ISSN 2039-2117 (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 6 No 4 S3 August 2015 Managing Political Behavior of University Students Junaidi Awang Besar 1 Mohd Fuad Mat Jali 2 Novel Lyndon 3 Sivapalan Selvadurai 4 1 Lectures at School of Social Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, UKM 43600, Selangor D. E., Malaysia, jab@ukm.edu.my 2 Professor at School of Social Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, UKM 43600, Selangor D. E., Malaysia, fuad@ukm.edu.my 3 Associate Professor at School of Social Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, UKM 43600, Selangor D. E., Malaysia, novel@ukm.edu.my 4 Associate Professor at School of Social Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, UKM 43600, Selangor D. E., Malaysia, sivap02@gmail.com Doi:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s3p48 Abstract The main objective of the institute of higher learning is to produce students who are excellence in academic, innovative and prepared to face any challenges. Besides learning various disciplines of knowledge they also participate in campus politics. This article analyses the factors which form student political behavior on the campus and strategy undertaken by management and lecturer to make students innovative and progressive. A survey using questionnaires was carried out from a sample of 800 students in the main campus of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The result of the study shows that student political behavior was influenced by their family background and campus environment. The other factors are location and campus environment, welfare, racial composition, state of origin, mass media, issues, lecturer and university leadership. The strategy undertaken by the UKM management are to give more attention on student welfare, monitoring students activities, practicing student friendly policy and concept of hands on, introducing patriotic courses, built-up close relationship between student and top leadership and student union. Thus managing political behavior of campus students would be very interesting and challenging indeed for future analyses to look again into the question of young voting pattern in Malaysia. Keywords: political management, students, globalization, leadership, association Introduction 1. Students in higher education is a group of elite and educated youth. In addition to studying various disciplines, they are also active in campus political activities. Their political behavior patterns could threaten the campus and national politics. Their political participation will influence the campus and national political scenario when involving community issues, policy and leadership. University is one of important social institution and looked up to by society because this institution produces a large portion of elite group or educated person. Student political activism remains a key issue in the Third World despite its decline in industrialized nation. Students those in the social sciences, are fairly easy to mobilize and they often have a basic interest in political and social issues (Altbach, 1984). It is argued that student movements emerge from their social and political environment and it is not surprising that activism continues as a powerful for in the Third World. To examine this point this article analyses what are the factors that caused student interested in politics and strategy to manage this problem. Literature Review 2. In Indonesia for instance student's movement as the largest pressure group had played a role bringing down President Suharto’s government. The students’ movement in Thailand, Filipina, Cuba, Southern Korea, Europe and America too