The Determinants of Share Market Response to Employee Share Option Plans Announcements and Implementations: A Review of the Malaysian Bourse

The globalization of society and the economy has had an impact on research and education and been influenced by them. In the case of Malaysia, a liberalized democratic education policy brought a sudden upsurge of foreign students to Malaysia in 1966, when the government introduced the Higher Education Act. Terms such as international education and global education were an expression of this development. To become a major player, however, Malaysia essentially needs to acquire global competencies, in curriculum, administrative ease or pricing, in order to make its location a strategic choice for post-secondary education. The globalization of markets and competition, rapid technological changes and changing relationships between states and firms require different approaches from those traditionally assumed. This chapter proposes the development of a coherent global education model of higher education, based on an eclectic-locational rather than a multidisciplinary approach. Although the first university was established in 1962, foreign student enrolments in Malaysia have only increased rapidly in the last 25 years. The total number increased from 32 in 1970 to 12,605 in 1999. While foreign students still represent less than 2 per cent of higher education enrolments in Malaysia, this proportion is likely to grow over the next decade as university enrolments increase and the government policy of liberalizing higher education continues.