Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh said the number was based on the Graduands Detection Survey System (SKPG), which recorded 238,187 finishing their studies last year.

He said courses with the highest number of unemployed graduates were business administration, applied sciences, human resource management, accounting, arts and social sciences.

“This number did not comprise graduates from the public universities only but also from private universities and colleges,” he said in reply to a question from Senator Ng Chiang Chin in the Dewan Negara today.

Idris said in tackling the issue of unemployed graduates, the higher education ministry had implemented a number of programmes, including the Integrated Cumulative Grade Point Average (iCGPA), Two Universities + Two Industries (2u2i) and the CEO Faculty.

“We created these programmes according to the national education blueprint.

“The rest of the world which does not have these (programmes) are watching us. This system will be able to produce graduates that are more holistic for the working world,” he said.