Never too old to learn: PhD holders among the seniors, on the rise

PUTRAJAYA: More senior citizens are graduating from Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programmes at universities in Malaysia this year compared to last year.

According to the Higher Education Ministry (MOHE), up till Nov 21, 2016, the number of those aged 60 and above who have obtained a PhD degree, has gone up to 38 per cent or a total of 44 persons as compared to 26 per cent the year before – showing an overall increase of 12 per cent.

According to the Ministry’s secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur, of the 44 senior citizen PhD holders this year, 36 are from public universities while the remaining eight are from private universities. The public universities that are tops among senior citizens for PhD level studies are Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Open University Malaysia (OUM) is the top choice among senior citizens under the private university category university, followed by Universiti Selangor (UNISEL), Malaysia University of Science and Technology (MUST), Limkokwing University and UniKL-Business School.

Among the main areas of study that are preferred by the elderly are Arts and Social Sciences (27), education (9), Engineering (4) and Science (4).

“The achievement is in line with the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2015 -2025 (Higher Education) which focuses on the development of lifelong learning systems and provide greater opportunities to those who already have experience of working to continue their studies,” said Noorul Ainur.

Related Articles