Evaluating Academic Curriculum Effectiveness and Professional Preparedness among Quantity Surveying Graduates: Evidence from UiTM Malaysia

Higher education institutions are increasingly expected to ensure that academic programmes provide graduates with knowledge and competencies that are relevant to professional practice. This expectation is particularly important in Quantity Surveying (QS), where graduates must integrate technical knowledge with communication, teamwork, analytical and problem-solving skills in rapidly changing construction environments. This study evaluates the perceived effectiveness of the academic curriculum in preparing Quantity Surveying graduates for professional practice, with particular emphasis on curriculum relevance and academic preparedness. A quantitative survey was conducted among 141 UiTM Quantity Surveying graduates who had completed industrial training. The questionnaire comprised five items measuring academic relevance and six items measuring academic preparedness using a four-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Spearman's rank-order correlation, Mann–Whitney U tests and Kruskal–Wallis tests were employed. The findings indicate that respondents generally perceived their academic curriculum as relevant to workplace requirements, although notable gaps remain. The highest-rated curriculum item concerned the relevance of subjects to internship tasks (M = 3.43), whereas the lowest-rated item concerned the adequacy of training in industry-standard tools and software (M = 2.80). Academic relevance recorded an overall mean of 3.07, while academic preparedness recorded a mean of 3.06. Academic relevance demonstrated a significant positive relationship with academic preparedness (ρ = .612, p < .001). A simple linear regression model showed that academic relevance significantly predicted academic preparedness (β = .726, p < .001), explaining 43.7% of the variance. No statistically significant differences were identified in academic relevance or preparedness according to gender, CGPA or internship organisation. The findings indicate that curriculum relevance is important but should be accompanied by stronger opportunities for authentic application, digital competency development and exposure to contemporary industry practices. The study contributes to the literature on curriculum–industry alignment by providing discipline-specific evidence from Malaysian Quantity Surveying education.

Quantity surveying education; curriculum relevance; academic preparedness

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