Education

  Star Education Fair

Sunday May 31, 2009

Geography still relevant

THE Minister of Higher Education has indicated (yet again) that graduates from “not so popular” disciplines be retrained so as to improve their marketability.

While graduates in Islamic Studies have been the target of very positive actions in the past, this time around graduates from the disciplines of History and Geography have been identified for retraining (StarEducation May 24).

The minister has rightly acknowledged that public universities are continuing to offer these courses for they look beyond marketability.

The fact is that disciplines such as geography are very popular in some public universities which have a very up-to-date curriculm where theory and practical works plus technology are emphasised.

But, the problem is that the economy is not expanding as expected and thus economic sectors are not generating enough employment opportunities for all graduates, not only graduates of geography.

Admittedly, however, when the economy is expanding many geography graduates are employed not because they have geography-specifc skills but most probably because employers need workers.

And geographers are very trainable. Geography is a field that explores the relationship between manand the environment and as far as I know, this is one of the few disciplines that combines the arts and sciences.

Recently, technology has been added on to the geography curriculum and courses in Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing are taught to boost students’ skills.

We would like to believe that these are geography-specific skills. Now, are these skills relevant to the industry? Yes, because engineering departments and other built-environment disciplines in many countries including Malaysia are offering courses in GIS and remote sensing.

Marketability issue for graduates in geography arise because, in a tight economy, the market needs to be selective.

Furthermore, unlike many other professions there is no specific job for graduates in geography.

The fact is that not many employers are aware of this. I was trained as a town planner, then I took up economics but because of my interest in dealing with human problems through a science-arts-technology interface, I took up geography.

This transdisciplinary approach to dealing with man-environment problems, which geographers are very adept at, is of no value to industry at this point in time.

While we accept that there is some shortcomings in the training of geographers in the Malaysian context, we would like to know and subsequently contribute to the efforts of the Higher Education and Human Resources Ministries in bringing about a remedy to the situation.

In the final analysis, if geographers are well-regarded in many developed countries, why can’t it be the same in Malaysia.

PROF MORSHIDI SIRAT

Director, National Higher Education Research Institute (IPPTN)

Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story