How do you define a quality professor? Recent article by one prominent leader (Tan Sri Arshad Ayub) did caused some to respond supporting or rebutting the opinion or perception. Later related issues such as questioning professors promotion in especially IPTA in recent times since ranking and RUs came to picture are much stringent then before with all the indexed paper, Q1 ranking papers. More recently, just before I retired, was the introduction of 4 Track Promotion System – one size does not fit all promotion assessment system – which I was also involved in UTM as Task Force for the Professional Track.
One of my respected senior in UTM is Professor Mohd Shariff bin Nabi Baksh who played key role in my pursuit as a lecturer in UTM in 1990. He shaped me into being a critical thinker not only in teaching and learning but also as academic administrator and researcher. I remembered when he got me involved in one of his research in my first year as Lecturer. We went to NUS in Singapore to get some books and articles to study on factors important for location decisions of Industrial Estates. I was fresh from my 6 years stint in Proton, know little about doing research as an academic. I learned from him in this very first research project on critical thinking and analysis which was alien to me at that time. I will always remember his sayings that ‘nothing will get easier, everything will get harder as years pass by’. There were also Prof Awaluddin Mohd Shaharpun who guided and mentored me and believed in me and made me Head of Department Industrial Engineering and Production, to manage academic processes such as curriculum development, course design, improvement, and the many intricacies involved in nurturing and disseminating knowledge to future engineers that met the Board of Engineers Malaysia requirements. Don’t tell me that we don’t build quality professors and the training to being quality professor starts from day 1, when we join a university. Those who join in late 80s and early 90s remember very well that we were struggling and focused on ‘capacity building’ in the areas critical and relevant for Malaysia at that time, focused on advanced manufacturing and industrialization.
Fast forward, early 2000, I had already completed my Phd. There was this unwritten policy that 10% of total staff will be on study leave or sabbatical and we had to cover up for the extra teaching load for friends who went for further studies in UK, US and other places. At that time many of us still do not have PhD qualification and the university has made it compulsory to pursue your PhD. So, our sacrifices and the increased number of lecturers with PhD qualifications were the enabling factors for the country to produce researchers and more qualified researchers with Phd degree. Imagine by the time I retired, I have graduated 30 PhD scholars who now have supervised and supervising more PhD candidates. At least two of them have been promoted to Professor positions in my area in Quality Management and Industrial Engineering. So, it is full circle. All of us are now contributing to the actual research advancement nationally and internationally. And all these things came into the research and education landscape; IRPA research grants, e-Science grant, FRGS, teaching for upgrading of engineers in industry, SPACE programs, PhD Industry, Double Degree Programs, LAN and MQA, Board of Studies, and many more. We had to balance our role as teachers, administrators, researchers, examiners, consultants, trainers, advisors, and business managers.
In UTM we had to fulfill the 6Ps- Pengajaran (Teach), Penyelidikan (Research), Penerbitan (Publication), Perundingan (Consultancy), and Perkhidmatan (Services – Administrative and Students Affairs). I dont know whether universities in the west or the far east demand professors and lecturers to do all these. I have my peers in Taiwan, Japan, Phillipines, South Korea, Indonesia, UK, and I believe we are contributing on par if not more.
Back to question of quality professors – well I studied for my degree in United States , my Master in UK and PhD in UK. I can tell you that I have had many excellent professors and teachers all the way through. I can be considered very lucky since I did not experience a bad professor. There are difficult subjects and difficult professors which I don’t blame on them who probably have their own approach of teaching and learning. It is just their styles of teaching. As a student, I had to adjust accordingly. In short we do not generalize based on few who may not be good teacher. There are too many good professors which we have in Malaysia.
The education system that allows mediocrity such as in some colleges should also be of concern. The other side of the story on poor quality students, and with bad attitude has also yet to be explored and discussed. Till next time.
Quality From Classroom to Our Life 
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