KOTA KINABALU, SABAH – The Sabah government is determined not only to resolve the University College Sabah Foundation’s (UCSF) financial trouble, but also to raise its level to a global standard.
In a statement here today, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the problem right now is that the university is currently financially dependent on the Sabah Foundation (Yayasan Sabah).
“Sabah Foundation is heavily reliant on timber money. The system worked previously, but now, we are moving forward, and the way forward is to conserve and protect our natural resources rather than deplete or cut them down,” he said.
As a former director of the Sabah Foundation, Kitingan said the foundation is an institution that has given the people great pride, but the financial concerns of its university college are affecting the foundation’s credibility.
Staff including the deputy director of the UCSF Sabah Animation and Creative Content Centre (SA3) were not compensated for up to three months in 2018, as the Sabah Foundation attempted to shift blame to the Institute for Development Studies (IDS).
The university’s staff first learned about the planned 50% pay cut in June of last year before it was enforced in September as the number of student intakes continued to plunge.
Yesterday, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Haji Hajiji Haji Noor vowed to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
“The GRS government will nurse back the financial health of the Sabah Foundation which was messed up by the previous government…
“In terms of the UCSF, the GRS government has a vision to lift the university’s standard to a global level.
“The future is digital and as more and more conventional jobs are replaced by machines, the UCSF has the responsibility to prepare our younger generation to be future technopreneurs,” he said.
Therefore, he said the government intends to elevate UCSF to the status of university and explore opportunities to offer its courses online, as well as to open its doors to foreign students while retaining low tuition fees for Sabahans.
He hoped this transition would result in the university college having better financial health, hiring and training better academics and fulfiling its vision of creating beneficial novelties in education and scholarship, research, and innovation.
“Besides, we can raise more revenue by keeping UCSF rather than cutting it,” he concluded.
