Pertumbuhan Ekonomi dan Keperluan Pendidikan Tinggi di Malaysia (Economic Growth and Higher Education Demandin Malaysia)

Previous studies show that higher education expansion is in tandemwith national economic growth. However in the case of Malaysia seconomy. graduate unemployment shows an increasing trend especiallyamong those with first degree qualification but relatively lower amongthose with diplomas. Thispossibly reflects that the labour market requiresrelativelymore diploma holders compared with thefirst degree graduates.This however is in contrast with current expansion ofhigher educationin Malaysia which tends to produce more first degree graduates. Toavoid wasteful investment ofresources, it therefore crucial to determinewhich education programmes contribute to economic growth. Thus, thisarticle aims at analysing higher education requirement in Malaysiausing economic growth and higher education datafor 1972-2004 period.With regards to higher education expansion in Malaysia, our OLSregression results show that only enrolment in diploma programmes hassignificant relationship with the national economic growth.