Ways Malaysian Graduates from Private Higher Education Institutions Understand and Perceive Their Employability

The focus of this research is on Malaysian graduates’ perception of employability. The central concern throughout the thesis is the extent to which the hierarchy of private universities within the private higher education sector corresponds with the opportunity structure of the labour market, particularly in terms of graduates’ labour market outcomes, and whether differences exist. The analysis of qualitative interview data were used to investigate the ways in which graduates from private higher education institutions understood, constructed and acted on their employability. The thesis also investigates graduates’ perceptions and understanding of employability in terms of their ethnicity, gender, social background and types of university attended.