QUALITY OF PAKISTANI UNIVERSITY GRADUATES AS PERCEIVED BY EMPLOYERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

The study investigated perceptions of employers about the quality of Pakistani university graduates in terms of intellectual development skills, personal development skills, professional development skills, and social development skills as sub-scales. How Pakistani employers were viewing the quality of university graduates; which areas of development skills were relatively stronger; which sectors of industry were more satisfied or worried about the quality of university graduates; and what were its implications for faculty development, were the questions answered in the study. Managers of 65 companies from 12 sectors of industry listed with Lahore Stock Exchange constituted the sample. Data were collected through a 30-item survey scale. Mean scores and correlations were calculated for the four sub-scales. One-Sample t-test, Independent samples t-test, and one-way ANOVA were employed for significance and variance analysis. The study found that employers from sample sectors of industry unanimously pointed out that they were not fully satisfied with the quality of Pakistani university graduates in all the four areas of development skills. Personal development skills were found relatively strong whereas social development skills were at the lowest count. There is a low to moderate degree of need for faculty development at Pakistani universities in instructional, professional and organizational development areas to help them play their mandatory roles in preparing students for job markets taking it as an implication of the study. Employers are not fully satisfied with the quality of Pakistani university graduates. This situation reflects curricula, instruction, and professional competencies of university teachers below the job market standards. Serious improvement initiatives on part of universities to produce quality graduates included in the major recommendations.