What value our degrees?

 

R. Nadeswaran, The Sun 

"Citizen is a special status held by the people who have the right to be in a country. For example, people deserved to choose their own life such as individual freedom, freedom of workship, and citizenship through marriage. It was the important thing to be the advanced country and also decrease the poor people. Moreover, Malaysia is a wonderful city. People have to choose their own minister to be right choosed after 'Pilihan Raya'. In Malaysia also they have no age limits to their want to get studies. It was a good thing to us and also to be the advanced city in 2020. Malaysia also have their own systems and also rules.

Malaysian Constitution is the most important things in Malaysia it is because Malaysia was the most beautiful country. Besides, the Yang DiPertuan Agong has the highest positions according to the constitution. Other than that, people in this country deserved to choose their own choice for example their Prime Minister. It is shown that Malaysian was a great city than others. In Malaysia also they have no war it is because Malaysia was a calm country. Moreover, Malaysia also trying to together with the other country to move forward to be the advanced city in the eyes of the world."

NO, the above are not the work of some foreign students trying to learn English. Neither are they of primary school pupils attempting their Standard Three English language test. No, they have not been edited and are reproduced as they were written and submitted.

The creators of the above are final year students of a multiple award-winning university. These are excerpts of their essay on Malaysian studies. Despite the poor language and content, they will be "passed" by the university and perhaps given an "A" for their efforts.

Will these students be able to word a job application? Will they be able to go through a job interview? Will employers want to give jobs to this category of students who cannot string two sentences without five mistakes? Will these students be prepared to face the outside world?

Later this year, they will "graduate" complete with gowns and mortars in front of proud parents and relatives. They will receive scrolls from a VVIP and pay a small fortune for the ceremony and photographs.
They will join the thousands of young men and women who would fall under the category of unemployed or unemployable graduates. But the scroll is not worth the paper it is printed on.

In short, they are the end-products of production lines that have been set up to churn out graduates, irrespective of their skills, knowledge or ability. To enable these production lines to function, a whole load of people get licences or permits to set up "tertiary institutions". There is no quality control and the end result is that some of them are absolutely useless and make money from the National Higher Education Loan (PTPTN).

As the government continues to provide more funds for education under the PTPTN scheme, more young people look forward to a tertiary education and a degree. But in the eagerness to create more graduates, some universities are closing an eye to the weaknesses and shortcomings of students.

In 1997, the PTPTN scheme was launched at a time when private colleges were starting to bloom, and foreign universities such as Monash University and Nottingham University were invited to set up their campuses in Malaysia. The PTPTN was supposed to be a rolling fund to provide loans to students who could not afford tertiary education.

Today, the PTPTN scheme, as one observer remarked, is no different from or maybe worse than the "sub-prime" loan scandal in the US.

You lend money to people (children) who are "not qualified" to "buy" a degree that is worth very little, on the belief that the value of the degree will keep increasing. When the value appreciates and there is a regular income, the loan can be settled and therefore everybody will be happy. But the bitter truth is that the degree is not a guarantee of regular income and hence the loan defaulters. Under these circumstances, will the government be able to recover the loans or will they be written off?

R. Nadeswaran has met several "graduates" who cannot hold a simple conversation. Comments: citizen-nades@thesundaily.com