KUALA LUMPUR: The Higher Education Ministry will present ways to address new challenges faced by institutions of higher learning to the Cabinet by next month.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said the move was on grounds that university should be ready to produce graduates who met the requirements for new type of jobs.
“Conventional jobs as we know now are doctors, engineers, accountants and lawyers. But, there are now things like zumba instructors and cloud specialist.
“We have to be mindful that there are more jobs out there with the latest technology.
“We cannot be following the old style anymore,” he told a press conference after opening the Higher Education Industrial Seminar 4.0 today.
Idris said the “Higher Education 4.0 Framework” was being compiled to address such issues before tabling it to the cabinet.
“The basis of the framework is how technology will change our lives,” he said.
He said some existing jobs may no longer be relevant as new jobs entered the market, and that universities should be ready for this.
Challenging industry players, he said they should be clear of what they wanted from graduates.
He said the industry should explain properly the prerequisites they wanted from graduates, how many they wanted and the kind of curriculum they needed.
He said they should also determine whether the industries and universities were flexible to adapt with the transformation.
“I am challenging the industry now what kind of skill you need, I’ll get it done for you tomorrow,” he said.
At the same press conference, World Bank lead education specialist Francisco Marmolejo said it was encouraging to see Malaysia being one step ahead, adding that the framework’s narrative was not only needed for the future but today.
“We need higher education institutions to be much more flexible and ready to anticipate the future.
“By 2050, all the current knowledge will only represent one per cent of what students will have in front of them when they are exposed to the teaching and learning process,” he said.
Marmolejo said the big challenge would be how to ensure that students of the future and those of today to have the capacity not only to memorise but to process discriminate information and be critical thinkers.
Source: https://www.nst.com.my/education/2017/08/271995/higher-education-ministry-address-new-challenges-faced-tertiary-studies
