ANALYSING THE UNDERGRADUATE ENROLMENT PATTERN IN MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES USING STATISTICAL METHODS

Abstract

The government is committed in making Malaysia a regional hub for higher education by ensuring excellence in service and quality. The gap between men and women regarding higher education has been worldwide. Recently, the undergraduate enrolment in science fields in Malaysian public universities has been declining. The factors which can attract students to enrol in Malaysian public universities depend on many variables. This study analyses the students' enrolment for the three categories of universities using the ANOVA test and Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The second is to analyse the gender factor of undergraduate enrolment in Malaysian public universities using the Gender Parity Index (GPI). The third is use the T-test to test the significance difference of mean undergraduate enrolment between STEM and Non-STEM fields of study. There is a mean difference between the undergraduate enrollment for three different categories of Malaysian public universities to each other. Only a strong positive correlation exists between focused universities and research universities. Furthermore, the GPI is higher than 1, there is a disparity in favour of females to the undergraduate enrolment in Malaysian public universities. Furthermore, there is a mean difference in enrolment between STEM and Non-STEM fields of study in Malaysian public universities. Finally, a highly significant relationship between quality education, learning atmosphere, higher performance, and social influences on undergraduate enrolment in Malaysian public universities. Through this statistical research, there is a need to improve the quantity and quality of inputs and outputs data of public universities in Malaysia.