KOTA KINABALU, MALAYSIA - The practice of just downloading information from the internet is among the key reasons in the deterioration of research quality among university students, Higher Education Department director-general Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi said.

He said there was a tendency among university students to limit their research efforts to "cutting and pasting" when they should be doing a lot more in finding facts.

"Research must take on a holistic approach and not simply gleaning something off the internet," he said when launching information and computer technology facilities at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) here yesterday.

Dr Radin said such a culture should be stopped as it did not reflect the core values of academic life. On the university intake this year, he said the number of applicants was almost double the number of places available.

Disclosing the figures, he said there were about 130,000 applicants for the 69,000 places at Malaysian public universities this year.

Of the figure, 28,000 were for students with the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia certificates while the balance were for those with Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) certificates.

Dr Radin said the places offered to STPM certificate holders had increased by 1,000 compared with last year as various universities were offering additional study programmes.

The Star/Asia News Network