Yojana Sharma07 October 2012 Issue No:242
Women heads of universities are rare, especially in Islamic societies.
Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, vice-chancellor of
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
– the National University of Malaysia – is one of just two women
leaders in a country with some 20 public and more than a dozen private
universities.
She has presided over the expansion and internationalisation of the
multi-faculty research university – one of five in the country.
The aim is for
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, or UKM, in Bangi,
Selangor, some 30 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur, to emerge as a
world-class institution and compete internationally in university
rankings while servicing Malaysia’s needs for quality graduates and
research.
The institution, with 1,800 academics and almost 27,000 students, feels
modern, dynamic and 'get-ahead', with several new research centres
collaborating with other institutions in Asia and further afield.
But with Islamic studies one of the oldest faculties at the university,
it was not an easy task for a woman vice-chancellor to turn it around.
Though a Muslim, she chooses not to wear a headscarf.
When Sharifah Hapsah first arrived at the sprawling forest-edge campus
as vice-chancellor in 2006, she had never worked with a faculty of
Islamic studies. “But I knew they took some strong stands and previous
vice-chancellors had some problems with them over certain issues. I
thought, 'how do I make sure that I don’t have problems, of being a
woman and Islam?'”
She knew from the beginning that she had ensure Islamic studies was
onside if she was to push through changes. She points to the Mosque
across from her office building: “If I look out of my window they are
the faculty I can see every day.”
The university also has a reputation for being nationalistic, and her mandate from government was to internationalise swiftly.
Promoting the Islamic faculty
Concerned about opposition from the Islamic faculty to any hint of
change, she says she made it a priority to bring them on board.
“I told them, ‘I will look upon this faculty to show the way – I am not
going to show you what is Islamic, you have to show me.' I think it’s
that kind of deference and respect that would enable them to say, ‘I
think this woman is alright.'”
She says she did not have any problems. This was in sharp contrast to
the strong opposition that greeted Rafiah Salim, vice-chancellor of the
University of Malaya, who became the country’s first woman university
leader when she was appointed three months ahead of Sharifah Hapsah in
2006, with a similar mandate to turn that hide-bound institution around.
Salim had a rocky time.
But Sharifah Hapsah says she recognised the Islamic faculty deserved a “dignified place in the university”.
She appointed members of the faculty into important positions at UKM,
such as head of research institutes and even deputy head of the
university’s international division, “to make sure they understand that
they are recognised within the academic community.
“I think they appreciate that because they say it is the first time they
have been selected for important positions in the university. After
that I felt more comfortable.
“I wanted to make sure I recognised talents anywhere. And they do well,
and their students are doing well. Before, there was this perception
that they are all
ustads [religious teachers] when they graduate. But no, these students are very progressive.
“When I introduced my entrepreneurship module in the university, two
groups came from that faculty to launch student-led businesses.”
Easier to rise internationally
Despite such successes in navigating a sensitive area, Sharifah Hapsah
admits it is not easy to rise to the position of vice-chancellor. In
Malaysia this is a political appointment. Much as she is a trailblazer,
she still had to wait until political conditions were ripe.
“At the time [before she was appointed] political influence was rather
strong. It’s not just about you, but are you acceptable at that point in
time? Looking at the conditions in the country, whether it is good to
have a woman.”
After qualifying in medicine from the University of Malaya, Sharifah
Hapsah first joined UKM as a lecturer in 1975, and rose to head of the
physiology department, then professor and head of the department of
medical education in the medical faculty, where she worked extensively
on medical curriculum development.
But there was little hope of further promotion within the university and
she left to become deputy director of the department of higher
education in the Ministry of Education. During this time she was
commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop quality
assurance guidelines for medical education in the Western Pacific
region.
“I gained my credentials internationally first. I was very involved with
international organisations, UN bodies, with WHO, ILO [International
Labour Organization], being invited as consultant and so on.”
She admits it was easier to rise internationally than in her own
country. Both she and Salim made a name for themselves outside their
country first, with United Nations bodies. “Internationally you don’t
have a problem.”
The traditional route is to rise within a university, but she had not
even been a dean. “University is a microcosm of larger society and then
there were no women vice-chancellors, no deputy vice-chancellors. Even
to appoint a deputy dean, they did not deliberately go out to look for
women.
“Maybe the men felt they don’t like assertive women...that’s the kind of
society we have – men don’t like women who are producing results or
talking. Internationally we can do it, but I don’t do it here in my
faculty. So they don’t submit your name or make sure you get the
appointment.”
But with the new millennium, Malaysian women’s organisations had become
more vocal about the number of women attending universities yet not
running them. “It had become an issue, that there was no woman
vice-chancellor,” Sharifah Hapsah said.
At the Education Ministry she had risen to become chief executive of the
National Accreditation Board, where she had worked for many years
setting up the qualifications agency and quality assurance system.
She was always ambitious. “Before I could become CEO, I was dreaming of becoming CEO.”
It helps, she says, to have worked for government. As vice-chancellor of
a public university, if you want anything, you have to lobby officials
and “know the channels to get what you want”.
At that point, at 4pm in the afternoon, Sharifah Hapsah excuses herself
to take a prayer break. She may eschew the customary headscarf, but it
is clear she is a practising Muslim. In the silence – even the telephone
stops ringing – the call to prayer from the Mosque wafts into her
offices.
Identifying women leaders
When she returns she seems refreshed, although those around her say she
is far more hard working than any of the university’s previous male
vice-chancellors.
So what does it take to be accepted as a woman vice-chancellor?
“You must have academic credibility. That’s number one. You must fulfil
all the academic requirements because you are going to talk to fellow
academicians. You cannot be anything less in your own field. You must
rise to the highest, and that’s professor.”
She identifies communication and collaboration as the other essential
qualities. “We should be more cooperative, more collaborative. That’s
what I try to do. And maybe that’s 'a woman thing'. There is a little
bit of competition, but collaboration should be bigger than that.”
Years of working with non-governmental organisations, particularly in
the fields of family and health, have also given Sharifah Hapsah the
ability to work with different social groups.
“Different groups have different needs. To listen to them and to be able
to advocate on their behalf is very important. If you don’t work with
NGOs, you don’t have that sensitivity to social issues. NGO work is a
good training ground,” she says.
This is evident in the university, which has become a
centre for community and social engagement
in the Association of South East Asian Nation region, reaching out to
all kinds of groups as it undertakes research that can have an impact on
development and also on global issues of concern such as climate
change, sustainable development, renewable energy, nanotechnology and
biotechnology.
It is also reflected in Sharifah Hapsah’s invitation to Nobel laureate
Muhammad Yunus, social entrepreneur and founder of the village Grameen
Bank in Bangladesh, to be a visiting professor at the university.
Things have come a long way
And what of the future? Although some entrenched attitudes are hard to
shift, the government has a target of 30% women in decision-making posts
in the public and private sectors.
Sharifah Hapsah believes she must prepare those who will come after her.
“I do make a deliberate effort to identify women for posts – women
deans, women deputy deans, women directors.” Among her three deputy
vice-chancellors, one is a woman.
And she does not regret the intervening years even though, she reveals,
she was once tipped for deputy vice-chancellor of UKM long, long before
the vice-chancellorship came up. For one thing, she is proud of having
laid the groundwork in the ministry.
“If I had been vice-chancellor early on I would not have developed the
quality assurance system for the country. For me that was an essential
and crucial element of higher education.
“If you have a world-class university in your country, so what. But if
you have a world-class system, it’s going to benefit all the people in
your country, from school right up to university level.”
