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KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Education is planning to have a new Higher Education Act enacted to eliminate barriers to free speech in universities, said deputy minister Teo Nie Ching.

She said the new act would consolidate acts related to higher education namely the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996, the Educational Institutions (Discipline) Act 1976 and other relevant acts. “Currently the ministry is collecting feedback from stakeholders of educational institutions.

“Come June we will develop the framework and subsequently the preliminary draft would be submitted to the Cabinet.

 “From July to October, we will hold a town hall session for public engagement, and we hope to have the new Bill tabled in Parliament in 2020 after obtaining the approval of the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Cabinet,” she said during the question-and-answer session at the Dewan Negara Tuesday.

Teo was replying to a supplementary question from Senator Datuk Dr S. Ananthan who wanted to know if the government would amend the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and the Educational Institutions (Discipline) Act 1976 in efforts to remove barriers to freedom of speech by university students in the country. – Bernama