By: Retave’s Education Desk Editor
A total of 326,419 diploma and first-degree students entered science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes at Malaysia’s public universities between 2023 and March 2026, out of 556,556 entrants, or nearly six in ten.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Adam Adli Abd Halim gave the figures in the Dewan Rakyat, Parliament’s lower house, on 1 July, citing the Ministry of Higher Education’s (MOHE) MyMOHES data system. The other 230,137 students took non-STEM programmes.
With the intake leaning towards STEM, TalentCorp’s shortage list shows which jobs those students can aim for, and at which qualification levels.
Quality alongside numbers
Deputy Minister Adam Adli tied the figures to national priorities, naming high-technology areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and automation. He also emphasised quality. “What is more important is ensuring that graduates produced truly meet industry requirements,” he said.
He set the numbers against a national target, too. The National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (NSTIP) 2021–2030 aims for 200 researchers, scientists, engineers and technologists (RSET) per 10,000 workers by 2030. With the workforce projected at about 17.06 million, Malaysia will need around 341,200 RSET professionals by then. He noted that the policy doesn’t set fixed numbers of engineers by discipline.
The shortage list, level by level
TalentCorp’s Malaysia Critical Occupations List (MyCOL) 2024/2025 is a useful demand-side check. It lists 66 occupations where employers report shortages, up from 37 in the previous edition, which covered three sectors; this one covers 18.
Most of the 66 are graduate-level roles. According to RETAVE’S grouping of occupation titles, 11 are managers, and 36 are professionals, ranging from engineers and software developers to pharmacists and accountants. But 19, more than a quarter, are technician, trade and operator roles. They include civil, electrical, electronics, and mechanical engineering technicians; welders; mechanics and electrical fitters; and crane operators and heavy truck drivers.
Its most persistent entries are the nine occupations listed in every edition since 2015. Three are manager roles. The other six are firmly in STEM territory:
- Industrial and Production Engineers
- Mechanical Engineers
- Manufacturing Professionals
- Software Developers
- Information Technology System Administrators
- Mechanical Engineering Technicians
TalentCorp says the nine reflect “enduring shortages in STEM, digital, and managerial talent.”
The newest entries lean the other way. Of the five occupations on the list for the first time, three sit below degree level: chemical and physical science technicians, draughtspersons and surveying technicians, and motor vehicle mechanics and repairers.
Shortages at diploma and certificate level
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir made a related point in August, at the launch of MOHE’s Graduate Employability Strategic Plan 2026–2030. His example was the electrical and electronics industry, where the work spans several qualification levels. “This means the requirement is not necessarily at degree level, but may also be at diploma or certificate level,” he said.
Those technician, trade and operator roles are the kind of work the minister’s example points to, and they’re where polytechnics, community colleges and other technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions come in.
Where engineering and ICT students enrol
MOHE’s Statistics of Higher Education 2025 counts new students by field across public universities, private institutions, polytechnics and community colleges. Of 496,002 entrants in 2025, 78,103 entered engineering, manufacturing and construction, and 45,175 entered information and communication technologies (ICT). The single largest field was business, administration and law, with 143,896. MOHE’s field table doesn’t label each field as STEM or non-STEM, so RETAVE hasn’t worked out a STEM share for all institutions from it.
Polytechnics and community colleges play a bigger part in engineering than in any other field. They took 21,035 of the 78,103 new engineering students, or 26.9%. Across all fields, their share was 8.6%.
In ICT, the share was 9.2%, or 4,177 of 45,175 new students. That fits the shortage list: all 10 of MyCOL’s ICT occupations are manager or professional roles, while its technician shortages sit in engineering and the physical sciences.
On outcomes, MOHE’s 2025 tracer data showed that engineering, manufacturing and construction graduates had a Graduate Employment rate of 95.7%, the highest among the main fields. ICT came in at 92.5% and natural sciences at 92.1%, both close to the national average of 92.3%.
How TVET graduates fare
The tracer data suggests employers are hiring graduates from these routes. MOHE’s 2025 tables show that 57,244 graduates of TVET programmes across institutions run by several ministries were employed, at 95.9%, compared with 92.3% for all graduates.
Rates were highest at institutions under the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (98.9%), community colleges (98.8%), polytechnics (98.5%) and the Malaysian Technical University Network (97.9%). Vocational colleges (91.0%) and institutes under the Youth and Sports Ministry (91.8%) came in just below the all-graduate rate.
Two caveats apply. The rate counts any job, so it doesn’t show whether graduates are working as technicians. And gig work is more common among some of these graduates: 10.5% of employed community college graduates and 11.5% of those from Rural and Regional Development Ministry institutions were in the gig economy, compared with 5.8% of all employed graduates.
Level alone doesn’t settle the question either. Across all institutions, diploma graduates had a lower employment rate (90.6%) than bachelor’s graduates (92.2%), while certificate holders had a higher rate, at 95.4%. Where a diploma is earned appears to matter as much as the level itself.
Intake and shortages, side by side
In direction, the figures point the same way. Most public university entrants are in STEM; engineering graduates have the strongest employment rate of any main field, and six of MyCOL’s nine longest-running shortages are in engineering, manufacturing, and information technology roles.
More than a quarter of MyCOL’s critical occupations are below degree level, and TVET programme graduates found work at a higher rate than graduates overall. The STEM figures given in Parliament cover only diploma and first-degree entrants at public universities, so the technician and trade roles on the list are better read against the TVET figures.
A precise match awaits finer data. MyCOL lists occupations without assigning a number to any shortage, and intake figures are counted by field of study rather than by occupation. Matching 78,103 new engineering students to demand, number for number, will need shortage counts that the list does not yet publish.
For students and advisers, the practical step is the same either way. Check the occupation you’re aiming for against MyCOL, and check the qualification level employers are actually hiring at. As the minister’s example in electrical and electronics shows, the answer isn’t always a degree.
Further Reading
- The 66-occupation list, decoded: what the Malaysia Critical Occupations List (MyCOL) 2024/2025 names, group by group
- Designing STEM Curricula Together What the Policy Asks of Universities and Industry
- Inside Malaysia’s graduate tracer study: what the 92.3% employment rate counts, and where pay comes in
Sources
- Bernama. (2026, July 1). Lebih 326,000 pelajar IPTA pilih bidang STEM bagi tempoh 2023 hingga Mac 2026 – KPT [More than 326,000 public university students chose STEM fields from 2023 to March 2026: MOHE]. https://bernama.com/bm/am/news.php?id=2575327
- Malay Mail. (2026, July 1). Nearly six in 10 public university students chose STEM between 2023 and 2026, Dewan Rakyat told. https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2026/07/01/nearly-six-in-10-public-university-students-chose-stem-between-2023-and-2026-dewan-rakyat-told/225890
- Malay Mail. (2026, August 20). Zambry: Higher Education Ministry unveils 2026-2030 plan to strengthen graduate employability. https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2026/08/20/zambry-higher-education-ministry-unveils-2026-2030-plan-to-strengthen-graduate-employability/232032
- Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. (2026). Statistik pendidikan tinggi 2025: Bab 1 [Statistics of higher education 2025: Chapter 1]. https://mohe.gov.my/en/download/statistics/2025-1-1/1851-bab-1-makro-2025-pdf/file
- Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. (2026). Statistik pendidikan tinggi 2025: Bab 7 [Statistics of higher education 2025: Chapter 7]. https://mohe.gov.my/en/download/statistics/2025-1-1/1845-bab-7-skpg-2025-pdf/file
- TalentCorp Malaysia. (n.d.). MyMahir Malaysia Critical Occupations List (MyCOL) 2024/2025 [Brochure]. https://www.talentcorp.com.my/images/uploads/publication/205/MyMahir-MyCOL-20242025-Brochure-1773377416.pdf
