The Malaysian Public Universities are undergoing the process of transformation which requires efforts from every components of the universities, especially the academic staffs, in order to achieve high rankings internationally and to fulfil their Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for the purpose of promotion and appraisal. These ambitions have increased the workload of academic staffs and extend their workloads from teaching to other myriad of responsibilities such as; research, consultation, administrative and community services. This paper examines the impact of transformation of university status and the workload of academic staff. Data was collected through interview with the top level management from four different categories of universities such as APEX, Research, Focus and Comprehensive University. Thematic content data analysis technique was used in analysing the data collected. This paper finds that the transformation of higher education status has intricated the workloads of academic staffs with less benefits. The workloads and job specifications of the academic staffs are different in accordance to the categories of the universities. Meanwhile, all public universities are bound to follow the dictated scheme provided by the Public Service Department of Malaysia. This study suggests that the contract of service of academic staffs to be revised and to include clear terms on the improvement of scheme and benefits for academic staffs in public universities.

Rubberwood sawntimber has become one of the major contributors to the Malaysian furniture export and economic growth in the past two decades as its demand from wooden furniture manufacturing has increased tremendously. Factors affecting availability and consumption of rubberwood sawntimber are identified through the multiple regression models. The results of the regression analyses have been statistically diagnosed and modified to generate the best models. Availability of rubberwood sawntimber is influenced by replanted area, price of rubberwood log, latex price and previous production of rubberwood sawntimber. Consumption of rubberwood sawntimber is influenced by national income and prices of other light hardwood species that are mainly consumed by sawmills, i.e. Dark Red Meranti and Red Meranti. The findings could be used as a guideline for the policy maker to develop strategies for further strengthens the wood based industry as a whole.

Malaysia aspires to become developed and high income nation by year 2020. Under the Tenth Malaysia Plan, herbal industry was the first Entry Point Project for Agricultural National Key Economic Area in Economic Transformation Programme. To understand the current status of the herbal industry, FRIM (Forest Research Institute Malaysia) conducted the survey on 6,923 herbal chain players, consisted from upstream to downstream activities. A face-to-face interview was conducted using a structured questionnaire to gather the information. This paper highlighted the relationship between concentration of the herbal industry and urbanization's status of the areas. The finding shows that a statistically significant difference exists between category of herbal activities and status of the areas. The upstream activities are more concentrated in rural areas, while most of downstream activities in urban areas. It is in line with central place of theory on how settlements and places are located in relation to one another and their functions. Therefore, to further develop the herbal industry, the government should consider strategic location by category of industrial activities in policies planning, programmes implementation and providing infrastructural support needed by the industry.