LETTERS: Have universities lost their plot in training the future workforce?
This is in reference to the article "Let industries train students for free for a year, and then hire them" (NST, Aug 22).
Perhaps it is better that industries take over students' training so that universities could go all out in the ever-elusive race to be better ranked in the world's top universities' list.
Instead of preparing students for the future workforce, which is supposed to be the core objective, universities are now too focused on this ranking business.
Just look at their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Yes, there are KPIs for students and their training.
Still, the emphasis on student-related KPIs is minuscule compared with other aspects that are believed to be more worthy of elevating the universities' ranking.
These include the amount of income generated and grants secured, the number of academic publications in leading journals, and networking and collaborations with other universities.
Unless the students aspire to become academicians later, these aspects do not prepare them to become a workforce in their field; they merely serve the universities' ranking-chasing agenda.
One would probably think that training students well is no longer a priority. It is sadly pushed to the background as the lecturers struggle to fulfil their KPIs.
Teaching and learning sessions are allowed to be ridiculously "flexible" with limited meaningful teacher-student communication. At times, the students only read the lecture slides, with almost no lectures given to allow time for their lecturers to complete more pressing KPIs.
Without providing students with the fundamentals, they are often asked to do things primarily by themselves. They are constantly reminded that "this is the way you learn in university, no one will spoon-feed you here like when you were in school".
Worse, these students become another tool to achieve the universities' agenda. They are asked to churn out papers and publications by including their lecturers' names to prop up the universities' publication rankings.
How does one expect students to possess the "exact skills set or the right attitude and confidence" to enter the workforce later, as argued by the author?
Of course, there are good academicians. They are, however, becoming fewer and fewer in number, becoming individuals who only know how to toe the line with little sense of happiness and fulfilment.
Fulfilment is no longer measured by the ability to produce strong, knowledgeable and competent graduates but by fulfilling the universities' KPIs.
Nobody questions the need for universities to expand and diversify. It should be done, and expansion is natural. However, it should not happen at the expense of the quality of graduates they produce.We so often label these students as weak, unreliable and inept. Perhaps it is the universities that have failed these students.
Sometimes, fear is a great tool. This wake-up call by people from the industry should instil some fear in universities to rethink their founding roles in educating students before their relevance is questioned and their place in society is no longer seen as important.
MOHAMAD SYAFIQ YA SHAK
Universiti Teknologi Mara, Perak branch
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times