The current review study has presented the challenges of developing and implementing generic competencies in the context of higher education institutions in general and Malaysian higher education in particular. The results of the study revealed that institutional support and commitments should be assigned to increase the awareness of generic competencies and give more value to these skills to affect teachers’ and students’ perception. Furthermore, implementing generic competencies efficiently need enthusiasm and self-motivation of both teachers and learners. However, due to lack of time teachers maintained that they fail to teach generic competencies to cover the course subjects at universities.