In Feb 2012, I wrote this. It was about foreign universities setting up branch campuses in Malaysia. Malaysia has this ambition of becoming the education hub of Asia! BUT how many universities do we need? Probably, with the deteriorating education quality, we may have 100% graduates in near future, almost all unemployable!
Few days ago I saw this report in the newspaper (see below). According to our Higher Education Ministry, we have 506 IPTS comprising 34 IPTS with university status, 21 with university college status, six branch campuses of foreign universities and 413 institutions with college status that are still active. We also have at least 20 Public Universities/IPTA. OMG! I wonder where do all these universities get their academics or human resource from. No wonder we are seeing so many graduates unemployed or unemployable! I feel it is just too many for a small country like ours.
UK with hundreds of years of world-class education has about 115 universities and 165 higher education institutes for a population of 63 million. Almost 10-20% of their students are international students. Our population is just 29 million. UiTM which is the biggest university and the only race based university in the world is producing at least 100 000 graduates/year with a target of 200 000/year by 2015. We will definitely be flooded with graduates. There are just too many redundant courses being conducted by these universities. Imagine we have 9 universities producing aeronautical engineers !! Are we a rocket producing country? We should probably concentrate on technical fields like automotive engineering, technicians, electrical and IT engineers etc as mentioned here. Even in Europe, the job market now is in knowledge and skill intensive occupations.
The Bar council seem to be having the same problem like doctors (read here)! Today, the Bar Council openly said that the current quality of law graduates are deplorable. They can’t speak English and can’t communicate. Furthermore, they are calculative and do not want to work? Sounds familiar? This is what I have been writing about fresh medical graduates as well. I feel our education system is to be blamed for this, coupled with the attitudes of parents who over pamper and overprotective of their children. Children should do what they are really interested in and not what the parents want them to become. I did not realise that there are only 14 500 lawyers in this country, half the number of doctors!
Our education system on the other hand should expose our children to the world and not keep them in a cocoon. They should also encourage school children to read and enjoy learning rather than rot learning. I can always see a BIG difference when I speak to a national school student and to an International School/Singapore school student. The gap is quite big, I must say.
When you politicised education, this is what happens. Education should never be privatised or commercialised. We may reach a point where we may not be able to turn back. I don’t see anything fantastic in the National Education Blueprint that was launched last month. There is also a BIG problem with the teachers in our national schools. Many are there just to get a paid job. I know many unemployed graduates who were absorbed to become teachers. Knowing their attitude, I can only feel sorry for the students. This blueprint DO NOT address this problem. In fact, the solution was that, under-performing teachers will be sent to non-teaching related jobs in the school!! So, basically he earns the same but get to do less work! Same story all over again. The lazy ones get transferred to a less busy department and the good ones work hard for the same pay! Typical of our civil service……………..
The day when the government take drastic measures to sack under-performing civil servants is the day the service will improve, including the education system which was once a world-class education. Unfortunately, our politicians are more interested in taking care of their seats!
20 applications to set up IPTS
rejected last year
Last updated on 18 October 2012 – 07:23pm
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 18, 2012): The Higher Education Ministry rejected 20 of the 46 applications to set up private institutions of higher learning (IPTS) with the status of a college last year as they did not fulfill the conditions stipulated.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the setting up of an IPTS could not be made arbitrarily and only institutions that were truly qualified would have their application approved.
“As of Aug 31, 2012, there were 506 IPTS registered with the Higher Education Ministry (KPT) comprising 34 IPTS with university status, 21 with university college status, six branch campuses of foreign universities, and 413 institutions with college status that are still active,” he said when replying to a question from Datuk Sapawi Ahmad (BN-Sipitang) during the question and answer session at Dewan Rakyat today.
He said the ministry was always carrying out monitoring with the target of visiting 150 IPTS each year under “Ops Matang” besides periodical supervision through specific operations including “Ops Antarabangsa”, “Ops Kejururawatan”, “Ops Klinikal” and “Ops Kelayakan Masuk”.
“Under the Weeding Out Ops, the ministry carried out enforcements on IPTS that were not viable and in 2010, a total of 27 IPTS had their approval revoked while 15 other institutions had their registration cancelled,” he said. –Bernama
Young ones do not meet benchmark
set by employers, says Bar
By NICHOLAS CHENG
nicholascheng@thestar.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: All young Malaysian lawyers do not meet the standard international quality benchmark set by their employers, according to a Bar Council survey.
Bar Council treasurer Steven Thiru said the survey, conducted on 400 law firms, also found that employer satisfaction of new working lawyers was “shockingly low”.
“It found that young lawyers practising for less than seven years do not have basic attributes like English proficiency, communication and critical thinking skills and commitment to the profession, which is vital for the career,” said Thiru at a forum between the Bar Council and the National Young Lawyers Committee (NYLC),
He said the problem was prevalent among both local and foreign university law graduates.
Thiru placed the blame on the failure of several tertiary education institutes, which did not include practical skills with academic learning.
“So, what we get is law firm employers having to retrain young lawyers in basic practical skills that they should have learned in university,” he said.
The findings come in the wake of the NYLC’s recommendations to the Bar to increase the wages of young lawyers and provide more flexible working hours.
The young lawyers have been complaining that they are being paid “too little” for the amount of work they do.
The NYLC, citing its own survey, said 28.2% of young lawyers in the Klang Valley wanted to leave the profession in the next five years while another 38.7% were considering leaving.
Outside the Klang Valley, 15.3% said they would leave and another 48.2% were considering.
“Most cite low salaries and no work-life balance as the main reasons for opting out,” said NYLC chairman Richard Wee.
He said most young lawyers were attracted to overseas firms offering better benefits.
He said NYLC had suggested a starting pay of RM3,000 to RM4,000 a month for young lawyers in Klang Valley and RM2,500 for young lawyers elsewhere. The current salary is RM2,000.
He said that of the 14,500 lawyers in the country, 2,070 were considered as young.
Thiru and other senior lawyers however, said young lawyers did not deserve the raise.
Chee Siah Le Kee & Partners’ Wong Fook Meng said young lawyers should earn the raise they were demanding for.
“They fail to realise that they should be working to learn and better themselves as lawyers, rather than focus on the cash.
“There are no shortcuts, young lawyers must create value and contribute meaningfully to their firms to justify higher compensation,” said Wong, who is a member of the Bar Council’s Constitutional Law Committee and former NYLC deputy chairman.
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dr which college is the best to do A level in malaysia?tq
Can’t say but Taylor’s use to be good
“I did not realise that there are only 14 500 lawyers in this country, half the number of doctors!”
Hi, doctor,
Actually there are many studnets (can be more than medicine) take law but did not managed to pass their local exam or CLP or quit halfway, so obviously they could not register themselve as lawyers. It seems every year only 10% of them (overseas trained) managed to pass the CLP exam. Many fresh overseas trained law graduates just do desk job working like a clerk in law firms with low salary instead of being registered as lawyers because they are not qualified to do so without passing their CLP. As for fresh law students trained locally in public universities, most also could not get a job practising as junior lawyers because the supply is more than demand in the private sectors, and only the very big law firms recruit trainee lawyers running errand for their senior lawyers. But how many can they recruit?? Whereas for medical graduates, all if not most of them, will absorb to work for the MOH due to the compulsory housemanship, then MO, that explain why the number of doctors is more than laywers. Though there will be a glut in the future, BUT so far the employement rate for medical students is always above 90%.
Yes, I guessed so. BUT there will come a time where the government will NOT be able to provide housemanship to everyone. Then, like many other countries, a CLP like exam will be introduced.
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“….employement rate for medical students is always above 90%”. Hmmm, do you want to risk your future by taking medical course and knowing that in 6 years time there will be AT LEAST 30000 or more new doctors in the market excluding the exsiting doctors? In 10-15 years, the number of doctor will be about 100000 by then. If you don’t have passion and still think there is money as a doctor, by all means take your risk. If you want the highest risk in your career try those russian medical schools ( I suspect Russian graduates will be at the lowest priority for HOs vacancies). In 6 years time from now, the post graduate slots will be more or less the same as now in the range of 1000-2000 for these 30000 doctors to apply. Imagine the the competition! British exams (like MRCP or MRCOG) may not be recognised anymore (like MRCS) or the authority may impose more criterias for their training, gazettment or pre-requisite to take such exams. Not to mention the very limited post for recognised training post for such post graduate exams. To get the subspecialist training post would mean you need to have a lot of LUCK, being at the right place, right post, right time and with the right boss.
In most countries, there are significantly more students and graduates in laws, than those who are called to the bar. In Australia for example, in some states, as few as 15% of law graduates complete their registration and get call to the bar. The rest go on to do other jobs, and their law training acts as very good generic skill in what they do, which may (eg, legal officers in companies) or may not be related to the law training. In addition most law students there (in some universities, they have no more single law degree) are doing double degrees, including law/medicine!
That is the norm for the law profession.
It may happen soon for medicine as well. There has always been some doctors who never complete their housemanship and never got fully registered. This group may increase in future.
There is no rule or law say that medical graduates must work as doctors and then go for training posts.It is the same for other courses, be it accountancy, economic or law. Just go for something you have passion NOW, either passion for money or passion for interest. Passion may die due to change of perception in life, setback, disappointment ,etc.
Well, you may say you don’t want to have regrets in life for making wrong decision choosing the wrong course? Who does not have some regrets in life? It is just how you adapt yourself to the situation and do some adjustments to your perception of life, then everything will be fine.
Yes, you are right except that you would have spend RM500K to do medicine and in debt, unlike other courses.
OK, so spending RM500K doing medicine might be one of your regrets in life if your passion to be a doctor die off. But what happen if you never do medicine and still hold passion for this profession, say 10 or 20 year later? You would say : “I should have chosen medicine”. it becomes a regret in your life too.
No one can prevent you from doing medicine if you really have passion for medicine. You would have done it anyway.
I’m compelled to comment as I am among the gen Y that is under discussion in the article on Bar Council statement. Personally, I found that my peers were so overwhelmed by materialistic thoughts. It’s always about job title, salary, material possession like cars&houses, the company you work for etc. that are under constant comparison when we met each other. Few of my friends hop from job to job because of the salary and ’employer status’, doing different job scope! One of them now keep on rubbing his chant ‘I could say that now I’m successful’ on my face just because he ended up at our national O&G. Latest I heard his boss is not impressed with his performance and his reasoning is ‘I’m not comfortable doing what I’m doing now’. I was once hopeful to be a doctor maybe because of the glamor and family pressure but later realize that I love doing something else which I pursue and I have to say I still have social anxiety hanging out with some of my friends because they hinted you as not at par with them. Not that I care much but these things are degrading. ‘Half-hearted employees’ is bad for bolehland! And I once met this HR person saying that now they trick new hires to a few weeks of training to a few years bond to tackle the Gen Y high turnover rate.
YES, you are absolutely correct. We see this day in and day out in any private companies. There are so much job opportunities out there but Gen Y are just too choosy and wants to make big money without working. They just want to sit and earn big fat money! Nothing comes free in this world. I would blame the education system for this mess.
The Khmer Rouge tried to reset back the clock to Year Zero in Cambodia by killing the intellectuals and professionals like lawyers, teachers and doctors (read Dr Haing S Ngor’s story). With our professions are all screwed up, we are going backwards
Dear Tamizi,
I like your post very much. There are Gen Y people everywhere in every sector. But Gen Y doctors are really messed up. They’ll get themselves the most expensive cars at HO level itself. It is all to amplify that they have a DR, and to symbolize their status.Stay away from friends who are obsessed with material acquisition and only think about making money. They’ll never be there for you in your testing times. It’s better to just be with your company rather than to feel pressurized with those kind of people’s company..If it not said directly on your face, it can be said in another tech savvy way, thru social network sites i,e Facebook. This society is is a total rubbish and it is only getting worse day after day.
dr what’s ur opinion about mbbs in utar.are they recognised by jpa and mqa?
It is yet to be recognized but being UTAR, they should not have any problems getting it.
I am planning to study chiropractic in imu either local or twinning program after my A level.How do to think about this course?since this course is quite new in malaysia.
It is new and very few people around. I know only 2 chiropractitioners in JB and they are doing well. It is more established overseas. What is more important is how you are going to get the doctors to refer cases to you.
Chiropractic practitioners are glorified massage therapists.
It was created by some guy just over a hundred years ago. They believe that EVERY DISEASE is due to a problem/defect in your spine. The American Medical Association actively condemned it as pseudoscience until the 1980’s (until the courts forced them to drop their stance because they deemed it anti-competitive).
Recently, chiropractic practice has adopted many aspects of scientific medicine (e.g. learning detailed anatomy) in an effort to legitimise itself.
Have a read of this article about chiropractic from the NZ Medical Journal: http://www.dcscience.net/colquhoun-nzmj-chiro-editorial-250708.pdf
Some prominent universities in the US have steadfastly refused to start chiropractic courses because it would damage their intellectual reputation. I personally was quite disappointed when IMU started offering this course. What’s next? IMU School of Homeopathy?
Can you make money being a chiropractor? Absolutely. You can make money selling any snake oil.
which U will be the best option to study mbbs doctor? usm/upnm/monash/aimst/imu/utar/ucsi?
Um, UKM, USM, IMU, Monash
tq doctor
A beautiful country with wonderful people. We were pretty high up amongst the best. Then useless politicians dipped their filthy paws in n now this the messed we in! But our crime rates is rising! So many we focus to produce more police!
I am interested in medical research. Should I get an MBBS?
What type of medical research? If you are talking about basic medical research, then no point doing MBBS.
With PTPTN almost a sure bet, setting up colleges and getting paid through it is really a lucrative business. At the end of the day, many non-employable graduates will be burdened with the loan.
doctor, what job that provide more money? i mean a lot of money. Which i mean that money is number 2 in priority after the prosperity in personal life and with family.
Politician, business and new ideas…………….
You are seriously asking that?
Become an UMNO politician. You don’t even need to be Malay these days …
Future outlook for Medical Schools.
Soon medical schools will merge and amalgamate. This is inevitable
The reason being some of the current medical Schools have insufficient intake hence shortage of funds to proceed and urgently requesting those who are heavily sought after to redirect the students.
The new medical schools have inherent problems,shortage of faculties and funds hence inability to run appropriately.
The MOHE can dish out the licences,but the public will be the better judges.
I would urge parents and students to think a million times before signing up some of these coleges may not get their final licences.
Reasonable
yup, agreed. JPA and MARA are aggressively sponsoring students to these “shortage of students and fund” colleges to support them!! It is called ETP or GTP or whatever TP that you call it. It is also called ” support” the crony program.
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