Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Ministry to review varsity courses

New Straits Times, 24 March 2008

PASIR GUDANG: The Higher Education Ministry will review courses at institutions of higher learning to identify non-relevant ones that should be phased out.

Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the review was one way in which the ministry could ensure universities produced graduates who met job market requirements.

"The increasing number of unemployed graduates is an indication that some courses offered are not relevant to industry needs.

"We should strive to make our institutes of higher learning an avenue to produce more employable graduates," he said, adding that the higher education sector should work closely with industry to achieve this.

Khaled said this was more important than ensuring that local universities ranked well.


Speaking after opening the parent-teacher association meeting at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Pasir Gudang Khaled said that another task that awaited him was the review of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan, which was launched last year.

"The plan addresses all the areas that need immediate attention, namely administration, leadership, academic programmes, teaching methods and research and development.

"We have to see how to effectively implement the plan to achieve the government's objectives of producing quality graduates and raising the ranking of our education sector."

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