Flexible Learning Pathways in Malaysian Higher Education: Balancing Human Resources Development and Equity Policies

Malaysia’s higher education system is highly centralized, with a set of legislations to govern and monitor public universities and regulate the private higher education sector. The latest discourse, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG4, pitted against existing policies on lifelong learning, presented an opportunity to assess practices at the institutional level. In the national context, there is a need to confirm the extent to which the linkages between national policies on lifelong learning, strategies, instruments, and institutional practices in terms of flexible learning pathways (FLPs) have benefited nontraditional learners, disadvantaged and marginalized groups. Hence, this research aims to investigate how FLPs have benefited particularly the bottom 40 percent of households (B40 households), disadvantaged and marginalized groups, persons with disabilities, and also women in Malaysia.