By Dr. Angus Munro
In a recent article, “Graduates lacking skills: Report,” the Phnom Penh Post included a large photograph of students at the most recent University of Cambodia (UC) graduation ceremony.
UC believes that much of the content of the article does not apply to its graduates.
The article’s opening paragraph refers to the disproportionate numbers of business graduates (reflecting in part the demand side of the equation for private universities) and states that the banking sector is chary of recruiting them.
Quite why is never really made clear in the rest of the article: it is most certainly at odds with our experience at UC, where top banks and other multinationals have employed our students. The fact that our degree programmes are taught through the medium of English is not the only factor. Thus one of our students was in the first runner-up team which received US$15,000 in the MayBank ‘Go Ahead Challenge’ in Malaysia last year (UC Bulletin 14, 6). To attach a photograph of our graduating students to the Post’s article is most unfair to our graduates and thus to us.
Subsequently, the article quoted an Acleda executive as saying there is the need for one month of in-house training followed by a three-month practicum. As far as I am aware, this is the norm elsewhere for fresh graduates making the transition to the specifics of a particular work-place where they have to adjust to a particular employer’s work practices. The same executive continued to say that prior knowledge was not requisite (thereby negating the previous criticism he had made): more important were aptitude and attitude. This recalls the fact that physics graduates have been a major target for recruitment by the financial sector
elsewhere in the recent past.
Another interviewee noted that the problem is deeper, going back to the variable quality of secondary schooling. UC cannot but agree (Munro, 2013): partly to try to offset this, we have adopted an Americanstyle curriculum, where students have to do a General Education component, with courses on critical thinking, history, geography, globalisation, morals, women’s issues … In addition, these courses aim to broaden our students’ outlooks and increase their flexibility and adaptability in today’s rapidly-changing employment environment.
Furthermore, UC’s degree programmes (including the General Education component) seek to encourage our students to develop their ‘soft’ skills. Thus we encourage personal accountability (being active learners, having proper time-keeping, holding centralised exams to control cheating …); and also further personal development through encouraging critical and creative thinking, individual research and an openness to life-long learning.
UC also fully agrees with others quoted in the Post’s article that there needs to be greater exchange of information regarding areas of mismatch between what is taught and what employers expect (Munro, 2013). For example, we have worked with the Garment Manufacturers’ Association of Cambodia to introduce relevant material; and one aim of our UC Alum Association is to promote such dialogues and necessary feedback. Our UC Student Senate is also active in this regard.
In conclusion, given that there over 100 public and private universities in Cambodia, it would seem simplistic to assume that they are all of a kind, as implied by the photograph accompanying the “Lacking Skills” article. The recent announcement that MoEYS has imposed a moratorium on opening new universities, together with focusing on quality control amongst the existing ones, should help to ensure that employers and other stakeholders will get the quality assurance which they expect (and which UC aims to provide the best of our ability).
References
Munro, A. D. (2013) The University of Cambodia and Human Capital Development. UC Bulletin 14, 11 and 28-32.
