The 2010 Tracer Study or Kajian Pengesanan Graduan 2010 by the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) had proved that in just 4 months, some 76.6% of USM students who graduated that year has been employed in various government agencies, the private sectors and international conglomerates, locally and abroad.
Source: 76.6% GRADUAN USM BEKERJA DALAM TEMPOH 4 BULAN
USM had earlier set the benchmark of its 2010 graduates employability rate at 75% and as far as this target is concerned it had been met. The questionnaires were usually given and the results collected during and after the graduates had received their scroll on convocation day (roughly 4-7 months after their final exams/results).
In 2007, the MoHE Tracer Study gave an overall result of 53.4% for the total IPTA graduates in Malaysia who were employed, while 29.7% were not.
In the same study (2007), Universiti Malaya graduates were tops with an employability rate of 97%. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia was in second place (84%), next was USM on third place (69%), UPM fourth (67%), UKM fifth (54%) and at sixth position is UUM (49%).
Source: PRODUCTIVITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN MALAYSIA by Chan Lee Yee and Norehan Abdullah, Universiti Utara Malaysia (Kajian Malaysia, Jld. XXV, No. 2, Disember 2007), .
However, in the article the writers had sought that in order to achieve a high level of effectiveness, each university (IPTA) should achieve at least 90% of the graduates employability rate.
The writers gave the example of the 2007 Tracer Study results where they pointed out that the overall IPTS graduates were more productive than graduates of public universities.
The multiple studies also proved that the Malaysian higher education system is less efficient and not able to reduce the problem of graduate unemployment. So, in conclusion the study found that the productivity of Malaysian higher education system is rather weak and more should be done in order to effectively reduce the unemployment rate.
Phew 90%...! it's a long way to go...!
Anyway, congratulations to USM graduates and all the people involved, especially USM's academic staff, for making this 75% employability target possible.
Maybe next year we can set a higher target at 90% as suggested by the study above.
