Are foreign graduates better than locals?

Does an overseas degree guarantee you a higher salary? Apparently so, says a JobStreet.com study that covered more than 100,000 of its Malaysian members with a bachelor's degree. SONIA RAMACHANDRAN finds out why.

GRADUATES from overseas universities earn about 12 per cent more than local graduates, according to a study JobStreet.com conducted in Malaysia.

The study, conducted earlier this year, compiled information from more than 100,000 Jobstreet.com members who had a bachelor's degree.

It looked at the three most popular overseas destinations for tertiary studies - Britain, Australia and the United States - and included twinning programmes.

The study found that even after 10 years or more of work experience, the difference in salaries between overseas and local graduates was still more than 10 per cent.

In terms of job specialisation, the study found that the biggest salary gap was in business-related fields including management, economics, finance and marketing, where overseas graduates earned about 15 per cent more than local graduates.

For those in engineering and information technology, the study found that overseas graduates were paid about 11 per cent more than local graduates.

However, a similar study of 20,000 JobStreet.com members in Singapore found there was no significant difference between the salaries of graduates from Singapore universities and overseas universities.

JobStreet.com regional communications head Simon Si said the salary difference between local and overseas graduates in Malaysia was mainly due to the communication skills of the latter.

"They have a broader scope of exposure. When they project themselves in an interview, they tend to be more confident," he said.

Asked why there was no significant difference in salaries between overseas and local graduates in Singapore, Si said it was due to the society make-up of that republic.

"The whole culture there is so cosmopolitan. They are in a really competitive environment from childhood."

Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said the survey's findings were true as graduates from overseas performed much better than local graduates.

"As the private sector is driven by performance and productivity, overseas graduates tend to command a better salary.

"This has to do with the overseas education system, which is more focused on soft skills. When an overseas graduate is faced with problems in the office, he or she is better equipped to solve them."

Shamsuddin was quick to point out that local universities were also coming out with such programmes but they were in the infancy stage. Thus, employers had yet to see the results of these initiatives.

Overseas graduates, he added, were more open-minded and better able to accept new things than local graduates.

Overseas graduates also had better communication skills and a stronger command of the English language.

Job readiness was another factor, said Shamsuddin.

"Overseas graduates are ready to work as soon as they are employed whereas local graduates need a lot of training.

"Normally, those who study overseas take up part-time jobs while studying, providing them with valuable work experience.

"In Malaysia, however, doing part-time jobs while studying is not encouraged."

On there being not much difference in salary among local and overseas graduates in Singapore, Shamsuddin said the republic's education system was more advanced than Malaysia's.

"Also, their curriculum is more responsive to market needs."

According to Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities president Dr Parmjit Singh, the crux of the matter was mastery of the English language.

"This is the biggest difference between overseas and local graduates. Overseas graduates will always be perceived to have a better command of the language, both written and oral, which is a big issue expressed by employers in relation to local graduates."

Parmjit said there was also the perception that overseas graduates would have a broader outlook than local graduates.

"This would make them more adaptable as well as give them better ability to manage relationships, particularly with the international community.

"This is very important in light of globalisation.

"Having said that, I believe that a lot of this is already being seen in local graduates. With the increasing number of international students here, they are getting almost the same exposure as they would have had, had they gone overseas."

Universiti Sains Malaysia vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dzulkifli Abdul Razak points to the Malaysian mentality as the main reason for the salary gap.

"Malaysians tend to pay more for anything foreign. Anything foreign is considered better than local. Not only graduates, but newspapers as well.

Dzulkifli said it would be difficult for local graduates to compete with their foreign counterparts on a level playing field if the problem was one of perception.

"Plus, local graduates have been getting bad publicity. Their poor command of English has always been a key factor.

"But what we have is only anecdotal evidence that our students do not speak good English. What should concern us is if the problem was content wise.

"If that's the case, then I would be very worried, but from the feedback and reports we receive, we find that this is not the case."

With the current emphasis on soft skills, Dzulkifli said students were expected to talk and express themselves more, as well as provide more ideas.

He cautioned that this came with cultural implications.

"Soft skills are something you learn to practise. It's like teaching someone how to play football but not allowing the person to kick the ball or only allowing him to play in a managed way."

On doing part-time jobs while studying, Dzulkifli said: "Part-time jobs should be encouraged but it must be at a work place that challenges them intellectually and not have them do menial jobs."

Link: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/National/2249694/Article/index_html