General Education in Social Sciences: Relevance or Redundance

Abstract

The globalisation of economic development has increased the interdependence of Malaysia with its immediate neighbouring countries in the region and the world at large. For that interdependence to be meaningful to the country Malaysia has to have trained and more importantly, informed manpower to forward a Malaysian case to the rest of the world. In this regard, an important aspect that Malaysia needs to consider is not only for it to invest more in human resource development but also to plan for appropriate manpower training. The public universities in Malaysia, like UKM, have to play their part in helping to realise that manpower need. Essentially, the university should train trainable graduates flexible enough to apply their area of specialisation to the needs of the country and at the same time malleable enough to be in the position to make quick adjustment to the changing market needs of the time brought about by the globalisation of development. Herein perhaps lies the role of general education in shaping the manpower of the day This paper argues that the undergraduate training in social sciences and humanities in the Malaysian public university at present still requires the component of general education.