I AM finally co-teaching a subject called Popular Music Studies this year – the name is the same field of research I specialize in – with a colleague, who is an ethnomusicologist, teaching the first half of the subject, which has been the arrangement we’ve followed for the past several times we’ve taught it together.

It’s the only music subject I am allowed to teach according to the Malaysian Qualifications Agency since I am a film and television major in university.

I also actually wrote the subject when my department was told to create degree programmes (we only had a diploma in performing arts when I joined) when my colleagues and I were tasked with creating the music and film degrees in our department about a decade ago.

This is not an anomaly when you scan the cultural landscape. 

Many professional musicians out there (in Malaysia and abroad) tend to not have degrees in music or even studied music in a college or university. The same goes to most creative industry practitioners.

This talk is probably more critical in the sciences but then again one must also understand that universities are not job factories. They are places to learn and inculcate the practice and process of learning.

Here are several reasons – from my personal perspective as someone who has been in the higher education industry in the arts for two decades – on why we need to reflect on the existential purpose of universities or lose their relevance in our society.

1) Students are the future-proof software

I tell my film degree students that while we may show off our up-to-date and industry standard equipment, we do not do so because hardware will always become out of date, even more so in this digital age.

I tell them we focus on the students themselves because they are the software that will never go out of date if they are taught and trained well to adapt to change.

We need to future-proof our students – that is of utmost importance.

There has been a lot of talk lately about graduate mismatches with the professions they end up in and while consensus is that this is a problem, I beg to differ as an academic and practitioner.

We can’t predict the future but we can have foresight on what is to come, hence, this is what university education offers – to critically think about not only ourselves but also the epoch we live in.

And one of the most important skills that students need is also one that requires some major “rehabilitation” in their time in university.

2) Rote learning kills soft skills

There’s been a lot of focus on soft skills from industries also lately and this is justified.

To me, this phenomenon of graduates lacking soft skills is the outcome of a school education system that favours rote learning.

I am a product of KBSM (Integrated Secondary School Curriculum) of the 1990s and all I remember about a subject in particular – history – was that we were only told to memorise important dates and names without understanding the context.

In fact, I was initially interested in the subject but my high school teachers used to respond to my curiosity and questions by telling me to shut up and just memorise dates (I rekindled my love for history later in adulthood).

It’s a tall order to expect students to merely pick up soft skills in their three to four years in university but trust me, we are doing our best.

But we merely receive the products (students) from the system that precedes us: our schools.

Unlearning is just as important as learning and rote learning is a habit that takes a while to wean. Maybe a lifetime.

3) “Customerisation” disrupts student-teacher relationship

One of my colleagues (who has a black belt in taekwondo) made an observation that students who were active or participated in sports – especially martial arts – understands, respects and preserves the student-teacher relationship, which is similar to the student-sifu or student-guru relationship.

This is also formally known as an “educational” or “pedagogical” relationship and this relationship is increasingly disrupted by the commercialisation of higher education.

Respect towards a teacher/sifu/guru is different as they are our guide to learning and knowledge – hence, my assertion that teaching is a vocation, not a job.

However, as private university fees skyrocket, there’s an increasing attitude by not only parents but also students themselves that they are first and foremost “customers”.

I’m not surprised because this is the same paradigm and language used by businesses and since private education has become a big business, so too has the language, its attitude and its operational philosophy.

This is troubling and the only personnel that can correct this are academics themselves. – June 28, 2024.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.