[UPDATED] Concert guidelines for varsities only at recommendation stage: ministry

KUALA LUMPUR – Seeking to dispel concerns over supposed new entertainment guidelines for varsities, the Higher Education Ministry emphasised today that these are only at the recommendation stage.

In a statement, it said that the Guidelines for Entertainment Activities (Concerts) at higher education institutions which have gone viral on social media are, if adopted, meant to serve as reference for the institutions in developing their own guidelines.

It noted that Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin has already asserted that the guidelines for conducting entertainment activities like concerts on campus must be drafted and prepared by the institutions with the involvement of their respective student councils or unions.

In light of this, the higher education department has directed the managements of the institutions to ensure that the student bodies are duly involved in the process of formulating the guidelines.

It stressed that this is in order to ensure that the students’ voices and needs are taken into account.

Khalid had said on Sunday that the concert guidelines were not final even as a student body announced its intention to initiate a judicial review.

“Space and opportunity are given to the students as an element for their empowerment as important stakeholders,” the ministry said in its statement.

“This very much fulfils the agenda of student empowerment that is being carried forward by the minister of higher education.”

The controversy began with the Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) issuing a statement slamming the guidelines, calling it an attempt at moral policing.

They claimed that the proposed guidelines included gender segregation among event attendees, calling it a “conservative wave making its way into university campuses”.

It claimed that they prohibited mixed seating of males and females, and artists wearing shorts.

In the guidelines that Umany shared, the genre and lyrics to be performed at concerts on campus grounds must first be approved by the university management.

It added that it had launched a crowdfunding campaign to initiate a judicial review of the guidelines. – The Vibes, September 5, 2023