Abstract
A recent initiative or skill bridging measure taken by the Malaysian public universities is to build into the formal curriculum soft skills to produce graduates with a right balance of diverse abilities. However, to date, there is no comprehensive attempt to review the integration of soft skills in the formal curriculum (both coursework and training) of university programmes. The paper therefore reviews the adequacy of the infusion and acquisition of the entire range of skills embedded in taught courses and practical/industrial training from the students’ perspective. The specific focus of the study is to identify what worked well and what had not in acquiring the skills designated in the teaching–learning process. The key findings of the study are as follows. First, the perceived infusion–acquisition of skill types differs unequivocally between coursework and training, suggesting the complementary nature of both components of the formal curriculum for the integration of soft skills. Second, the infusion–acquisition of soft skills remains highly concentrated on specific items/skills for both coursework and training. For the coursework component, communication skills explain most of the total variance, whilst moral and professional ethics ranks first in explaining the total variance for the training component. In total, the perceived low and selective appreciation of skills by students signals the need to readdress the existing strategies within the teaching–learning process to ensure a better integration of soft skills.
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Notes
Public universities are defined as higher educational institutions established by the government under the Universities and Universities College Act 1971 (Amended 1996).
There are currently twenty public universities in Malaysia. Of the twenty, six universities were previously known as college universities prior to their upgrading of status to that of a university.
Malaysian public universities have much less management autonomy than other Organization of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) countries (World Bank 2007).
Private universities were already subject to the quality regime since 1997 under the National Accreditation Board (LAN). The LAN is now legally transformed into the MQA.
Learning outcomes are statements that explain what students should know, understand and can do upon the completion of a period of study, which also refers to the development of curriculum in terms of teaching and learning and the assessment of students.
Employability, according to Atlay (2006), has become a key curriculum driver of many institutions of higher learning.
Salih (2007) calls the Malaysian approach of developing soft skills in higher education a holistic approach as it combines two different modalities of integration.
The duration of the survey is lengthy given that the public universities chosen for the study are located in different states of the Peninsular and East Malaysia. The questionnaires were personally distributed by the researchers only for the universities located within the Klang Valley. However, for the public universities located in different states of Malaysia, the questionnaires were mailed to specified lecturers of the Education, Economics and Business Faculties/Schools. The identified lecturers monitored and distributed the questionnaires during their lectures to final year students. Upon return of those questionnaires, each lecturer was given an honorarium.
The eight universities chosen for the study represent 76% of total enrolment in first degree Arts-based programmes in Malaysian public universities in 2008.
The universities upgraded from the status of university colleges as shown in Appendix Table 9 are excluded from the survey as they concentrate on a narrower range of disciplines; they offer mostly technical programmes whereby soft skills has been part of their formal curriculum way before the established universities introduced them into their curriculum.
Some degree programmes in the Malaysian public universities are 3 years, whilst some others are 4-year programmes. However, most of the respondents of the study are third year students since they are from the 3-year degree programmes.
Not all degree programmes subject students to undertake industrial training, which is a short-term attachment (normally 3 months) to private institutions (industry, non-governmental organizations) or government and semi-government agencies during the semester break of the university. Some programmes do not have the element of industrial training incorporated into their formal curriculum, whilst some other programmes provide graduation exercise as an alternative to industrial training.
The academic programme structure differs across public universities. Some universities house the Education, Economics and Business programmes as Schools under the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences or Arts and Humanities, whilst some universities identify them as separate Faculties. Further within the programmes, there are students who major in those disciplines. In this respect, it was difficult to employ a stratified sampling method.
The seven-factor dimension for skill infusion-acquisition via training exceeds marginally the 60% of the explained variance recommended in social sciences (Hair et al. 1998).
The Catell’s scree test (Cattell 1966) performed also confirms that only two factors contribute the most to the explanation of the variance in both the coursework and training datasets. They are communication skills (wide usage of English in lectures and tutorials) and critical thinking and problem-solving skills (critical feedback on assignments and presentations) for coursework and moral and professional ethics skills (exposure to good work ethics) and entrepreneurship skills (acquisition of specific industrial knowledge) for training.
Caution should be taken when interpreting the results since the lack of adequate integration of communication skills in English language via training may be due to the large number of placement of trainees at government institutions.
The training component of first degree programmes of public universities in Malaysia are basically 3–6 months. Approximately 92% of the respondents underwent a 3-month training stint, which is the minimum requirement for most programmes.
In total, only 16% of the respondents claimed that they were very satisfied with the palette of skills acquired through coursework. A majority of respondents (52%) feel that they still lack communication skills, followed closely by 47% each indicating a lack of leadership skills and critical thinking and problem-solving skills, whilst 46% lack entrepreneurship skills.
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This work was supported by funding from the University of Malaya Grant (FR058/2007A).
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Appendix
Appendix
See Tables 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.
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Devadason, E.S., Subramaniam, T. & Daniel, E.G.S. Final year undergraduates’ perceptions of the integration of soft skills in the formal curriculum: a survey of Malaysian public universities. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 11, 321–348 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-010-9090-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-010-9090-4