Previous studies show that higher education expansion is in tandem with national economic growth. However in the case of Malaysia’s economy, graduate unemployment shows an increasing trend especially among those with first degree qualification but relatively lower among those with diplomas. This possibly reflects that the labour market requires relatively more diploma holders compared with the first degree graduates. This however is in contrast with current expansion of higher education in Malaysia which tends to produce more first degree graduates. To avoid wasteful investment of resources, if therefore crucial to determine which education programmes contribute to economic growth. Thus, this article aims at analysing higher education requirement in Malaysia using economic growth and higher education data for 1972-2004 period. With regards to higher education expansion in Malaysia, our OLS regression results show that only enrolment in diploma programmes has significant relationship with the national economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","tags":[186,866,409,867,636],"jel-code":[],"article-type":[1329],"class_list":["entry","author-jem","post-5004","article","type-article","status-publish","tag-economic-growth","tag-economics-education","tag-higher-education","tag-regression-analysis","tag-unemployment","article-type-normal-article"],"yoast_head":"\n