The Ministry of Higher Education has recently announced that campuses were not able to fully reopen this year, which “caught universities off guard and sparked public anger. Many families had paid for flights, purchased bus tickets and even booked hotel rooms for students to travel across the vast country for the start of courses” reports The World University Rankings. The nation has more than 500,000 university students.Sharifah Munirah Alatas, a lecturer in strategic studies and international relations at the National University of Malaysia, or Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), told Times Higher Education that the poor decision-making was rooted in systemic problems. “The public has been progressively frustrated, over decades, with the continued decline in our nation’s quality of education,” she said. “Education is a long-term investment, both in terms of finances and time. Parents and students want the system to run efficiently. They are hoping their degree will help chart the course of their life after graduation,” she explained.