No abstract

Higher education; university is an aspiration for the Malaya citizens, especially to those with higher education background. Hence, the establishment of a university is considered as a golden opportunity to the youth of Malaya to continue their studies to a higher level back home. The initial recommendation to establish a university in Malaya was raised in 1938 under McLean Commission Report. This study analyses the issues raised and recommendations proposed under the report towards establishment of a university in Malaya. As such, qualitative method applied in designing the research as analyses were done through sources extracted from British government’s official documents, personal letters as well as available books and publications; mostly newspaper articles from the colonial era. The findings indicated the existence of weaknesses in the education provided in Raffles College and King Edward College. Moreover, the problems highlighted by the commission are among the issues that need to be address beforehand, in order to establish a university in Malaya. However, those issues might have been mitigated earlier and would have made the university establishment in Malaya possible, if the British government have had an ongoing evaluation in place post the establishment of Raffles College and King Edward College.. This research will be benefitting interested scholars by adding value to the available literatures and background resources on higher education in Malaya. Apart from that, this research will be an indicator to measure the development of higher education in Malaysia thus far, benchmarking the weakness reflected in the report as Malaysia craft path towards attaining global standards.