Malaysian Higher Education Institutions Research Articles

University Environment, Entrepreneurial Interest and Entrepreneurial Networking as Predictors of Entrepreneurial Thinking: A Study of Public Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia

The objective of this study isto identify the contribution of university environment, entrepreneurial interest,and entrepreneurial networking among student entrepreneurial thinking. This study used a quantitative approach where data were collected via survey using questionnaire. The sample consisted of 2001 students from 20 Public Higher Learning Institutions (PHEIs) in Malaysia. Multiple regression (stepwise) analyses was used to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that both entrepreneurial interest and university environment contributed significantly towards entrepreneurial thinking among PHEI in Malaysia. Entrepreneurial networking did not showed significant contribution to entrepreneurial thinking. The implications of this study is thatPHEIs need to equip with relevant entrepreneurial environment and entrepreneurial activities or programs that can boost and enrich students of PHEIs with entrepreneurial thinking. Since this study showed no significance contribution of entrepreneurial networking towards entrepreneurial thinking, efforts have to be taken by PHEIs to build entrepreneurial networking with various entrepreneurial parties and agencies related to entrepreneurship that can give mutual benefit to students, universities and related parties.

What Matters to University Students when Looking for a Rental House?

The rapid growth of higher education institutions in Malaysia is parallel with the growing demand of its population pursuing tertiary education. For such reason, universities and other tertiary education providers are constantly challenged in providing sufficient in-campus accommodation to help students living comfortably. Regardless of their continuous effort in improving their facilities, the issue of shortage of students’ accommodation persists; thus, boosting the demand for rental properties surrounding campus location. This opens the opportunity for homeowners who own rental units within proximity to a campus location to target students as their potential tenants. Therefore, it is worth the effort for homeowners to understand students’ preferences when searching for a rental unit. In line with the stipulated issue, this study aims to investigate university students’ perceived perception of five relevant criteria when searching for a rental house. This study employed a quantitative research design with a total of 150 respondents were successfully gathered via an online questionnaire. These respondents are off-campus students studying at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Melaka campus. The result of the descriptive analysis revealed that many of the respondentsplaced rental agreement as to the utmost important criterion when deciding to rent a property. It was followed by the location of the property, the surrounding security, rental price, and finally utilities and amenities. From this study, it was suggested that the homeowner should emphasize all the mentioned criteria as it was relatively perceived as significant by potential tenants. It is recommended for future researchers to expand this study at other geographic locations in addition to examine other criteria focused on by tenants when searching for a rental house.

Retention Amongst Pre-University Students at a Foreign University Branch Campus in Malaysia: An Exploratory Study

Student retention is of key importance to many private higher education institutions in Malaysia. This paper discusses the factors influencing a selected group of former pre-university students’ decision to continue their undergraduate studies in the same university where they had completed their pre-university studies. In-depth interviews were conducted, and three major themes of student retention were identified namely, the educational quality at the institution, educational quality at pre-university level and the overall conducive study and support environment. The findings provide insights on retention related challenges and issues faced by this group of students. This study also suggests ways on how the university could successfully improve its student retention.

Ethical Decision-Making Ability and Cognitive Reasoning among Final Year Engineering Students in a Higher Education Institution in Malaysia: A Qualitative Study

Ethical decision-making is an important element in engineering profession. The objective of this study is to examine final year engineering students’ ethical decision-making ability and cognitive reasoning skills. The research questions aim to investigate the considerations and general steps that students go through in a decision-making process. This study gathered qualitative data through written decisions and interviews. Twelve engineering students in a Malaysian private engineering school were asked to read two ethical vignettes and write down their decisions. This was followed by semi-structured interview questions, in alignment with the steps in an ethical decision-making model, to gauge the students’ reasoning behind their decisions. The interview transcripts were analyzed and common themes that influence the ethical decision- making of students were identified. The analysis focused on ethical sensitivity and ethical judgement of students. Students demonstrated a decent level of ethical sensitivity emphasizing professional responsibility but their ethical judgment varied according to case study. In general, students were able to identify underlying issue and affected parties, but did not give much thought to potential course of action. This study draws reflection on engineering students’ flow of thinking and cognitive reasoning processes when given a situation to deal with. The findings of this study stress the importance of engineering schools integrating relevant case studies or true accounts of engineering practices to develop ethical decision-making ability and cognitive reasoning among future engineers. This would prepare the engineering students to face the ethical challenges in their profession.

Belief and Intention towards Design Ethics among Design Undergraduates in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions

This paper reports on the findings of a study by design graduates on their belief and intention on ethical issues in the creative design industry. The study was conducted at two universities (University A and University B) in Malaysia, which included 120 undergraduates in design. A survey was conducted in which a questionnaire was distributed among respondents to determine their degree of agreement with respect to each argument in the questionnaire. The results of the data showed that the belief and intention of design graduates towards design ethics is poor, with the exception of the respondents of University A who have strong belief towards social, environmental and sustainability issues. These results indicate that a well-structured model of design ethics education and effective teaching mechanism for design ethics education should be in place. These would have an impact on students’ belief and intention towards design ethics. As such, the research results serve as a cornerstone from which the current practice of teaching and learning of design ethics education can be more critically examined, so that more changes can be made to the existing curriculum that can help to develop designers with ethical characteristics.

Main Challenges of Students with Visual Impairment at Higher Education Institutions

Everyone has the right to get access to education, including people with visual impairments. This article explores how students with visual impairment experience their life at a higher education institution in Malaysia. This study used a qualitative approach, i.e. case study design. The data collection method used in-depth interviews that involved five students with visual impairment: four males and one female. The findings showed that students with visual impairment experience five main challenges in higher education regarding financial, public stigma, accessibility, peer-to-peer acceptance and difficulties in learning at the university. In conclusion, higher education providers may use this study's outcomes to improve their support and facilities for students with visual impairments effectively.

Internationalisation of Higher Education: The Activity – Process Approach at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia

Internationalisation of higher education definition has evolved and so are the approaches in its implementation. The internationalisation of higher education is executed either one of the two approaches, the activity or the process approach, including in the higher education institutions in Malaysia. By giving the attention on one approach alone could contribute to issues in the less focused approach and hinder institutions from receiving maximum benefit from internationalisation. Thus, this study explores the nature of internationalisation approaches in the experiences of meso-level professionals and individuals in the micro level of the institution, specifically at the Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). The qualitative case study is adopted to gain adequate information from the internationalisation actors of the institution. The information is collected through face-to-face interviews, participatory observations, and documents analysis. Literature found that most of the higher education institutions practiced the activity approach in the implementation of internationalisation at the majority of higher education institutions. This should also happen to the internationalisation practices at UTHM where the execution is driven by the meso-level professionals of the institution. However, internationalisation experts have long promoted internationalisation practices to be in a dynamic activity – process fashion. Result of this study offers the policymakers, internationalisation key actors and stakeholders, valuable information on the internationalisation approaches to serve as a guideline in measuring the internationalisation practices, strategies development and quality improvement in the higher education system in Malaysia.

MEASURING THE GAP IN EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS AMONG MALAYSIAN GRADUATES

This research relates to the issue of unemployment among the local graduates and lack of employability skills. The objective of this research is to measure the employability skills among graduates from higher education institutions in Malaysia. The research identifies the gap in employability among the graduates and the competencies needed in the job market. 300 graduates from higher education institutions in Malaysia participated in this research. The findings of this research revealed that the graduates are equipped with most of the generic employability skills such as ICT skills, teamwork, leadership skills, and good time management. However, the graduates would still need to improve their communication, problem-solving and analytical skills. The research also found a mismatch in the employability skills between the graduates and job market requirements.

Sustainability initiative for a Malaysian university campus: living laboratories and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

Urban university campuses may be a substantial producer of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the environment, through either campus operations or research activities. To date, there is little research on GHG emission reduction in higher education institutions—particularly in developing countries—so this work presents such an initiative from an urban university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Higher education institutions in Malaysia are progressively integrating similar strategies to apply the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to education-translational research activities. The paper presents the GHG emission reduction data from campus activities and a living laboratory project conducted within Universiti Malaya (UM) main campus. Emissions reduction was categorised based on the standard GHG Protocol from the Kyoto Protocol into Scope 1, 2 and 3. GHG Scope 1 contributes the most activities and yielded the main GHG emission reductions in electricity consumption (in kg CO2-eq/kWh) with a 90.72% decline for the year 2016–2017. The highest reduction for total annual GHG emissions was found for the year 2017–2018, with a reduction of 6,590,000 kg CO2-eq/year. Most of the living laboratory research activities in that year were categorised in the change management core area. These activities benefitted from continuous funding and were more successful when the research was in mature phase, regardless of research constraints and difficulties.

Engineering ethics education from the cultural and religious perspectives: a study among Malaysian undergraduates

ABSTRACT The aim of this research is to examine the influence of cultural and religious values in engineering ethics education, which has been largely adopted from Western ideologies among engineering undergraduates in Malaysia. Data were elicited from open-ended interviews involving a group of engineering students of a higher education institution in Malaysia. The findings revealed several themes showing that prevailing cultural and religious values have an important place in engineering ethics education by influencing ethical decision making among future engineers. The findings of this study would provide practitioners with considerable insight into the understanding of the immense impact of religious and cultural values on Malaysian engineering ethics education among engineering undergraduates. Conformity to such religious and cultural values was prevalent among engineering undergraduates, suggesting the need to factor in such values in the development of engineering ethics education model that helps strike a proper balance between local social ideologies and Western ethical principles.

REQUIREMENTS OF LEARNING ARABIC LANGUAGE AMONG ISLAMIC FINANCIAL STUDENTS ERA 4.0

The issue of Arabic language proficiency among students of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is a concern as the majority of students are still poor at mastering and understanding Arabic terms. The Arabic language learning and teaching sce nario is based solely on the basic courses taken to qualify for the graduation process. The purpose of this study is to identify the Arabic language learning needs among Islamic Finance students in USAS era 4.0. The study was a public survey of 60 undergraduate students in Islamic Finance using a self-administered questionnaire conducted by a researcher who has been certified by an expert in the field. The research questionnaire was divided into 3 main sections: identifying the respondents’ background, students' knowledge of Arabic language and their Arabic language learning needs. This data is analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage only. The findings showed that Arabic knowledge of Islamic finance course information had the highest frequency and percentage of n = 35; 58.3%. Whereas the Arabic language learning needs show the highest frequency and percentage are related to the manual or module of learning Arabic for n = 45; 75%. In conclusion, the findings of this study are proposed as a guide to develop the development of Arabic language modules for a more robust study in Malaysian HEIs.

Drivers for Off-Campus Students Housing Demand in Malaysia

Many studies have acknowledged that higher education institutions are growing globally; this may not be unconnected to the continuous increase in the population and higher education demand, which spurred up enrollment. It is evident, clear that HEIs are experiencing consistency growth in students' populations yearly. This paper aims to highlight student housing demand in off-campus living to identify demand drivers. The paper explored qualitative research methodology in data collection and analysis. Three universities (two public and one private) are used as data sources to represent higher education institutions in Malaysia for student housing demand investigation. Personal interview was conducted, and the transcripts were carefully coded according to themes in their respective NVivo nodes. Higher education institutions' student enrollment has been increasing, and student population outrun the available student housing, thereby creating significant off-campus housing demand. Despite the increase in students' enrollment, housing provision does not correspond with enrollment, making student population growth, consistently running ahead of the public higher education institutions students' housing facilities. This is due to the recessionary economic situation and higher demand for higher education; hence, education is a way forward. This necessitated ever-increasing demand for off-campus students housing in private housing rental market.

THE LEVEL OF PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS TOWARDS FI SABILILLAHS ZAKAT DISTRIBUTION: CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITI SAINS ISLAM MALAYSIA

In Malaysia, management-related zakat issues differ between each state. Besides, most higher education institutions in Malaysia have a specific unit or department which handles the collection and distribution of zakat in their institutions. However, the distribution of zakat to fisabilillahbeneficiary (asnaf), students comprehension and trust remain uncertain. This study evaluates the level of awareness among students related to the Awqaf and Zakat Center (PWZ) and their perception of zakat distribution to fisabilillahasnaf in UniversitiSains Islam Malaysia.This research uses a quantitative approach to collect data via the questionnaire. One hundred (100) students from UniversitiSains Islam Malaysia are among the samples. The result shows that while respondents have a good understanding of zakat management mean at (3.91), adequate information has not been obtained from certain management elements such as customer relations mean at (1.30) and advertising mean at (0.80). Besides, the zakat distribution criterion remains uncertain mean at (1.36). The finding shows that most respondents lack faith in the distribution of zakat from PWZ while being aware of the work of PWZ. Therefore, PWZ should play an essential role in supporting financially burdened students.

Incorporation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions: A Review

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is initiated for the sake of managing construction projects effectively and efficiently. However, the adoption of BIM in Malaysian construction industry is still low because of lack of awareness among professionals and Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) undergraduates. This paper aims to evaluate the current adoption of BIM in syllabus among higher education institutions (HEIs). The methodology of this paper is based on literature review regarding BIM syllabus adopted in HEIs. The findings reveal that BIM in Malaysia is still lagging in practice and literature taught for academic aspects respectively compared to other developed countries such as United Kingdom and Lithuania. From the current adoption of BIM in Malaysian HEIs syllabus, it can be concluded that fully stand-alone BIM module in Malaysian HEIs is crucial which consequently hampering the production of high-quality BIM expertise that master in methodology and 3D modelling skills.
 Keywords: Building Information Modelling (BIM), Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

A Social Media Analytics Framework to Increase Prospective Students’ Interests in STEM and TVET Education

Recently, the promotion of Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education has become the highlight due to the shortage in the STEM workforce. Surprisingly, the enrolment rates in STEM degrees are still low in many countries. Social media has been identified as one of the main platforms that can help to increase prospective students’ interest in STEM and also Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) subjects. However, very little research has been done for the higher education institutions in Malaysia in leveraging social media and social media analytics effectively to increase the students’ interests and awareness of STEM and TVET disciplines. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a framework to increase prospective students’ interest in STEM and TVET using social media and big data analytics. The objectives of this study are to explore various social media applications in education and study these applications towards increasing students’ interests and propose a suitable framework for Malaysian higher education institutions. The framework is proposed by following the theory synthesis methodology. Four main components of the framework have been proposed, namely social media, role model or mentoring, massive open online courses and big data analytics. Each component is significant and requires a considerable amount of time to develop. The suggested framework is anticipated to benefit higher education institutions with a significant gain of the number of students, revenues and positive reputations.
 
 Keywords: Social media, Social media analytics, STEM, E-learning, Education

Government institutions, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship education programmes in Malaysia

PurposeThis study aims to examine the status of entrepreneurship education (EE) in Malaysia and entrepreneurship education programmes (EEPs) offered by Malaysian public and private higher education institutions (HEIs), against the backdrop of macro-level context of Malaysian government institutions related to entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachThis study replicates and extends the research by Maritz et al. (2015, 2019). The study expands a nascent archetype regarding an iterative and systematic open-ended emergent enquiry, together with data collection from Malaysian HEIs.FindingsThe findings suggest significant emergence of EE (programmes and research) in Malaysia, despite EEPs being sparsely distributed across HEIs in the bottom half of Table 1. The top ten HEIs (12% of all HEIs in Table 1) accounted for 35% of all EEPs. This study highlights the significant influence of Malaysian government institutions related to entrepreneurship on EE and EEPs.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are subject to the availability and accuracy of information and documents available on official websites of HEIs. This limitation has been mitigated with telephone and email inquiries and other sources of information.Practical implicationsThe findings provide critical grounding and inferences on the status of EE and EEPs in Malaysia for researchers, practitioners, HEIs, governments and other stakeholders.Originality/valueThis study is first of its kind on emergent enquiry into the status of EE in Malaysia and EEPs offered by 19 public HEIs and 67 private HEIs in Malaysia. Moreover, this study links macro-level context of the Malaysian government institutions related to entrepreneurship with micro-level context of EE and EEPs.

INVESTIGATING SELF-REGULATED LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR DIGITAL LEARNING RELEVANCY

Purpose: The rise of digital learning and the prevalence of affordable devices are convenient for young adults who are accustomed to using their digital devices for almost everything such as communication, collaboration, and accessing multiple sources of information for solutions. However, the lack of ability to self-regulate learning processes has led to poor learning performance among undergraduates. Therefore, this study examined the effects of self-regulated learning strategies (SRLS) on learning performance among Malaysian IT undergraduates. Methodology: A sample of IT undergraduates from private higher education institutions in Malaysia participated in the study. Quantitative data from a total of 563 respondents was collected through questionnaire surveys and analysed using PLS-SEM. The common method variance was utilized in this paper. Findings: The findings of this study constitute essential results that three out of four SRLS domains (cognitive engagement, resource management, and motivational beliefs) positively influenced the students’ perception of learning performance. Significance: This study provides insight into the best SRLS to excel in digital learning for deeper learning particularly in the Malaysian context. Implications of the findings on higher education institutions as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.

Assessing the effectiveness of using western movies in elucidating economic concepts

The use of innovative techniques in teaching and learning has gained ground in Malaysian higher education institutions. Educators use a variety of modern methods to enhance the delivery of the contents of academic subjects, including economics. Among the various approaches, educators use movies to elucidate economic concepts and relate them to real-world phenomenon. Using questionnaire survey, this study aims to assess the effectiveness of using western movies in explaining economic concepts to first semester undergraduate students who took introductory economic courses at the Faculty of Business and Management at UiTM Sarawak. Our results show positive responses on reaction levels and perceived learning outcomes by students with the average mean scores of 7.48. However, the results reveal that there was no association between students' assessment marks and perceived individual achievement. Several recommendations are advanced on using digital learning in the economics education.

The influence of transformational leadership on Malaysian students’ entrepreneurial behaviour

Objective: The objective of the article is to understand entrepreneurial abilities of students in Malaysian higher education system. Hence, the role of transformational leadership, psychological empowerment, and knowledge sharing in inducing this behaviour are imperative to ensure that students are inclined to and familiar with entrepreneurial activities during their studies. Research Design & Methods: This research focused on Malaysian undergraduate students’ entrepreneurial behaviour and related antecedents. A group of 177 undergraduate students from various engineering programs was collected. A partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was conducted to analyse the relationship between entrepreneurial behaviour and related antecedents. Findings: The results show that among the four transformational factors, inspirational motivation is deemed to be the strongest predictor of both knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial behaviour. This is followed by an individualised consideration which tracks full significant impact and partial impact on knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial behaviour. On the other hand, idealised influence and intellectual stimulation show no effect, while psychological empowerment and knowledge sharing show a significant impact on entrepreneurial behaviour. Implications & Recommendations: The outcomes of this study would benefit stakeholders in implementing entrepreneurial activities and foster successful implementation in the curriculum of the Malaysian higher education system. Contribution & Value Added: This study contributes to the body of knowledge in the relationship of knowledge sharing, transformational leadership style, and entrepreneurial behaviour of students in Malaysian higher education institutions. Article type: research article

Application of UTAUT Model to Explain the Behavioral Intention for the Acceptance of Big Data Management in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions

Application of UTAUT Model to Explain the Behavioral Intention for the Acceptance of Big Data Management in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions