Monday, December 05, 2005

University Don: It's Not Our Fault

Ewww... there was a short article in the New Straits Times last week which quoted Professor Datuk Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) that "Graduates should not blame the university for being unemployed. It is the individual's own responsibility to master skills required for gaining employment."

Errr... while I agree that graduates are responsible for their own employment status, to argue that the university is totally blameless and not responsible for their graduates' employability is equally irresponsible.

The whole idea of institutions of higher learning today is to provide an environment for its students to acquire knowledge, cultivate critical thinking skills and harness their personal potentials through interaction, guidance and teaching by experienced and competent university academics. It is only when the university has executed its responsibilities in a competent manner, can they then claim that it is no longer their responsibility to ensure employability.

However, as far as I can tell, and I believe most readers will agree, the top Malaysian universities are not yet able to fully disclaim responsibility, much less the 2nd and 3rd tier universities.

Hmmm... so since there is no one else to blame without implicating themselves for the 80,000 unemployed graduates, blame the graduates! Easy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

An software company.
Boss : wow, your result is impressive, almost all 4.0 in your study...
Interviwee : Thank you.
Boss : So, tell me, what you learn in programming subject?
Interviwee : PASCAL & C & visual basic
Boss : how about visual .net?
Interviwee : sorry, not cover in the syllabus...
Boss : do you know PHP, CGI, XML, ASP or other internet programming.
Interviwee : sorry sir, not heard that before, I only learn HTML codding
Boss : ....
thank you, I will contact you in future...


I guess you have no problem to predict the outcome...

clk said...

do you prepare students within a syllabus or prepare them to look outside the syllabus as well after graduation?

I think that's where the failure lies, not so much about the "syllabus" itself but that students should always prepare themselves outside of it.

Anonymous said...

The problem is the lecturers themselves have not worked in a comercial company before, how do they advice students what a software company expects you from?

Anonymous said...

Example for new graduate filling in an application form :-
Name : XXXXXX ( Correctly spelt )
Age : XX ( correct age )
Sex : 5 times!!!!

Anonymous said...

Apologies,should be : "Example of.... not Example for