About a third of 507 professors who were hired on a contract basis at public universities will not have their contracts renewed due to budget cuts.

A total of 156 professors aged 61 to 70 are set to lose their jobs, Majlis Professor Negara chief executive Raduan Che Rose was quoted by Kosmo! as saying.

He said about half of professors in Malaysia are around aged 55 and would now have only five years left in their careers before facing likelihood of termination.

There are 2,254 professors in Malaysia, of which 1,867 are serving in public universities, the daily reported.

The Higher Education Ministry suffered a deep cut of RM2.4 billion in Budget 2016.

Under Budget 2016, the ministry will only receive RM13.378 billion (five percent of the national budget) compared with RM15.785 billion (5.8 percent) in Budget 2015.

This is the deepest cut for the ministry since Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak tabled his first budget in 2010.