I urge the Tunku Abdul Rahman College to reconsider its reported decision ( ' Alleged termination of courses irks Tarc students ' ) to close its advance diploma courses. I suppose the decision is taken so as not to duplicate the degree courses in the same fields offered by Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman.

My argument centres on the separate roles of the two very distinct institutions. Utar with its merit-based admission policy, is in a very strong position to emerge into a leading tertiary institution in Malaysia. The perception at the moment is that none of the indigenious institution, especially the public universities, has this distinction. The University of Nottingham in Malaysia and Monash University in Malaysia probably command the highest public respect.

By keeping advance diploma courses in Tarc, Utar is then free in its pursuit of developing into a research university of the highest standing. Tarc will fullfill the social role of providing tertiary education to anybody who qualifies while Utar will concentrate in developing top talents. The role of a top-class university is of utmost importance in the knowledge-based economy (' Where the K-economy battle will be fought ' ). Utar should not be allowed to end up as a run-of-the-mill institution.

Let us take a lesson from the highly successful model of California. The state runs two parallel university systems. The University of California (UC) Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, etc are world renowned in academic excellence while the California State University (CSU) in over 20 other cities fulfill the role of providing college education to all who qualify. Students can move between the two systems.

Although the UC system take only the best students from high schools, those who enter the CSU system can transfer into the UC after the first two years if they proved themselves to be deserving. Also, graduates from the CSU system can proceed into the UC for postgraduate studies. This arrangement has enabled California to build up one of the world's best university system while not neglecting its duty to provide education for its general population.

A similar parallel system runs in the UK too. The old university system are generally considered to have higher academic standing while the post-1992 universities are strong in providing vocational tertiary education. The post-1992 universities are formerly polytechnics which are allowed to be upgraded into universities by the British government in 1992. The old universities include Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, York, Manchester, etc and the post-1992s include Oxford Brookes, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, etc. Many graduates of the post-1992 universities continue on with postgraduate studies in old universities.

Please consider again. Do not disappoint the high expectation of the people who have supported and donated to Utar. We need a top class university and Utar is our hope.