Contract professors whose contracts are not renewed by their universities can still actively contribute to the academic world, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said.

He said there were many opportunities for the professors within the academic sphere to venture into.

"They can still actively contribute to society, for example, they can still write books on their respective fields and work with private universities and the private sector.

"Even though you are no longer working with a university, you can still work on research with the university, you need not be a staff or under contract to be working on research," he told reporters after officiating the 3rd European Union (EU)-Malaysia Higher Education conference here yesterday.

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Last month, the National Council of Professors reportedly said a total of 156 contract professors aged 61 to 70, who were employed with local public universities did not have their contracts renewed due to budget constraints.

The one-day conference organised by the EU served as a platform for university representatives to address issues such as recognition of studies; joint and double degree initiatives; funding; mobility of academic staff and university-enterprise corporation between EU and Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Idris said mobility of academic staff and students between EU and Malaysia was a clear sign of a globalised world where the world had become borderless.

Earlier in his speech, he said as of last year, Malaysia had a total of 133 programmes involving 477 students (inbound and outbound) in international mobility or programmes with EU countries.

"Among those countries, Turkey, Germany, France and the UK were recorded as the countries with the highest number of programmes with Malaysia," he noted.

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