Psychology Grows In Popularity As Malaysians’ Top Career Path

KUALA LUMPUR, 17.9.2021 – Higher education students in Malaysia now seek a degree in Psychology as the Covid-19 pandemic shows no sign of ending, with jobs in clinical and organizational psychology among the top career choices.

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Industries are hiring more organizational psychologists to aid in recruitment, training, employee assistance programs, and more.

They are professionals whose main focus is to apply psychological principles to help an organization improve the work environment as well as employee performance, communication, satisfaction, and safety.

According to research about The Status of Clinical Psychologist in Malaysia penned by Dr Noor Hassline Mohamed (Universiti Malaysia Sabah), “There is currently a severe shortage of clinical psychologists where the ratio of a clinical psychologist is only 1:980,000.”

As of 2021, the ideal ratio of clinical psychologists and Malaysian population is 1:5,000, which signifies the nation’s dire needs for more psychologists in this particular field.

As clinical psychologists are among the highly sought-after career path among local psychology graduates, there is hope for the numbers to improve.

Meanwhile, educational psychologists are sought after by the education industry to help with support programs and the learning experience of students.

While there are assumptions that overseas-trained professionals can provide a better quality of consultation, Dr Steve Janssen, Professor of Psychology at University of Nottingham Malaysia stated that a majority of the education and training in psychology provided by local universities are at par with international standards.

“Although the quality of the programs in Malaysia varies, those that are accredited internationally tend to be excellent,” he says.

He also added that internationally accredited programs would mainly benefit students who plan to continue their postgraduate studies overseas.

Dr Janssen also believes that the misconception about the limited opportunities psychology graduates receive – working as counsellors and in human resources – is changing.

With home quarantine, travel restrictions, and movement control orders causing distress and anxiety among people, mental health is slowly acknowledged as an issue that is equally important to their overall well-being.

Dr Janssen adds: “People are starting to understand that mental health is just as important as physical health. The new generation is also normalizing the attitude of putting things out in the open instead of suffering in silence, which is why psychology has emerged to be the most-searched course among Malaysian students.

People need help coping with social isolation, loss of loved ones, and the consequences of prolonged online learning on children. As such, clinical psychologists, educational psychologists and cognitive psychologists have gained popularity”.

To learn more about Psychology programs in Malaysia and other study abroad destinations, contact Eduloco at [email protected] or +60 11-2069 9087.