A study of student opinions in a developing country--Malaysia--shows that the institutionalization of education in developed countries has been transferred to developing countries in the status given to Western degrees. Ideas about what constitutes knowledge and professionalism, disseminated by universities of the Western world, have come to dominate higher education in developing countries; however, the importance of a Western-style education for institutionalizing its values lies in the way such a curriculum shapes a nation's view of its own development, its schooling systems, its other institutions, and its powerful class. Western-style theories of knowledge prescribe kinds of analysis and solutions to Third-World problems, just as theories of competency (based upon degrees held or programs completed) prescribe who is to be given elite status in a specialized field and in the social structure as a whole. In developing countries, then, degrees from universities in developed countries might seem to be valued highest. To test this hypothesis about high-status degrees in a developing nation, a questionnaire, which compared the status of degrees from five countries (Britain, the United States, Malaysia, India, and the Philippines), was given to a group of secondary-level students from Malaysia. Results indicate much higher status accorded degrees from developed countries than even to Western-style universities in the Third World. (JW)