Universities at the crossroads: industry or society driven? - practical recommendations

Oct 15, 2026

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The article examines how Malaysia’s higher education system has expanded and how it is increasingly shaped by an “industry-driven” agenda. It contrasts industry-driven and society-driven approaches, outlining their differing impacts on institutions and graduates. It describes the structure of public and private higher education, the graduate employability context in the Malaysian labour market, and the notable growth in graduate supply. The article concludes with practical recommendations for a balanced policy combining both approaches.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction: An overview of higher education system

Structure and expansion of Malaysia’s higher education system

Graduate employability in Malaysia

Labour force definitions and unemployment categories

Trends in graduate employment and unemployment

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Universities at the crossroads: industry or society driven? Robert Jeyakumar Nathan & Terence Tan Gek Siang Multimedia University Omar Shawkataly Universiti Sains Malaysia Higher education is viewed as part of the national agenda in transforming Malaysia into a high-income nation. This has resulted in a skyrocketing number of graduates in Malaysia’s recent history. Industry relies on higher education as the source of skilled employees, and it is important for industry to attract and retain talented employees in their effort to remain competitive in the market. This article presents an overview of the higher education system in Malaysia that has in the recent years jumped onto the ‘industry-driven’ wagon. The impacts of both industry-driven and society-driven systems are discussed. The article concludes with practical recommendations for higher education institutions in Malaysia to encourage a balanced higher education policy and strategy that can blend industry-driven and society-driven approaches as a joint-agenda for institutions of higher learning. Introduction: An overview of higher education system This section presents an overview of the higher education system in Malaysia. According to the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (2012a), the higher education system is envisioned as making Malaysia a centre of higher education excellence by 2020.The Ministry’s mission is to build a higher education environment that is conducive to the development of a superior centre of knowledge and to generate competent and innovative individuals of noble character to serve the needs of the nation and world. One of the Ministry’s objectives is to produce competent graduates to fulfil national and international manpower needs, with 75 per cent of the graduates employed in their relevant fields within six months of their graduation. The higher education system in Malaysia is classified into public institutions (government funded) and private institutions (privately funded) . Public institutions consist of public universities, polytechnics, community colleges and teacher training institutes while the private institutions include private universities, private university colleges, foreign branch campus universities and private colleges. The Malaysian education system encompasses education beginning from pre-school to university. Pretertiary education (pre-school to secondary education) is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education while tertiary or higher education is the responsibility of the separate Ministry of Higher Education. According to Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (2012b), the expansion of Malaysian higher education has seen an increasing number of public and private institutions.To illustrate further, public institutions have grown vol. 55, no. 2, 2013 Universities at the crossroads: industry or society driven?, Robert Jeyakumar Nathan et al 111 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W in number from seven in the 1990s to 20 in 2007 while a total of 471 private colleges and universities have been established during the same period. As such, student enrolment has sky-rocketed over the years.The expansion of the higher education industry has attracted serious attention and discussion from researchers on the surplus of graduates relative to the demands of the labour market (Ismail, 2011; Rodzalan & Saat, 2013) . Graduate employability in Malaysia Department of Statistics Malaysia (2010) defines the labour force as those aged 15 to 64 years (in completed years at last birthday) during the reference week, who were either employed or unemployed. Employment refers to all person who: (1) worked at least one hour for pay, profit or family gain at any time during the reference week; (2) did not work during the reference week because of illness, injury, disability, bad weather, leave, labour dispute and social or religious rea

FAQs

What is the main focus of the article?

The article reviews Malaysia’s higher education system and analyzes the effects of industry-driven versus society-driven approaches, ending with recommendations for a balanced policy.

How does the article describe Malaysia’s higher education system?

It classifies higher education into public and private institutions and explains the split between the Ministry of Education (pre-tertiary) and the Ministry of Higher Education (tertiary).

What does the article say about graduate employability in Malaysia?

It discusses labour market definitions and shows how the number of graduates entering employment increased from 2000 to 2010, while unemployment among graduates also rose, with differences by field of study.

Oct 15, 2026

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