400,000 Graduates Unemployed

The number of unemployed people who graduate from local public universities is set to rise further, an academician warned today. Not only would the unemployed figure from this group rise higher than the present 400,000, about 80 per cent of the jobless would be Bumiputera, according to Prof Ghauth Jasmon.

He estimated the figure at 600,000 in the next few years, if nothing was done to improve university education. The former Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor said the reality was that the private sector preferred hiring graduates from private universities and colleges.

The private sector needs graduates who speak and write English. Many public university graduates are hired by the Government and join the civil service. But the Government cannot hire everyone.

Every year about 200,000 graduate from institutions of higher learning in the country.He said despite the Government spending billions of ringgit on public universities, the demand for graduates from these universities remained low.

Ghauth, who was UM vice-chancellor from 2008 to 2013, said he had faced a lot of resistance from lecturers and students when he wanted to improve students’ soft skills, such as having extra English classes. The backlash to that was bad. There were demonstrations, encouraged by lecturers. They accused me of making Malay language as the second language. For the next one year, I had to continuously write to newspapers on the reasons for my move.