Research Monograph

Higher education plays an important role in the human capital development of a country. Investment in higher education generally rises every year, and sustaining the financing of public institutions involved in higher education is becoming economically burdensome upon the state.While the cost for sustaining higher education is rising, the allotment for it in the government budget is eroding. In light of this, governments around the world, including Malaysia, are exploring measures to financially maintain higher education institutions without shifting the burden of ever-increasing university fees onto students and their families. In 2015, the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education launched the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education), which underlined initiatives for Malaysia's higher education. One of the initiatives relates to the long-term financial sustainability of public higher education institutions. The vision and aspiration of the government is to drive Malaysian universities towards becoming financially self-sustaining. Under the University Transformation Programme, the Purple Book on Enhancing University Income Generation, Endowment & Waqf was launched in September 2016. It proposes four key initiatives for universities to enhance their income generation, namely, enhancing commercial activities, endowment, waqf and philanthropic income.

The interest in developing Islamic fintech in Malaysia and the efforts in achieving it are constantly on the rise. Several startups have launched Shariah-compliant fintech solutions. Shariah advisory boards at regulatory and industry levels have discussed various Shariah issues related to fintech. Resolutions and exposure drafts have been issued or modified by regulators to cover a wide range of Islamic fintech activities. Some government agencies have established dedicated departments to support fintech and the Islamic digital economy. Universities and training centres have started offering specialized courses and programmes to provide the requisite human capital, while research centres have invested in substantial efforts to push the industry forward by conducting extensive research and providing consultancy services. This report documents a representative sample of such efforts.