1School of Economics, Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara Malaysia
2Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman
*Corresponding Author: Lim Hock-Eam, School of Economics, Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Email: 1lheam@uum.edu.my
Online published on 7 December, 2018.
Since the 1990s, Malaysia has achieved remarkable progress in its higher education enrolment. However, this remarkable achievement could be dampened by the gap between student's preferred and enrolled degree. Using a sample of Malaysian public university graduates, this paper measures the gap between preferred and enrolled degree and estimate its impact on the graduate's probability of unemployment. Results reveal that low parental income could lead to graduating with a not first-choice degree, and the first-choice degree is able to reduce the probability of unemployment. Thus, the government's efforts to increase higher education enrolment should also focus on offering degree programs that best match with the choice of students.
Parity index, Preferred degree, Enrolled degree, First-choice degree, Probability of unemployment
