Financing Higher Education Through Society's Participation in Malaysia: A Multi-Religious Perspective

• Published in: Islamic Quarterly
• Main Author: Hoque M.N.; Mohamed N.; FarukAbdullah Md.; Bhuiyan A.B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Islamic Cultural Centre 2023
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85182411029&partnerID=40&md5=8c9989e5e3a87638768a2da0b7a5d085

Historically, society's participation has been playing a significant role in providing and strengthening financial assistance to higher education throughout the world. This article aims to examine different religious scholars' perspectives in financing higher education with reference to Malaysia. The discussion combines the experiences of charity-based financing for strengthening higher education under the umbrella of social participation. This study adopts qualitative approach which conducts semi-structured interviews with four different religious scholars which are Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim in Malaysia. Qualitative thematic analysis was carried out to analyze the primary data. The research shows that the role of Malaysian society can be directly engaged in financing higher education from the main four religious' perspectives. Furthermore, charitable giving is the motivating factor for society to involve itself directly in funding higher education. And lastly, based on the experiences and perceptions, this article recommends few processes to encourage society to engage directly in Malaysia's funding of higher education. This article adds new knowledge in the area of charitable higher education by examining the religious scholar's views on religious perspective for financing higher educational institutions. Additionally, instances of religious motivations are conspicuous contribution for the funding crises in higher educational institutions. © 2023 Islamic Cultural Centre. All rights reserved.