SHAH ALAM - As Malaysia’s higher education landscape evolves through successive reforms to the Universities and University Colleges Act (AUKU), a deeper question is emerging: what does it truly mean to empower students?
Is it about inclusion within the system or real influence over how universities are governed?
Against this backdrop, Higher Education Deputy Minister Adam Adli Abd Halim and Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad offer perspectives that, while aligned in direction, differ in pace and approach.
Introduced in 1971, AUKU was designed to regulate public universities, covering administration, student conduct and campus political activity at a time when student movements were seen as increasingly influential.
Amendments in 1975 tightened state control, particularly over student politics and university governance.
Subsequent reforms in 2009 and 2012 shifted some disciplinary powers to universities, while changes between 2018 and 2024 eased restrictions on student political participation and expanded organisational autonomy.
Yet, for Adam, the core issue goes beyond legal amendments.
The real issue, he said was not that Student Representative Councils were powerless. He said the real question was how we define ‘power’ for students.
For him, the debate was not about whether students were included in the system, but whether that inclusion carried real weight and whether it was genuine autonomy, or simply the appearance of authority without meaningful influence.
He said student empowerment could not be reduced to managing funds or holding formal titles within university structures.
"If we truly want to empower students, we must give them real platforms to help shape university policies and direction," he said.
He said universities were often misunderstood as being defined by buildings, administrators, or lecturers and instead stressed that "the largest and most important group within any university is its students."
Yet, despite this, he said student participation was still frequently confined to administrative or symbolic roles.
He said university life was not limited to lectures and examinations, but it was also about shaping the identity, values and character of future graduates.
He said the broader mission was often overlooked when student leadership was restricted to narrow functional roles.
Even with the recent amendments to AUKU that expanded student flexibility and organisational control, Adam said the reform agenda was still incomplete.
The real question, he said, was how far student participation should ultimately extend.
He did not dismissed more ambitious ideas, including student representation on university boards with voting rights.
"That is something we can definitely discuss. I would never say we cannot explore the idea of giving student representatives seats on university boards with voting rights," he said adding that these were already part of the ongoing policy conversations.
While acknowledging legal and governance constraints, he said there was room for improvement in the university governance acts and that international models should be studied, not copied, but adapted.
At the same time, he cautioned against excessive legal centralisation in higher education saying that there should not be too many laws governing universities.
He added that universities required a different governance logic from schools, where systems were far more centralised.
Ultimately, he called for a more unified framework: "a single, progressive law, one that empowers students, universities, academics and administrators to govern themselves, shape their own identity and achieve success, rather than limiting them."
Meanwhile, Nik Nazmi took a more incremental but aligned position on reform.
"I think, to be fair, AUKU has been reformed over the years," he said pointing to court rulings and successive amendments that have already expanded student space within universities.
Still, he agreed that reform should continue particularly when it comes to strengthening student representation, including the possibility of placing students on university boards.
He said the deeper issue was cultural rather than legal.
"There is still a tendency to treat university students like school children. And that’s not the point. I think we just have to trust them more," he said.
He added that universities should allow students greater freedom even if that included the possibility of making mistakes.
"There is still a fear that if we give them more space, they might misuse it.
"But they are responsible for their actions and if they do something wrong, there are consequences. So we should not stop them from doing things in the first place.
"We should allow a free exchange of ideas and let students make mistakes," he said, framing empowerment as a process of trust-building rather than restriction.
While acknowledging that significant reforms have already taken place, he said the system still has room to grow.
The Higher Education Ministry has maintained it will not abolish AUKU, despite multiple amendments since 1971.
The law remains the backbone of public universities, governing administration, governance and student regulation.
Early this year, more than 40 student groups, led by the Abolish AUKU Secretariat, submitted a memorandum to Adam, calling for full repeal and a more democratic framework.
They later marched from Taman Tugu to Parliament, arguing that the Act still curbs activism and institutional independence.