AN ISLAMIC STEWARDSHIP PERSPECTIVE ON ACADEMIC QUALITY IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Concern about declining academic standards, lack of governance, ethical neglect and the marketisation of private higher education in Malaysia is rising. Many institutions demonstrate poor integrity in delivering quality teaching, poor standards when evaluating students and very little scholarly integrity through leadership philosophies that favour management efficiency over academic integrity. An integrative framework to explain the interrelationship between academic oriented leadership, quality assurance literacy and ethical technology governance on academic quality is proposed. The authors opined that a strong Islamic academic stewardship mediates the direct effects of academic leadership and governance on the quality of student outcomes associated with academic programmes, whereas an Islamic ethical climate moderates how effective stewardship is in producing competent students and scholarly excellence. The authors incorporate Islamic stewardship theory to provide a conceptual foundation and present a re-conceptualisation of higher education governance as “Amanah” that leaders of higher education institutions must operate under to ensure moral accountability to future generations. The proposed framework addresses gaps in higher education governance literature by providing an empirically actionable, theoretical basis for future research. Contribution to Islamic management research through risk identification related to education commercialisation and the development of “morally anchored model” to enhance academic quality are also present in this paper.