KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — PhD graduates in the fields of natural sciences, mathematics and statistics recorded the lowest employment rate last year at 19.6 per cent, says Deputy Higher Education Minister Senator Datuk Mohammad Yusof Apdal.
He said of all the PhD graduates in the field last year, only 28 of them managed to secure a job, in addition to two other fields namely engineering, manufacturing and construction with 38 graduates (26.6 per cent) and business, administration and law with 30 graduates (21 per cent).
"The ministry through the Higher Education Institution career centre always strives to help these graduates to get a suitable career... the ministry will also study new proposals and initiatives that can be implemented to help PhD graduates secure employment that commensurate with their academic qualifications," he said.
Yusof said this in response to a question from Senator Dr Wan Martina Wan Yusoff who wanted to know the number of PhD graduates in Malaysia and the study fields that are the most lacking in job opportunities, during an oral question and answer session at the Dewan Negara sitting today.
He said that based on the data of the graduate tracer study, a total of 25,014 Malaysian PhD graduates completed their studies from 2011 to last year whereas, in 2022 alone, 2,872 graduates were recorded.
Meanwhile, Yusof said a total of 967 PhD programmes have achieved full accreditation status from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) so far, while 154 programmes received provisional accreditation from the agency based on its assessment through the latest compliance standards for postgraduate programmes issued in 2021.
"Obtaining the accreditation is important in ensuring the quality of the country's doctorate programmes is in line with current developments and international requirements," he said, adding that the development and revision of the standards have been carried out with a panel of academic and industry experts.
— Bernama
