For the third year now, these courses have occupied the top four spots among the various options applied for by students through the Star Education Fund. According to fund manager Susanna Kuan, the top choices are the same although the order may differ from year to year.
“There may be some popular courses like dentistry and veterinary science that are not included in our scholarship; thus, we do not have any data on those courses,” she told StarEdu. Cognisant of the need to develop talent for an industry-ready workforce, Miti is introducing talent development initiatives such as Academy in Industry to help youths acquire relevant skills to build a career in the manufacturing industry, which is a key driver of the nation’s economy.
Weighing in, online university enrolment platform Uni Enrol chief executive officer Rickson Khaw said top searches by school-leavers on the platform showed similar interests in courses such as computer science, law, medicine, pharmacy, IT, psychology, accounting and finance, and business and management.
Among the factors that determine student preferences, he asserted, are the future-readiness of the courses, and the potential salary progression over time.“Computing and IT has been getting the limelight for the past few years, and students have seen a lot of success stories. Some of their cousins or siblings have completed their studies and are getting good salaries now.
Khaw is of the view that all stakeholders need to be on board in encouraging students to choose courses that would fulfil the country’s projected manpower needs. He added that doing more to promote awareness of local science, technology, engineering and mathematics innovations, role models and successes would motivate students to follow suit.
“Our Pathway Match results would calculate the final cost of studies, inclusive of scholarship and PTPTN loan, so our users can quickly determine the net fee and budget required – which can see them paying as low as RM500 to RM1,000 a month – to complete their degree studies,” said Khaw. “Because of Covid-19, a lot of universities have also introduced online programmes, which are cheaper. There’s no reason for not attending university – just that students may not be aware of their choices, or some are prejudiced against online learning,” he added.