I would like to raise the issue of widespread academic corruption in public universities in Malaysia. I am an enrolled post-graduate student at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and was shocked when my supervisor told me that I cannot publish journal articles based on my thesis if I do not include him as co-author. In fact he demanded that he be the main author although I did all the work.

I have asked around and was told that this is standard practice in Malaysia. However, when I checked with universities in Singapore, Australia and United Kingdom, I was told there is no such thing. Supervisors cannot take credit for their student's work.

I believe Malaysian supervisors do this because they are not capable of doing original research so they want a free ride in academic publishing. I hope this matter is exposed and the higher education minister will do something. This is nothing more than legalise blackmail.