Figure 1. Key parts of SHINE program are now embedded into the curriculum
They intend to improve the following generic capabilities namely discipline specific knowledge, problem solving, critical and creative thinking, problem solving, critical and creative thinking skills, lifelong learning, communication, personal competencies, social competencies, entrepreneurialism, and global perspectives.
Results and Discussion
In the current digital era, the way people work and do business is strikingly reshaped. Due to fundamental changes in globalization, technological development, transforming the nature of work considerably influence the demands of workforce. It has been found that many higher education universities in developing countries are experiencing a wide gap between the needs of societies and their curricula. Hence, these curricula lack high skills or competencies in problem solving, project management and team working which refers to generic competencies. There are various types of generic competencies namely time management, teamwork, communication, creativity, and problem-solving, positive attitudes for instance respect, lifelong learning, consideration, and appreciation for students’ development. As stated by (NCVER, 2010) generic skills have six frequent components i.e., basic essential skills, personal skills, interpersonal skills, thinking skills, skills which are related to business, and skills associated with community. (Limbach & Waugh, 2014) have supported the importance of integrating generic skills through the curriculum and extra curriculum activities.
The results of the systematic review of literature on challenges of integrating generic competencies in higher education revealed that generic skills programs provide work-related skills beyond the disciplinary knowledge. Generic competencies have been developed and included in the curricula of higher education in different countries (Cranmer, 2006). However, some university academicians and instructors do not have awareness and understandings of generic skills development; therefore, deeper investigations are required to identify challenges and obstacles of generic skills agenda in developing counties (Goodwin, 2009).
Moreover, drawing on research of generic competencies, there is a strong relationship between the expansion of learners’ generic competencies and methods of learning and teaching. Therefore, initially the instructors are supposed to make sure that students experience a category of learning experiences; provide opportunities for students’ interaction such as peer consultation; and develop students’ profiles including learning experiences (Mayer et al., 2001).
Another finding is the challenge of developing, implementing, and assessing of generic competencies. Even though, higher education sometimes has embedded generic competencies into discipline and curriculum, these skills are seldom assessed as separate learning outcomes (Rosten & Drummond, 2005), but they are assessed more holistically in the discipline knowledge. Furthermore, students are less likely aware of the development of these competencies in the classes since those capabilities are hidden in curriculum (Hughes & Barrie, 2010).
Due to various natures of generic competencies, the assessment of these skills might not be rated on scales (Hughes & Barrie, 2010). Another raised question is related to how students are given credits for achieving generic competencies (Pitman & Broomhall, 2009). Furthermore, based on the findings of past studies, it has been revealed that some teachers perceived that developing students’ generic competencies was not their responsibility. Teachers are more likely unwilling to take innovative teaching approaches due to undertaking professional development (Rosten & Drummond, 2005). They maintained that university should take action to develop disciplinary knowledge at high education (Green, Hammer, & Star, 2009). The finding is consistent with the study conducted in Malaysia by Yaacob, (2012) that lecturers maintained that integrating generic competencies are less likely to be incorporated into compulsory courses and those competencies are not ‘naturally occurring’ within the current courses. Besides, they believe that UKM has not appropriately provided operational context for developing generic competencies. They opposed with the statement that lecturers can identify the appropriate mechanism to evaluate student’s generic competencies. The reason that teachers are reluctant to integrate and assess generic competencies is that research and publication are strongly associated with university’s reward systems and job promotion; hence, research universities give more priority to research activities than teaching (Rosten & Drummond, 2005).
The findings indicated that in a study conducted in UMT, the co-curriculum activities were included to enhance generic competencies, generate holistic, and versatile graduates to increase the graduates’ employability. Therefore, UMT offered different co-curriculum courses or value added competencies including sport and martial-arts activities, industrial training, cultural, and leadership activities. Moreover, this holistic curriculum framework is designed to increase, soft skills & emotional spiritual quotient, and content skills based on industrial-training, and real knowledge through connecting with community along with a range of proper professional attitudes.
In the same vein, Taylor’s University integrated generic competencies in its new curriculum framework, and implemented those competencies in vocational courses; however, the assessment of those generic competencies has not been conducted. Further study needs to be conducted to investigate lecturers and students’ perceptions of integrating generic competencies and the assessment of those skills.
Conclusion
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 findings indicted that there is a lack of transparency about the concept of generic competencies, and a lack of consistent teaching pedagogy on generic competencies and assessment criteria. Hence, adequate understanding of generic competencies is required to be developed through establishing a common conceptual base on a generic competencies agenda. If a conceptual base is built, the potential challenges of integrating and implementing generic competencies could be addressed.
The results of revision 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.
Teachers and students perceived that generic competencies play major role in employability; however, the issue of assessing and giving credit to generic competencies has not been thoroughly addressed in the context of higher education. Generic competencies need to be assessed as disciplinary knowledge through standardized system. Moreover, employers place a lot of importance on generic competencies because these skills considerably manifest work-related skills. Therefore, the results of reliable assessment on generic competencies provide employers with comprehensive information and graduate work-readiness. Students often come across to notice the significance of generic competencies or work skills after graduating from universities (Chan et al., 2017). It worth mentioning that lecturers should evaluate whether generic competencies assessments, assess what are supposed to assess. Future research is definitely required to investigate and develop the appropriate assessment of generic competencies to guarantee reliable and consistent interpretation of graduates’ work-related competencies outcomes.
The extensive review of literature in Malaysian higher education revealed that generic competencies integrated into curriculum; however, there is no alignment between teaching pedagogy and students’ experience so as to ensure the implementation of a systematic approach to the development of generic competencies. Further research should be conducted to identify the best practices of implementing and assessing of generic competencies to give teachers’ insight and confidence about teaching generic competencies. Many research-intensive universities around the world, have come to realize the lack of work-related skills or generic competencies among their academicians has deprived their students of being work-ready graduates since the most students are not going to continue working in research sector. Therefore, several universities have hired ‘professor of practice’ who has great deal of experience and qualifications in industrial sectors in various disciplines to introduce and implement relevant and well-aligned generic competencies (Etzkowitz, Mello, Luna, & Campbell, 2014). In a nutshell, institutions of higher educations should recognize the significance of developing generic competencies and implement those competencies to increase the employability of graduates.