I was meeting my mentees (students under my supervision while they are studying in the university) two weeks ago, and asked them —especially those who are in their final semester at the university — regarding their future after graduation.
I received the same responses every year. Responses such as “I don’t know. I have not figured that out yet. Maybe find a job, any job will do. Not sure. My parents wanted me to work in a private firm belonging to our relatives, maybe I will work there for a couple of years. Maybe enroll in a course/degree of my choice. Work part-time.”
When I asked why it is so, most responded by saying that they are not interested to enroll in the course/programme but felt compelled to please their parents, or they could not get into a programme of their choice, so they have to settle with whatever is being offered to them.
All over the world, higher education is highly sought-after because of its promise of better future prospects for degree holders.
The higher education landscape in Malaysia has gone through substantial changes over the years.
Universities together with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education have come up with a number of strategies to not only increase the number of students’ enrolment but also to diversify and increase students’ skills and performance, both in and outside of the classroom.
A number of factors are responsible for the high demand for higher education in Malaysia that operates both at personal and societal levels.
At the personal level, higher education is considered to be the key to obtaining jobs that pay good salaries, confer social status and prestige, and provide avenues for social mobility.
At the societal level, the Malaysian government is using higher education programmes to restructure Malaysian society to have a more indigenous population pursuing higher education, thus, enabling them to improve their livelihood later in life.
Education is life-long learning and people must engage with it so that they are able to enhance their qualifications due to the improvement of their living conditions.
People need higher education when they do not have the knowledge required of them for the job they are applying for.
Education also helps to improve their lives when there is a change in their living conditions.
Therefore, education has no doubt played an important role in deciding one’s status and position in society.
Consequently, the students’ intention to further their studies at a higher level has also risen rapidly.
In 2012, the enrolment rate was increased from 1,056,547 students to 1,114,589 students. And this number further increased to 1,353,501 in 2017 (inclusive of private and public universities, community colleges and polytechnics enrolments).
One of the reasons students decided to enroll in universities is they want to have an attractive career in the future. Students consider that the best way to achieve this objective is by obtaining an academic degree.
People who do not have higher education cannot cope with the rapid change in technologies because they do not have the multiple skills required by the employer.
Thus, students who did not further their study will have less ability to adapt to the change in employment conditions.
Studies show that a higher education qualification is viewed as important when students apply for jobs. Students who have a low level of education had low levels in earning compared to students with higher educations.
Apart from the increasing awareness of the importance of tertiary education, social influence such as peers, family and parents, friends also have a significant influence on the students’ intention to pursue higher education.
Social influence determines the individual’s intention or motivation to pursue a special career path.
Students may be affected by their parents, peers, relatives, counsellors, and teachers when choosing a particular career path or university courses.
High school students make important decisions regarding college attendance or postsecondary educational decisions by relying on their parents’ opinions and seek opinions and information from peers about specific institutions and college attributes.
However, parents play a major role in influencing a student’s enrolment in the university as well in helping children take career decisions.
The fate of a child almost depends on the hands of the parents. They often dictate the terms of their child’s career journey.
In my line of work, I have met many students who are not interested to pursue tertiary education but are ‘compelled’ to enroll for several reasons of which fulfilling parents’ dream is the most common one.
They feel compelled or obliged to enroll even though their hearts are not in it. Consequently, they end up taking up courses or enroll in an academic programme that they have no clue about, which will affect their employability after they graduate.
This will have a significant bearing on their academic performance as well as their ability to graduate on time.
As a result, most have ended up with pointer below 3.0 (a minimum requirement set by the industries across the board for hiring, among other things).
There are instances where students are compelled at times to prolong their stay in the university to pursue other dreams such as improving other skills that are not related to their academic field.
Some students would go further by changing their programme of major, without consulting their parents after a year at the university.
However, there are those who also decided to pursue their study just to please their parents, and ended up in misery and sometimes, falling into deep depression along the way.
What should we do as parents to support our children in their career path? Well, here are some of the suggestions that might help:
- instead of acting as influencers we should be facilitators who should act as a friend, philosopher, and guide to make the process easier for them since we have already gone through this process as young adults ourselves;
- we should encourage our children to get the most education possible and strengthen their self-understanding;
- we can help develop our children’s knowledge about work, teach them decision-making skills, and make them aware of career resources; and
- we can also assist our children to learn other skills and together observe the effects of part-time work. But more importantly, the decision whether to pursue tertiary education or not should be a collaboration between parent or parents and the child.
In many places in the world, it is not. It is a decision by the parents, often the father. But the best outcomes tend to come when the wishes of a young adult are kept in mind.
But at the same time, please bear in mind that many young adults really have no clear idea of what they want to do with their lives, and even those that do will find their future far different from what they intended.
So, even when the student starts in a field, they are not passionate about, they still can get a good education.
The most important thing that a college student can learn is to learn how to learn. Once accomplished, they can apply these skills to any future they may have.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
