Kuala Lampur, Dec. 27 -- Something is quietly unravelling in Malaysia's public universities. Behind the polished facades and impressive ranking climbs, a deeper malaise festers-one rarely discussed openly yet widely known. Our ivory towers, once symbols of enlightenment, now risk becoming monuments to mediocrity and institutional silence.

The evidence is troubling. Academic dishonesty among lecturers - not just students - has become disturbingly normalised. Citation stacking, paper mills, and the coercion of junior academics to add senior names to publications they never touched: these are not isolated incidents but systemic practices driven by relentless KPI pressures. When a system rewards quantity over quality, it inadvertently cultiv...