REPOSITORY SYSTEM FOR TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN MALAYSIA

Chapter 1: Introduction
This research project presents a solution involved in repository systemsprojects that aim to improve humans, education and environment. It considers the option of using repository systems to improve the educational quality in Malaysia. The aim is to develop a

repository data centre to assist the tertiary institutions in monitoring the performance of students in many geographical areas in this country Malaysia. This research will pave a way for accurate budgeting, forecasting on educational sector and highlight ways to improve educational quality and performance in the country. This forms the basis of building a Repository System for Tertiary Institutions in educational environment with specific reference to Malaysia.

1.1

Education

Education is not only the process of impacting or acquiring general or specific knowledge but is also the tendency of building capacity or powers for reasoning and judgement and act of preparing oneself or others intellectually to mature life (Longman, 2010). Many people always view schools in a traditional and formal sense. There is no definitive definition of education, many think that education occurs in different forms and environment while some think that education only take place in the class or lecture room. Definition of education may differ from one person or the other, but education can be intuitively defined as a basic human right. It is believed that when this right is permitted,

growth and development is rapidly seen in the society to constitute to good living standard. There are many issues surrounding education such as inadequate of resources, poor founding, etc. It is the obligation of the people, group andgovernment to critically think about these issues confronting education and eventually come up with a better solution to improve education in the world. In 1990, UNESCO launched Education for All (EFA) (Ann, 2009);the movement to provide quality education for all children, youths and adults by the year 2015. It is unfortunate that in most of the countries, there are many issues that are preventing the improvement of the quality of education which therefore questions if the objectives of UNESCO towards EFA can be realized or not. One of the commonest ways to deal with the above mention problem lies in the access towards technology. It is an indisputable fact that access to technology can serve as a great tool for education. When one fails to access this tool, he or she suffers behind. So education as we have seen does not only promote individual development, rather it offers the general growth of the entire community, therefore providing a place for people to interact, socialize and unify the society.

1.2

Education in Malaysia

Malaysia a multi-ethnic society country located in the tropics of Southeast Asia. With the great ambition to become a developed Nation by 2020, many developments are putting Malaysia on the worlds map as she focuses on becoming a knowledge base economy country. In order to ensure educational quality and standard, Malaysian government in 1995 to 1997 initiated major educational reforms by establishing a legislative body to oversee all the levels of education, from the pre-school to tertiary education, <http://www.mpm.edu.my>. At the same time, Pre School to secondary education is

under the supervision of the Ministry of Education (MOE), while the post-secondary education is put under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). Malaysia has become a centre of educational excellence especially in the South East Asia, which is motivated by the effort of the government in seeing educational excellence as its responsibility to better citizenry and the country as a whole, <http://www.mpm.edu.my>. According to the Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Mustapha Mohamed in 2007, he said Our vision is to make Malaysia the centre of educational excellence. Malaysia is not relenting in realizing this vision as targeted by 2015.

1.3

Tertiary Education in Malaysia

In Malaysia there are 647 High Education Institution (HEI). This consists of 20 public universities and 627 higher education institutions (Ken, 2010).

1.4

Definition of Repository System

A repository systemmay be defined as a centralized system where data is collected, stored, retrieved, disseminated and maintained which can be access by multiple users locally or remotely (Mikeal, 2009). A repository system can be a place where

multiple databases or files are located for distribution over a network or a location that is directly accessible to the users without having to travel across a network (Mikeal, 2009).Furthermore, a full-fledged repository system is on principle a database management system (DBMS) with some special functionality to administer meta-data (Herbst, 1995). This includes the capability to specify meta-models, to customize the user interface, and to implement appropriate verification mechanisms and generators.

1.5

Problem Statement

In Malaysia, higher education is generally seen as a major foundation in implementing the complex process of globalization. It is certainly known that the advent of globalization,

advanced information technology and higher education services have already been expanding beyond territorial especially in educational environment (Arokiasamy, 2010). Open access or in other words, information sharing has been widely encouraged in Malaysia especially in tertiary institutions. One of the greatest champions in the open access here in Malaysia is the libraries and Librarian. They initiated the promotion of access to information by implementing an institutional repository (Azmi, 2009).The Malaysian National Library is aimed to implement a repository of information resources based on bibliographic and non-bibliographic records of libraries (Azmi, 2009). According to Azmi (2009), there have been initiative to promote the access of information by implementing an institutional repository; but there have not been a repository system implemented to focus on the intellectual performance of student in tertiary institutions in Malaysia. It is clear fact that developing such system will ensure the following benefits: Repository system for tertiary institution does not only boost the quality of educational system, it goes far to contribute as a logical extension of a universitys or colleges core mission and as a channel through which to increase institutional visibility. The responsibility of communication between the MOHE and all the tertiary institutions will be strengthen and positioning the tertiary institutions with broader context of its markets or communities. It is important to note that every higher institution is committed to academic excellence and scientific progress. One may ask if there is any system to measure or prove this assertion. The repository systems will not only answer this question but it will also provide university administrators with demonstrable evidence of the institutions quality, thus helping every institution reinforce on institutions brand position and prestige.

Repository technology system, by capturing, preserving, and disseminating institutional collective intellectual information or records, serves as meaningful indicator of academic quality and merit. Repository system is not only a desired technology for tertiary institutions in Malaysia but it also present itself as a potential prediction tool for future analysis of institutional goal or initiatives.

1.6

Research Objectives

The research objectives of the current study are: To assess the status of repository system in Malaysia, specifically in the relation to tertiary institutions. To design and develop a repository system for tertiary institutions in Malaysia.

1.7

Project Scope

This project aims to implement the repository system for tertiary institutions in Malaysia that will be capable of carrying out different analysis and prediction services. An easy to use user interface will be employed to ensure user friendly system to all users. The scope also integrate business intelligent tool to produce different forms reports based on the following: Attendance of the students per semester or yearly basis for the benefit of visa extension,etc. for international students. This report is mostly asked by the Immigration Department during visa or passport renewal. Performance of the student for educational quality purposes, rating and Key Performance Indicator (KPI). The report from this session will directly go to MOHE.

Population of students based on different state in Malaysia or population of foreign students from different countries studying in Malaysia. With the application of cubes structure as one of the important tools used in multidimensional data warehousing, information on any or group of students can be produced in given time range.

1.8

Organization of Thesis

Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter provides overview of educational system in Malaysia specifically on the tertiary institutions. The objectives and scope are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter 2: Literature Review The literature review for this research project gives the overview of repository system, types of repository data, intelligent information and existence of repository systems around the world. It also gives the methodology and implementation details used in some existing repository systems. Chapter 3: Methodology This chapter discusses the research methodology used for this study, the data collection and the method of data collection. Chapter 4: Data Analysis In this chapter, discussion is about data analysis. The data collected from tertiary institutions were tabulated, analysed and discussed in details. It also analysed about system review on repository system.

Chapter 5: System Analysis and Design The system design is conferred in this chapter. Here Web Development Method (WSDM) was used to carry out the design modeling. The Data Centre framework was discussed with respect to the proposed framework and prototype of Repository System.The Data Flow Diagram (DFD), activity diagram, database design, classes and function modules were also discussed in this chapter. Chapter 6: Implementation and Testing In this chapter, the database, classes and function implementations were analysed. The implementation of the repository system is narrated here; system testing which was done by the same contributors who participated in survey questionnaire.

Chapter 7: Conclusion The project result base on the objectives of this study wasdeliberated in this chapter. The limitation and future work having considered the importance were also discussed here.