08 Oct SPORTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS TO BE MORE DYNAMIC

Sports development in tertiary institutions will be more dynamic with the approval of the Sports Development Policy for Tertiary Institutions by the Cabinet recently, said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

He said the policy would provide the catalyst for sports development and excellence in the country with at least 30 per cent of the national athletes produced by institutions of higher learning.

“This is a comprehensive policy. Its creation is seen to be capable of balancing between the sports achievement and academic performance of athletes from the universities. It is also capable of developing a sports culture among undergraduates,” he told reporters, here Wednesday.

He said the policy was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Sports Development chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Sept 8.

The policy was launched Wednesday night at the Higher Education Ministry’s Sports Excellence Night 2009 at the Putrajaya International Convention Center (PICC).

Mohamed Khaled said the policy would focus on seven clusters, namely the Sports Enculturation Programme; Sports Infrastructure Development Programme; Sports Excellence Centre Development Programme; Sports Excellence, Welfare, Incentives and Research Scheme (SKIPS); Athletes’ Academic Development Programme; Career Promotion and Network Programme; and Development Programme for Sports Studies at Tertiary Institutions.

The Minister said various programmes had been drawn up to implement the inputs for each cluster.

“Under the SKIPS initiative, for example, research and development (R&D) activities in the field of sports would continue to be emphasised.

“Since 2007, the (Higher Education) Ministry had spent about RM550,000 on 21 researchers and for this year, a RM200,000 grant would be given to each sport researcher. I hope with the increased grants, more research could be made to improve the quality of sports in the country,” he said.

— BERNAMA