How a holistic approach to student success led to national recognition for four consecutive years
For the fourth consecutive year, Sunway University in Malaysia has topped the TalentBank National Graduate Employability Index, a testament to their strategic approach to student career preparation and success. This remarkable achievement reflects the university's commitment to making employability a cornerstone of their educational mission.
"This success would not have been possible if the senior management in Sunway University didn't place employability as a cornerstone," explains Rose, Director of Education, Employability and Alumni at Sunway University. "It's a top-down approach where everybody is involved in engaging with industry. It comes together as one, and that is very important—doing it holistically."
With a 99.8% graduate employability rate and a robust ecosystem of industry partnerships extending beyond Malaysia, Sunway University has established itself as a leader in preparing students for the global workforce.
The Approach
Sunway University's success stems from their comprehensive strategy that makes employability a priority at every level of the institution. The university has established employability and alumni champions within different schools to focus on industry engagement and build tailored ecosystems for each program's unique needs.
"We have employability and alumni champions within different schools to focus on industry engagement and to build the right ecosystem for the relevant schools," Rose shares. "This has definitely helped in terms of how we connect with different kinds of industry because every school has different priorities and different pools of industry they want to work with. This helps in building variety and diversifying our industry partners."
This differentiated approach allows Sunway to create meaningful relationships with employers across sectors, ensuring students have access to opportunities aligned with their specific field of study.
The Challenge
As the university grew, managing these extensive industry relationships, tracking internships, and supporting student career development became increasingly complex. The manual processes previously in place were no longer sufficient.
"Before, we were doing a lot of things manually," explains Rose. "We were utilizing Excel and other kinds of tools to manage our internship, manage our employment, and manage our engagement with employers."
The university needed a more efficient way to manage their experiential learning programs, particularly as internships are a compulsory module within their core curriculum. They also needed better tools to track outcomes and make data-driven decisions about their industry engagement strategies.
The Solution
After researching solutions implemented at universities in Singapore and the UK, Sunway University selected Symplicity CSM as a tool to help manage their growing employability initiatives. For the past six years, Symplicity has served as a supporting platform that helps streamline their processes and capture valuable data.
"We felt we were ready to take a leap at that point—to get a system that helps consolidate everything, rather than working in silos or working very individually," notes Rose.
Symplicity CSM has helped Sunway manage their experiential learning programs more efficiently by providing a centralized hub where students and employers can connect. It also offers analytics capabilities that support the university's data-driven approach to industry engagement.
The Benefits of CSM
Symplicity has become a valuable tool in Sunway's broader employability strategy, offering several key benefits:
Better data insights: "The power of data has been significant," Rose explains. "On a monthly basis, we can look through this information and see which industries are really engaging with us and which industries we want to have more engagement with. We are able to evaluate a lot of this using the data from the portal."
Extended student support: "Our students go for internship in the final year of studies. Usually, once they complete internship, they still have 1 or 2 semesters before they officially graduate. We continue to have the students in our portal so we can support them in terms of their employability initiatives until they find their first employment."
Professional employer engagement: "On a daily basis we have 20 to 30 employers reaching out to us—during peak periods, much more than that. Symplicity provides a mechanism for them to do what they need to do and get in touch with relevant students. This aspect is very important for any university."
Global opportunities: "We have companies from across the world taking in our students, whether for internship or employment, including remote working opportunities. These are opportunities that have come by because we have a portal that supports employers advertising various positions."
Key Results
- 98% of eligible students enrolled in experiential learning
- Streamlined management of 20-30 daily employer inquiries
- Enhanced visibility of cross-departmental employer partnerships
- Improved data-driven decision making for industry engagement
The Experience
Sunway University maintains regular communication with their Symplicity support team in Australia through monthly checkpoint meetings, which allows them to provide feedback and discuss potential enhancements to the system.
"There is a better connection right now in terms of having someone to really look into our feedback and improvements that we want to see," Rose explains.
As the first university in Malaysia to implement Symplicity, Sunway is sharing their experiences with other Malaysian institutions. Rose has already begun discussing the platform with other universities and has plans to meet with another institution next month.
She envisions creating a broader ecosystem where Malaysian universities using Symplicity can share resources and best practices, similar to arrangements in the US and Australia. "I'm hoping eventually there's an ecosystem here as well where we can share resources through Symplicity. Sharing of resources and best practices is a way forward."
Sunway is also exploring new features within the platform, including the recently announced mentoring component. "Mentoring is very big in Sunway, but we've always been looking at third-party portals for support. When Symplicity announced they have this unique feature, we started exploring how we can leverage it," shares Rose.
Additionally, the university is looking to increase utilization of the Symplicity mobile app to better engage today's students. "These days, students and apps are the way forward. That's an easy way to reach them," notes Rose. "It's just ensuring that the system meets the needs and demands of today's generation."
A Holistic Approach to Student Success
Sunway University's impressive achievements in graduate employability demonstrate the power of a comprehensive, institution-wide commitment to student career success. By prioritizing employability at every level, fostering diverse industry relationships, and utilizing effective tools to manage these initiatives, Sunway has created a model that consistently delivers outstanding results for their students.
As Rose emphasizes: "This success would not have been possible without the support of the management of Sunway University. They have prioritized and recognized the importance of employability as one of the main pillars for an education institution and ensured we have the resources and support to help the students and build the ecosystem we want to build. We are not just purely a support service, but rather a strategic player within the overall university."
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