provide versatile and marketable
Higher education institutions exist to educate students as a graduates (Harvey and Knight, 1996).
constructive way of contributing to national developments.
However, due to globalization, the establishment of university Consistent with the national objective to ensure Malaysian
does not play a unitary role of producing human capital but higher education stand in rank with the world universities, the
also involve in training and focusing on infusing values that are transformation of higher education status was invented which
beneficial industrially and to the society at large. This global brought about classifying Malaysian public universities into
trends have led to the changes of national educational policy different categories namely; Accelerated Program for Excellence
and institutional development in Malaysia (Lee, 2004). New (APEX) University, Research University (RU), Comprehensive
approaches and strategies are designed to reorientate and transform University, and Focus University. The universities under each
the way in which universities are managed as well as the delivery categories set distinctive visions, missions, objectives and key
of educational services (Hee, 2007). This changes motivated the performance indicators (KPIs) in order to facilitate the attainment
need to train human capitals that are knowledgeable, skillful and of the university’s status. However, all public universities are
innovative to meet the future national challenges. In meeting bound to follow the dictated scheme provided by the Public Service

International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 6 • Special Issue (S7) • 2016 73
 Basarudin, et al.: Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public Universities

Department of Malaysia even though the work specifications focused on improving university ranking in THE-QS (Razak,
are different compared to one another. These issues have caused 2009). The aim of establishing RU was to actively engage in new
discrepancies between the teaching workload of academic staffs explorations of ideas, proffer innovations, and take intellectual
and the remuneration they receive. Against these backdrops, this opportunities to further discover and expand the boundaries of
paper seeks to answer the following research questions; knowledge. Certain criteria was established with a focus on the
1. Does the transformation of higher education status affects the Development of Research, Development and Cluster. These
workload of academic staff? criteria are presented in Table 1.
2. Is the workload of academic staff as prescribed by the
university is proportionate to the benefit received? 2.1.3. Comprehensive University and focused university
Comprehensive University is expected to offer courses in
2. TRANSFORMATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION several fields of studies at all educational levels such as;
SYSTEM IN MALAYSIA pre-undergraduate, undergraduate, and post-graduate degrees.
Four public universities are entrusted with these responsibilities
The Malaysian government have been interested in restructuring namely; Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), International
the higher education institutions in Malaysia, by revamping the Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Universiti Malaysia Sabah
relationship between the universities, state government, and and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Ministry of Higher Education).
the industries, increasing the institutional autonomy of higher Meanwhile, Focused University is established to concentrate on
institutions in Malaysia through transformation of the higher specific fields of study such as technical, education, management
educational institutions status. In line with the educational and and defence. 12 universities are listed under the Focused
institutional transformation objectives, a significant pedagogical University category namely; Universiti Utara Malaysia focuses
shift that allows learners to be independent, creative, innovative on management, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris focuses on
and critically reflective was introduced. Additionally, higher education, Universiti Malaysia Pahang focuses on technology,
institutions were encouraged to be knowledge-based economy Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia focuses on engineering,
where knowledgeable, skillful and innovative human capital are science and technology, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
produced to meet the future national challenges. In order to achieve focuses on technical, Universiti Malaysia Perlis focuses on
these transformational targets, the learning curriculum was revised electronic engineering, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia focuses
with the invention of a National Higher Education Strategic Plan on Islamic studies, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu focuses on
which includes the improvement of quality teaching and learning science marine, Universiti Sulatan Zainal Abidin focuses on
approach. For that purpose, public universities were categorized technology management, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan focuses
into four different categories namely; APEX University, RU, on entrepreneurship, and Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia
Focused University, and Comprehensive University (Ministry focuses on defence. Both Comprehensive and Focused University
of Higher Education) and were entrusted with different have similar criteria in terms of student intakes. The student
responsibilities. The responsibilities and the criteria for the said intakes are usually competitive as the public demand for tertiary
categories are explain in details below. education is increasing. Public university has competed for student
enrollment since the student’s selection for university depends
2.1. Universities Category on the academic program available, quality of education, faculty
2.1.1. APEX University qualification and others (Sia, 2010).
APEX is an acronym that stands for Accelerated Program
for Excellence. Universiti Sains Malaysia was selected to be 2.2. Faculty Workload
recognized as APEX University with the aim of enabling the According to Eubene, workloads of faculty members are different
university to be highly ranked among international universities. according to their disciplines and the university they work.
National Higher Education Action Plan 2007 defines APEX Normally, workloads of academic staffs go beyond the time they
University to be the centre for academic distinctions, led by spend in classrooms teaching or the time they spend on research
visionary, motivated and committed leaders, encompassing of activities. Tural mentions that the globalization process has
talented and renowned academic staffs, filled with local and affected the academia administratively and financially. According
international students who possess a high standard of academic to the author, academic staffs are trusted with magnanimous
excellence, and equipped with state-of-the-art facilities (Morni
et al., 2009). APEX is known as a fast track program that guides Table 1: Marking criteria for RU in Malaysia
the university towards excellence and better quality performance. Criteria Weightage
In order to achieve this, commitment from every components of Quantity and quality of researchers 25
the university including management, academic staffs and students Quantity and quality of research 30
is absolutely necessary. Postgraduate quantity 10
Postgraduate quality 5
Innovation 10
2.1.2. RU Professional services and awards 7
RU is to enhance the development and commercialization of Networks and links 8
research activities in the academia. This is done by increasing the Support facilities 5
number of post-graduate and post-doctoral candidates in Malaysia Total 100%
public universities. RU are expected to be centres of excellence Source: Ministry of Higher Education (2006). RU: Research University

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 Basarudin, et al.: Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public Universities

responsibilities that rob them of their academic freedom, within it. Its promotion and pay are based on the assessment of the
implicated with more challenges in teaching and writing and individual’s job performance. It attempts to give incentives in order
faced with accountability challenges. Since the inception of the to improve individual and organizational performance. However,
transformation of educational status in Malaysia, the workloads the survey conducted among UiTM academic staff revealed that
of the academic staffs have increased exponentially while their a large component of employees are dissatisfied about pay and
participation in decision making processes is inversely reducing. promotional policies, and have clear notions of withdrawal. This,
Additionally, the requirements for their KPI appraisal have been in turn, will be reflected the increased staff turnover rates (Morris
challenging than ever before (Tural, 2007). et al., 2004).

Peter in his study on academic staff workloads mentioned that Thomas in his writing addressed on the benefit of non-pecuniary
teaching and research are the core academic responsibilities of form. He states that, an important and generally quantifiable
academic staffs and any other tasks relating to course coordination dimension of non-pecuniary income from employment consists
or management and leadership activities are somewhat a distraction of the collection of fringe benefits that can be characterized as
to academic staffs. However, academic staffs are commonly equally costly to the employer as the provision of income in the
distracted with assignments outside academic core responsibilities. form of direct wage payments. Fringe benefits are defined as goods,
Recently, it has been a commonplace scenario in public universities services, or deferred money income received by the employee,
for academic staffs to face excessive demands to do too many but paid for by the employer.’ The list of such items includes
disconnected tasks outside the academic responsibilities that are pension plans, medical insurance, paid vacation and disability
primarily expected of them (Austin and Gamson, 1983). The insurance, sick leave, profit sharing, free or subsidized meals,
Faculty Workload Report of the University of Nevada presents that vehicle parking, stock options, and so on (Juster and Duncan,
academic staff workloads are dual-facated that is, the instructional 1975). Clare in his writing mentions that, to attract and preserve
workload (i.e. in-class workload) and out-of-classroom activities. an effective and committed workers and colleges, universities
This indicates that the role of academic staffs in higher education must offer competitive levels of compensation to their faculty,
institutions extends beyond classroom. The degree of the increase and they must recognize their successes. This commitment to the
in the faculty workload varies from one university to another as faculty enhances performance, which, in turn, is a key component
according to their institutional type of mission. In general, the to improving academic quality (Comm and Mathaisel, 2003).
basic workload of academic staffs entails research, supervision,
teaching and myriad of other responsibilities outside the academic 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
activities (University of Nevada, 2010).
This paper adopts a qualitative research method by conducting
2.3. Benefits Received interviews with the top level management such as the registrars
Faculty members are rewarded based on the nature of their work and deputy vice chancellors from four different categories of
as the teachers and researchers and any other works related public universities namely; APEX University, RU, Focused and
to colleagues and students. The reward usually will be in a Comprehensive University. In analyzing the data, thematic data
form of salary and benefit and sometimes the most important analysis was employed to deduce findings from the respondents’
thing is satisfaction on the promotion. The issue of salary has views. The thematic analysis sort out the rules and principles and
become a significant issue to the faculty members (Austin and law of the university’s policy that govern academic staff in terms
Gamson, 1983). of their workload and the allocated benefit. While, an analytical
analysis concept is adopted to evaluate the factual data in the
Euben has suggested the concept of merit pay. It refers to the study. The respondents are classified as R1: APEX University, R2:
practice of allocating annual salary increases to individual Focused University, R3: Comprehensive University, and R4: RU.
faculty members based on the quality of their performance. The Discussion on the analysis of the workload and the benefits
practice encourages faculty members to dedicate their efforts to received by the academic staffs are presented below.
some combination of research, teaching, and service activities,
in accordance with the mission of the institution, thereby
strengthening the institution and improving the benefits gained 4. ANALYSIS ON WORKLOAD OF
by students and society. A fundamental difficulty arises from the ACADEMIC STAFF
countless nature of the quality of teaching, research, and service
(Euben, 2003). Workload of academic staff is grouped as: TS - Teaching and
supervision, RC - Research and consultation, AW - Administrative
Morris mentions that in an effort to inspire members of the civil work, P - Publication and CS - Community service. Landmark
service to be more efficient, productive and more initiative, the represents: R - Respondent and W – Workload.
Malaysian Government need to introduce, a new salary planning
schedule called the New Remuneration Scheme (NRS) (Morris Table 2 explains the workload of academic staff in four different
et al., 2004). This was also intended to avoid brain drain among categories of public universities in Malaysia. The Table 2 shows
those in the civil service including education, and reward deserving that majority of the respondents agreed to the fact that academic
cases. Academic Staffs in public universities are government staff in each university have the same workload which consists of
employees under the NRS and are allocated to salary bands TS, RC, AW, P and CS. However, R3’s response state that it is not

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 Basarudin, et al.: Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public Universities

Table 2: Workload of academic staff involved few administrative tasks such as the reporting process
R/W TS RC AW P CS to the member’s committee of the Professional Programme. For
R1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes instance, the progress of Law Programme need to be submitted
R2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes to the member’s committee of the meeting consists of the Bar
R3 Yes R ‑ Not compulsory (Required Yes Yes Yes Council, representatives from law schools, the Attorney-General’s
to be principal investigator) Office and the Qualifying Board. It is to ensure that the Code of
C ‑ No, it is encouraged Practice on Quality Assurance in Public Universities (Kod Amalan
R4 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Jaminan Kualiti IPTA) will be observed by the law school and
TS: Teaching and supervision, RC: Research and consultation, AW: Administrative adhered to.
work, P: Publication, CS: Community service

In some country like Singapore, they prefer the law lecturer to

compulsory for academic staff to participate in research activities. involve in locum solicitor, especially during long vacation for
The only requirement for academic staff is to be Principal the purpose of getting the recent knowledge in certain practical
Investigator which is considered as part of their KPI. While, matters and to get the first hand information through the practical
consultation is also not part the workload and KPI’s assessment. experience (Cohen, 2004). Even though it seems beneficial to
It is just a means of encouragement. the lecturer himself and even the faculty may profit from his
knowledge, but it became part of their workload as they have to
4.1. TS commit with both works.
The triad core of the academic work which involved teaching,
learning, and research has caused complexity as it demands a In another aspect, teaching load of academic staff in public
deeper understanding of the nature of student learning, pressures university is increasing due to surplus number of undergraduate
to the relocation of the teaching and learning environment around student enrolled in every semester. The average number of hours
learning outcomes, and due to demand of certain course that require of an academic staff is measured and the data collected during the
a professional approach in university teaching (Coaldrake and interview shows that even though they have other supplemented
Stedman, 1999). For instance, it has been required by the public work, but the teaching load is still the same. Majority of the
university to teach English language in order to expose students respondent agreed that teaching load of the academic staff will
with the right use of legal language before fully embarking into real not exceed 18 h. It is based on the statement of R1, R2, and R3 (TS)
Law Programme (Mahmod and Kamal, 2005). Other challenges that “the maximum credit hour would be 18 credits equivalent to
in today’s life of teaching is the demand of the professional body 2 or 3 subjects per semester.” However, R4 (TS) has extended the
which directly involved with the accreditation of certain courses discussion by mentioning that “we had made the teaching work
such as law, medical, engineering, architecture and few other to be flexible as required by academic staff. Academician may
professions. For example, in producing a quality graduates in the request either to fully focus on the teaching or research.”
professional field, the Qualifying Board of Certain Profession will
monitor the conformity of university with the standard produced The most crucial part is, part of their teaching KPIs will be
by the Board (Mahmod and Kamal, 2005). Among the professional evaluated by the student. It would reflect their credibility and
bodies such as the Institute of Engineers, the Board of Architects, competency in carrying out their task as it will show the qualities
Malaysian Medical Association and Legal Qualifying Board in associated with the good teaching such as lecturers’ knowledge,
Malaysia has power in determining the quality of the university’s clarity, classroom management and course organization (Chuan
graduates. Therefore, in ensuring compliance of the standards and and Heng, 2013). It is for the purpose of improving teaching ability
to produce the eminence graduates, academician has to work hard of the lecturers (Comm and Mathaisel, 2003). The outcome of this
to achieve such requirements. evaluation is often used to formulate key performance index of
lecturers in staff appraisal for both promotion and tenure decisions
All of the professional courses require extra effort of academician (Chuan and Heng, 2013).
such as law course. Teaching law is not only limited to the theories
of law, but the concentration needs to be put on few other courses Therefore, the academician would feel impossible to maintain the
namely the procedural courses and professional courses. The quality of teaching and learning if they have to face other works
procedural courses consist of few subjects which include the in one time. It is supported by the statement made by the R3, who
Trial Advocacy, Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure, Evidence, mentioned that “Why bother about research track, we’ve been
and Evidence and Procedure of the Shariah Court has been made teaching for 4 years, we will not produce papers because we are
compulsory for the law students to learn. These subjects aimed to concentrating on producing high caliber graduate and talented
equip the students with the procedural matters in court (Mahmod students for the market, and teaching professional programs
and Kamal, 2005). Another important course is Professional to produce high employability graduate such as architects,
Practice that provides knowledge on the court’s matter such as lawyers, accountant.” We have introduced semi-professionals and
the professional ethics, alternative dispute resolution, solicitor’s professionals, but as we became the university, and they tried to
account and others. These two courses are important in ensuring implement research, entrepreneurship, we lost focus. Everyone
that the school or university may produce the “ready-made” started to aim to get the status of RU that require them to follow
lawyer in the future (Mahmod and Kamal, 2005). Teaching guideline provided by the Ministry of Higher Education. We have
professional subjects may require extra work as it normally to produce papers, research, post-graduate, supervised PhD, but we

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 Basarudin, et al.: Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public Universities

forgot about this group of people that have been working so hard and quantity of publication in Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge,
to ensure 100% of the student will be employed after graduate.” SCImago and others (Ahmad, 2012).

Thus, it can be said, in the process of teaching itself, it needs a It does not only caused other universities to follow the same trend
lot effort of academician to maintain the quality of knowledge as they are competing each other for the national rankings, but
disseminated to the student. It is no longer based on the textbook also increases burden to the university itself. Research has been
itself, but it goes beyond that in which students will be expecting made compulsory to all universities regardless of the status either
the lecturers to equip them with practical knowledge. Hence, the Comprehensive or Focused University as mentioned by the R3
lecturers have to ensure that they are well-versed on that particular (RC) “we always aim for RU status, but without being RU, it’s
subject. very important to have research activities because we need to
have research profile.” Therefore, it shows that all academicians
4.2. RC and P cannot escape from conducting any research as the current
Research and scholarly publication are important for the purpose situation demands more research papers to be produced, to gain
of disseminating knowledge, especially for the country’s more external money, to conform with criteria for performance
development. New findings, theories and solution to the issues are appraisal, and also to supervise more graduate students (Mat et al.,
useful to the public. In academic side, research and publication 2007). Thus, in addressing their effort, they should be rewarded
are the medium for them to share their knowledge and it will be with a publication incentive to increase their motivation and
evaluated to determine their achievement for promotion and tenure encouragement (Ahmad, 2012).
(Ahmad, 2012). Scholarly publication is normally in a form of a
written paper to be published in academic journal. It has to go Method of evaluating research is through publication. The research
through the process of peer review by one or more referees to or any scholarly product is normally measured by the number
ensure the quality of the paper (Dhillon et al., 2013). and type of publications because it is considered as indicator
of research. Moreover, productivity now leads to reward and
It is also important as the excellent performance of university will recognition (Townsend and Rosser, 2007) as the promotion and
be measured by the quantity and quality of research produced other salary increases are depending on number of articles and books
than the quality teaching and learning. It does not only contribute they publish. The stress is more heightened in RU University
to the university’s performance, however, most importantly, it will as they need to maintain the status and produce article journal
be valued as the contribution to global economic development and publishable in high impact publication. Based on the interview,
to nation’s gross domestic product (Ahmad, 2012). The research majority of respondent agreed that they are required to publish
activity is normally measured periodically. The logic for this average one to three publications per year. R4 (P) mentioned that,
approach is that publication is usually an indicator of research “to achieve their KPIs, they have to publish 1-3 publications.”
(Townsend and Rosser, 2007). It has been acknowledged as the
medium of developing the knowledge of economy and society. Besides that, consultation is important in academic work as it
A quality research normally evaluated through research funding, helps the institution to generate money through service provided
post-graduate supervision, publications, citations and intellectual to the client. The new transformation of governing councils into
properties (IPs). In achieving the performance indicators, lecturers corporate boards has directed the executive system to emerge to
are encouraged to produce two to three academic article journals new corporate structures in areas such as international education,
per year and publish in the high impact publications and citations IP, relations with industry, and work based training (Marginson,
such as the first quartile (Q1), Scopus, ISI and others because it 2000). Consultation at will be evaluated as appraisal and for the
reflects the international recognition (Ahmad, 2012). promotion is referring to the ability of academics in providing a
consultancy service based on their field of expertise to resolve
The requirement in consistency writing journal and produce certain problems. The scoring system will be based on the project
research publication somehow contributes to the workload of and candidate should be appointed as consultants. There are two
academic staff, especially those universities which hold the status types of consultations which may bring benefit in the form of
of APEX and RUs because the main criteria for an establishment reward and another type is just considered as free consultation.
of a RU are publications with impact factor journals followed by However, the academician is encouraged to involve in corporate
external research funding (Ahmad, 2012). On top of that, all the consultation that may bring in financial reward (Universiti Sains
universities’ research achievement will be evaluated every 5 years Malaysia, 2013). The achievement of the consultation is depending
through the Malaysian Research Assessment tool. It requires all the on the capability and skill of the consultant in carrying out the
criteria listed in evaluating the RUs’ achievement which include process. They should ensure that they have full knowledge on
the quality and quantity of researchers and research, quality and that matter and able to create good relationship with the client
quantity of post-graduate, innovation, professional services, (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia).
and networking and linkages to be fulfilled (Minitry of Higher
Education). Research and publication is not new in the Asiatic 4.3. AWs
region such as Singapore, Thailand, China, Japan, India and others. Recently, there is portion in the KPIs that evaluate the participation
The growing trend in publication is also reflected in Malaysian of academician in administrative post. Since it is part of their KPIs,
universities such as UM, US, UPM, UKM, UTM, UiTM and it will link to their promotion and tenure (Makhbul and Khairuddin,
IIUM. They evaluate the research achievement through quality 2014). Administrative post is considered periodically as the

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 Basarudin, et al.: Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public Universities

appointment is rotary in nature (Coaldrake and Stedman, 1999). the quality of an institution’s academic program. Lecturers have
It is important to ensure the execution of faculty and management to contribute their knowledge and expertise to the society either
department will be in the right track such as the Academic locally or at the international level. They may contribute directly
Programme, human resource management, and management of or indirectly to the society as both methods capable of establishing
academic process such as teaching, learning, examination and local and global community. Contribution to the society can be
several others. Besides, it is the duty of administrator to lead achieved in a way of delivering lectures and presenting their
the department or institution to achieve the vision, mission and research findings (Zahiruddin).
objective of university by guiding the academician to understand
the direction of the faculty and department. CS is part of workload of academic staff that will be evaluated
at the end of the year. By looking to the new lecturers’ KPIs
Associate professor and professor that hold the administrative in public universities, it has been made compulsory for them
position will normally perform the function as the chairman for to attend seminars and conferences for the development of the
the meeting as they are not only restricted to producing paper knowledge and getting new ideas on the current issues in the field.
and article journal. Method of assessing the AW is hard as it Sharing opinions and information may support the sustainability
cannot be associated with other types of evaluation (Barrett and of education development. CS also may involve lecturer’s
Barrett, 2009). However, it can be suggested that the achievement participation in professional organizations which capable of
in carrying out administrative post should be assessed through giving clear direction on certain information in a particular field.
recognition given to the university, department, faculty or Moreover, it may give an opportunity to the lecturer to create
institution either at the national or international level. While in broad range of networking among groups in the same field that
term of hours, it can be assessed on the amount of hours spent in shares the common interest and knowledge. They may use this
conducting the duty. AW is different in its nature as compared to platform as a medium of discussion for certain issues. CS has been
academic work because it hold the public accountability as a key made compulsory among the public university in Malaysia. The
value. Thus, they have to be very selective in putting priority to statement has been supported by the respond of the respondent
direct the university to the peak of excellence. In administering as they agreed that the CSs are normally involved not only at the
an institution, the concept of accountability is very prominent as it national level but also international.
may lead to the succeed or failure of the organization (McMaster,
2002).
5. ANALYSIS ON BENEFITS RECEIVED BY
To appreciate their hard work in ensuring the performance ACADEMIC STAFF
university, for major roles, such as Deputy Vice Chancellor,
heads of school and deans, weightings are often set centrally with Table 3 explains the benefits, allowances and schemes of service
allowances depending on the size and complexity of the task. received by academic staff in four different categories of public
universities. The Table 3 shows that all the respondents agreed
Majority of respondents agreed that AW is part of their KPIs their salary scheme is adopted from scheme provided by Public
for the purpose of promotion to the next level. However, certain Service Department. Basically the scheme consists of monetary
university reluctant to provide incentive to those administrator that and non-monetary form such as public service incentive, housing
hold the administrative post such as vice chancellor and deputy incentive, cost of living allowance, critical allowance, annual
vice chancellor. R1 mentioned that “vice chancellor will not be leave, medical leave, maternity leave, sabbatical leave and others.
provided with any incentive as he holds the position of chairman Therefore, based on the interview conducted, all of the respondents
in APEX University. But, the rest of the administrative holder may satisfied with the basic salary provided by the scheme.
receive allowance according to the rate fixed by the university.
For example dean may be given RM 800, deputy dean is RM 700, However, respondents are of the opinion that other allowances,
programme coordinator is RM 600.” benefits and scheme provided in the contract of service should
be increased. For example, those academic staffs that hold the
4.4. CS administrative post should be rewarded with extra allowances
CS refers to the activities of academics involving participation due to nature of work to cater both, the academic work as well as
in external committees or organizations outside the university. administrative matters. It is suggested by the R3, “I think the basic
This activities include services extended to the government; base is okay, but they have cut some of allowance, for example,
professional associations, public and community organizations,
other universities, and activities such as the external examination
of theses, consultancy work and appearances as an invited expert Table 3: Benefits received by academic staff
in media event (Makhbul and Khairuddin, 2014). Respondents Salary Scheme Allowances, benefits
provided by the Public and scheme provided
Lecturers owed responsibilities to the society in the aspect of Service Department in contract of service
contribution of knowledge and social welfare. They are encouraged R1 Yes Yes
to exercise their duties and responsibilities as members of society R2 Yes Yes
R3 Yes Yes
by establishing connection and contacts with others, such as
industry and professional bodies for the purpose of enhancing R4 Yes Yes

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 Basarudin, et al.: Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public Universities

I was promoted from B to A but they reduce my allowance. with the autonomy status, there should not be any interference
Moreover, there is no allocation of allowance for those who hold by the outsiders and the bureaucratic process should be lessened.
the post of Deputy Vice Chancellor. In the end, I received the same However, by looking to the trend of university’s management in
salary with no difference at all. We also work as hard as we can Malaysia, it can be said there is still dictation by the government
and we should be given incentive on all such effort we have done.” to control the management and running progress of university as
the power in determining the position of Vice-Chancellor, Deputy
R1 and R2 responded that, the universities have provided the Vice Chancellor, Rector and several others are still on government.
academic staff with the group insurance scheme, scheme to Supposedly, the government should allow the top management to
attend seminar and conference, administrative allowance, medical lead the university according to the mission, vision and objective
benefits, staff welfare fund benefits as well as method of appraisal as planned without interference from outsiders. They should
which has been updated to online system to make the process of guarantee implementation of full autonomy in university and
promotion become easier. The same goes to R4 university who assure the academic freedom for academic staffs. The concept of
implemented the online system for academic staffs to do self- educational autonomy is accepted universally because it ensures
assessment. Moreover, the promotion process will be conducted the success of certain institutions. The rationale of it, is each
twice per year since the process will go to internal assessment. universities may work on the requirement as designed to achieve
R2 added that, the academic staff in the university is given with their own status.
flexible working hours for them to commit with other responsibility
related with academic work. R3’s university practice different Another issue that led to the higher burden workload of academic
method of promotion as they are not depending on the standard staff is the non-standardize system of public universities in
KPIs method of assessment but more on the track system which Malaysia. We had acknowledged that public university in Malaysia
has different weightage according to their track. Besides that, R4’s has been categorized in different types of university, namely
university has implemented top-up scheme to those eligible to be APEX University, RU, Focused and Comprehensive University.
promoted to the next level, but due to no vacancy, they may be However, every university aims to get the status of RU which
given salary based on the new position they are holding. It is part makes core duty of academic staffs on teaching and learning is
of university’s effort to appreciate their employee. no longer a priority, even though the student enrolled for diploma,
undergraduate and post-graduate is large in number. Academic
6. DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTION staffs in such university are burdened with number of credit hours,
which sometimes become excessive. They even need to produce
Higher education institution in Malaysia is targeting on the research products as part of their KPI and contribution to the
achievement to be leveled in the world rank university. To university. Chapter 3 of this research has shown some analysis on
reach the main goal, it needs a lot of effort, especially from the a different category of university, but they shared almost the same
component of university itself, which includes management of workload which indicates that, whatever status they are holding
university, academic staffs, and students. Even though some may now, they still need to fulfill requirements set by the ministry.
question on the capability of Malaysian university to compete with Some may afford with the workload assigned to them, but as a
other universities, especially from developed country, it will not reward they should be given some appreciation either in monetary
downgrade the motivation of academic staffs who plays a big role or non-monetary form. Therefore, the following discussion will
in leading the university to the highest level of achievement. But, concern on few suggestions to be looked upon in order to improve
in a way it does not mean the government should neglect their role academic staff’s contract scheme, scheme of remuneration and
in providing good environment, equipment, incentive and other appraisal to appreciate their effort.
requirements to uplift the value of local universities. In fulfilling
aspiration of the government and also the individual target on There are few suggestions presented by the researcher in terms
the KPIs of institution, academic staffs especially has to face of amendment of the existence law to include or cancel certain
with the burden of workload which is disproportionate with their provisions which prohibit the exercise of power of academic staffs,
effort spent and benefit received in achieving every components providing fund for the research project, and improvement on the
of the required achievement such as the number of research and salary scheme and system of work which may help academic staffs
publication, doing AW, teaching and learning, handling programme to focus on their real work.
for students and several others. This kind of issues had lowered
the motivation of academic staffs to struggle to steer the university 6.1. Improvement on Remuneration and Appraisal
to the next level of achievement. For the last few months in 2014, there was an issue reported that
medical lecturers were leaving public universities in droves after
To acknowledge that, government agreed to grant public university complaining of years of being overworked and underpaid. It is
with the status of autonomy as they realize such status may allow because they are more attracted by the better salaries and less
the university to be more independent and have higher level of workload in private medical schools and hospitals. It is worse
confidence in competing with other universities outside. Higher when Malaysian Medical Association president Datuk Dr N.K.S.
Education Institutions in heavily bureaucratic countries find it Tharmaseelan claimed that some clinical lecturers were stuck for
difficult to strive for better knowledge, academic excellence, and more than 20 years without a promotion despite being specialists
freedom or even to provide education in response to the needs and qualified surgeons with years of experience (Samy et al.,
of national social and economic development. As being granted 2015). From the report, it shows that remuneration is considered

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 Basarudin, et al.: Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public Universities

important not only as a salary, but more on the motivation aspect professional service. However, in reality, many academic staffs
to improve their performance as well as some sort of appreciation. are still incapable of reaching these expectations as it needs
It is even important to those expertise and outstanding lecturers 100% commitments for every category of work. Moreover,
to be paid with higher amount to appreciate their knowledge in many of them are still not meeting the standard as a preparation
certain fields. Even though the basic salary scheme of academic for them to meet the challenges in academic life of today and
staff has been determined by the Public Service Department, as tomorrow (Jusoff and Samah, 2009). Therefore, in preparing
an appreciation, university may set an increment that reflects them for a better future to meet the achievement and excellence,
the market, job preparation and any achievement they acquired. a clear and high standard of academic strategic have to be
Furthermore, the remuneration provided must be very competitive planned by the top level management of university to ensure
as what has been offered by private universities. Another strategy the objective of university as well as the academic staffs’s aim
to attract and retain the academic staffs in public university, a is on the right track. It is suggested for local university to have
competitive level of compensation must be offered, and they must a promotion tracks to fit the different career path because it
recognize their achievements (Comm and Mathaisel, 2003) which allows them to focus on their specialization either teaching,
can be acknowledged in terms of appraisal scheme (Smith, 1995). research or professional service. Researcher acknowledges that
A systematic appraisal scheme is significant for individual staff some of the public universities in Malaysia have started with the
development. It may result a greater accountability, motivational implementation of professional track. However, researcher of
improvement through recognition of good performance and the the opinion that, it is better if all public universities would take
identification of training needs (Haslam et al., 1993). The best into consideration to practice the same concept for the purpose
way in implementing an appraisal scheme is by giving appropriate of bringing up the value of public universities and to lead the
definition of workloads of university and its performance university towards achievement. However, for the assessment
measurement as it may help the faculty staffs to perform their matters, they are still being evaluated on the criteria provided by
duties and work together with the mission of university. The the university but according to different portions of weightage.
establishment of these criteria is essential to ensure the successful This kind of track may serve as substance for greater steps in
of faculty performance assessment and it must be closely studied the development of the universities as it may lead the university
and evaluated (Comm and Mathaisel, 2003). to reach their target.

6.2. Providing Fund and Facilities Every academic staff must prove their capability in handling the
Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia are facing the decline task what they should master in teaching, research or professional
of funding from Government and such reduction has caused service. Only through standard measures of career path, they may
public universities to work harder to generate their own income chart their progress in disseminating knowledge and advancing
(Ahmad and Farley, 2014). Moving towards a greater future as their skills. For example, in teaching, the lecturer must have an
a hub place for research and development, Higher Education outstanding personality to fit with the definition of academic
Institution in Malaysia needs to integrate its RU with the global excellence. They should be very creative in delivering information
research community which requires the university to collaborate to students with the target to produce a First Class Honors Degree
with foreign research institutions, universities and companies. It student that may contribute to the number of employability of
may cultivate the funding research culture and provide special human capital. Lecturers who involved in professional course
incentives and research and development funding allocation to require different stage of knowledge as they have to equip
promote the development of centers of excellence by concentrating themselves with the current practical knowledge to be delivered
on top level researchers and financing in particular institutions to the students such as law course, engineering, architecture,
specializing in certain fields (Vestergaard, 2007). medical studies, and others. Lecturers cannot only rely on textbook
to obtain the information, however, some may need to attend
Even though the ministry stresses on the importance of research professional courses to ensure they have advance and updated
collaboration and encourage the university to be less dependent knowledge of certain fields. By categorizing them in their own
on government funding, but the universities, indeed still need track, they may focus and know their priorities without feeling
such funding from government to work on the research facilities crazy of doing everything.
improvement. Thus, the government and university’s management
should continue their reward system to ensure the continuing While in research track, they may contribute fully to increase the
process of future research project by allocating funds to public number of research products and publication as the ranking of
higher learning institution. Government must observe the needs universities are also depending on number of publication and types
of funding for higher education institution in Malaysia to ensure a of high impact journal. In doing research, they are encouraged to
better progress in the future. Fund allocated may be done through collaborate with the other universities, private institution, agencies
evaluating the performance of universities and its capability of and several others. As it demands a considerable amount of time
upholding the name of Malaysia to the international level. and energy, those lecturers in this track may focus in producing
a good quality of research which may help in generating funds
6.3. Professional Track for university.
Career in academics nowadays focuses on a few main areas
that requires achievement of faculty members in order to be Lastly, those involved in professional service track normally
promoted to the next level. It includes research, teaching and provide their service to the Faculty or University which

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 Basarudin, et al.: Faculty Workload and Employment Benefits in Public Universities

includes consultancies, leadership in CS activities, and the faculty workload and compensation for improving academic quality.
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