A Cross-Cultural Comparison between United Kingdom and Malaysian Academics' Satisfaction with Academic Research

Abstract

In recent years major changes have taken place in universities, both in the west and in developing countries. In the United Kingdom major changes in Government policy have resulted in major cuts in university resources, and subsequently these bring pressure on U.K. academics. In developing countries such as Malaysia, higher education has expanded in recent dacades. Institution of higher learning employ most academic staff who have been educated at post graduate level in the west. This paper examines the attitudes of members of staff from Universities in United Kingdom and those from Malaysian universities towards academic research. The result from the study indicate that whilst both academic staff in United Kingdom and Malaysia have high positive attitudes to involvement in research,and they have similar patterns of response to the research experience, they differ such as in the level of satisfaction with regard to publications and reasons for undertaking research.

ABSTRAK

Pada tahun-tahun kebelakangan ini banyak perubahan besar telah berlaku di universiti-universiti di Barat dan di negara-negara sedang membangun. Perubahan-perubahan besar dalam dasar kerajaan di United Kingdom telah mengakibatkan potongan besar sumber kewangan universiti dan seterusnya memberi tekanan ke atas ahli-ahli akademik' di negara tersebut. Di negara membangun seperti Malaysia, pendidikan tinggi berkembang di mana ramai ahli kakitangannya mendapat pendidikan peringkat ijazah lanjutan di barat. Kertas ini mencuba meninjau kesan-kesan dari faktor-faktor tersebut ke atas sikap ahli-ahli akademik di kedua-dua negara terhadap penyelidikan. Keputusan yang diperolehi menunjukkan bahawa di samping ahli-ahli akademik dari kedua-dua negara mempunyai sikap positif terhadap penglibatan dalam penyelidikan dan menunjukkan pola tindak balas yang sama kepada pengalaman penyelidikan, di dapati masih terdapat perbezaan-perbezaan utama di antara kedua-dua kumpulan akademik ini seperti tahap kepuasan dengan penerbitan dan alasan membuat penyelidikan.