Assessing Writing Skills of Postgraduate Students: Perspectives of Supervisors and Supervisees

Abstract

There has been a significant increase in the number of students who have enrolled for postgraduate degrees in Malaysia for the past couple of years. However, the number of postgraduates (PG) who have successfully completed their degrees remains low due to high attrition rate. To address this problem, it is therefore important to investigate the critical factors that facilitate successful and efficient completion of the PG degree. One key factor is the writing skills of PG students as it is an essential skill for academic success. This paper aims to assess students’ readiness for PG study in terms of writing skills from the perspectives of supervisors and supervisees. The study involved 209 supervisees and 121 supervisors from two local public universities in Malaysia. Data were collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results show that respondents perceived that supervisees were moderately ready for their PG study with regard to their writing skills. This suggests that PG students have adequate writing skills to cope with PG study. Additionally, the independent t test results also show that there was a significant difference between the perceptions of supervisees and supervisors regarding PG students’ writing skills. It shows that supervisees think that they have a higher moderate readiness in their writing skills as compared to the supervisors. The results also show that students were less ready to write content with clarity and needed improvement in the quality of their argument. This has implications for enhancement of supervisory practices in terms of advancing approaches to further develop postgraduate students’ writing skills that are essential for successful completion of their study.