USM and UM Move up in Global Employability Poll
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Malaysian universities continue to rise in the world university rankings.
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Malaya (UM) were placed 178th and 217th in the current Global Employability University Ranking and Survey (GEURS), up from their previous 191st and 226th place, respectively.
UM's recipe for employable graduates
UM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor expressed his joy at the university's outstanding performance, saying the result demonstrated the university's efforts to make its students more appealing in the labour market were paying off.
According to him, UM places major emphasis on developing students with excellent digital literacy and topic specialisation abilities, in addition to producing ambitious leaders.
"We're talking about students adopting online learning as a way of life, which is characterised by their online learning experience," he said.
He cited teaching and learning as one of the university's most critical foundations in assisting students in adapting to the new e-learning norms.
Prof Mohd Hamdi, the president of Malaysia's oldest institution, revealed that UM has been using blended learning since 2012.
He said that when the Covid-19 outbreak forced the closure of all higher education institutions in the country, UM was well-prepared. Since the university began using the Learning Management System to handle teaching and learning, the students have been engaged in many facets of blended learning.
He added that the system leads to greater (digital) adaption in the workplace, where the graduates don't have to learn from the ground up, which most companies dislike.
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UM utilises the blended learning method to turn its students into highly employable graduates.
More about GEURS
The GEURS is organised by Emerging, a higher education HR firm, and published by the Times Higher Education (THE).
The survey showed the world's top 250 higher learning institutions according to recruiters.
In a statement on Nov 24, THE said that the 11th annual poll was conducted in 23 countries and regions, with 118,196 votes cast by 10,928 international recruiters and managers managing five or more graduates per year.
From a list of 2,000 universities, these recruiters and managers selected up to 15.
According to Emerging managing partner Sandrine Belloc, the GEURS meets the demands of students by selecting universities that provide the best opportunities for future employment.
She said it demonstrates that digitisation, specialisation, and soft skills are becoming more important than the university's prestige.
According to Seeta Bhardwa, the ranking provides a way to understand what matters to graduate recruiters.
"It helps students think about what they should prioritise when selecting a university to get the best possible start on the professional ladder," she added.
Source: The Star