Abstract
Since its establishment in 2007, the Malaysian Qualifications Agency has been developing and releasing programme standards for different disciplines and subjects. A set of programme standards document serves to benchmark the quality but it also takes away the freedom from the institutions to design their own programmes. Currently, there are programme standards for 19 different disciplines. This paper serves as the first and foremost response and feedback to the Malaysian Qualifications Agency on the programme standards for performing arts launched in late 2013. This paper presents three main outcomes. The first outcome highlights the disconnection between the programme standards and Malaysia’s performing arts development. The second outcome highlights the ambiguities of MQA’s efforts in including the concepts of employability within the programme standards. The final outcome focuses on the inconsistencies in the quality assurance requirements stated in the programme standards.