ROLES OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS (HEIS) IN PRODUCING HOLISTIC GRADUATES

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) largely aim to produce holistic graduates, best in both worlds of academic and non-academic aspects. Although numerous literature has identified and described “holistic education”, it remains an issue if the students actually understand and appreciate the said term. Accordingly, this study seeks to investigate the students’ perception of HEI’s role in producing holistic graduates. Therefore, this paper seeks to answer two research questions, firstly, what are the characteristics of holistic graduates? And secondly, how do students perceive the academic and non-academic programs at the HEIs towards producing holistic graduates? Engaging in mixed approaches of quantitative and qualitative, this study investigates the students’ perception of HEI’s role in producing holistic graduates. An online survey was administered on 357 students of a targeted HEI. The findings reveal that the majority of the students are satisfied with the academic and non-academic programs offered at the HEI, as well as their perceived concept of the “holistic graduate” itself. Hopefully, the paper would shed light on further research in the area of students’ education and higher learning education generally.