This study explored a new direction relating to research supervision. A few important students’ skills were identified and related to the needs of hybrid supervision. Specifically, this study investigated the influence of these skills during their postgraduate studies. This study employed the descriptive survey research design. A total of 191 postgraduate students from universities in Klang Valley Malaysia participated in this study. The findings revealed that postgraduate students have perceived their abilities or skills in completing their thesis or dissertation averagely shown moderate level of the overall skills (mean=3.66 over maximum value of 5.00). Among the skills, personal skills and critical reading skills are a bit higher than the other skills. These skills are emphasized in current educational direction of 21st century skills as well as a plan in Education 4.0. Hence, this study has put forward that there is room for improvement for personal skills in postgraduate study. Focusing on this personal skill, more enhancement on other skills such as reading and writing skills can be easily achieved with current technology. Since, postgraduate studies involves supervision, hence it is suggested that a system called Hybrid Supervision (HS) to be implemented. HS takes into consideration the current required conditions to enhance students’ inner factors for thesis completion. For more innovative development, it was also suggested that students need to be involved themselves in online application (Apps) for the process of postgraduate studies. Hence, the findings in this study has supported educational direction to produce individual with multiple of skills.
Adams, M. J. (1994). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. MIT press.
Alzgool, M. (2019). Nexus between Green HRM and Green Management towards Fostering Green Values. Management Science Letters, 9(12), 2073-2082.
Dixson, M. D. (2015). Measuring Student Engagement in the Online Course: The Online Student
Engagement Scale (OSE). Online Learning, 19(4), n4.
Dziuban, C., Moskal, P., & Hartman, J. (2005). Higher education, blended learning, and the
generations: Knowledge is power: No more. Elements of quality online education: Engaging communities. Needham, MA: Sloan Center for Online Education, 88-89.
Hadi, N. U., & Muhammad, B. (2017). Role of Supervisor in the Performance of Postgraduate
Research Students. Journal of Research & Reflections in Education (JRRE), 11(2).
Hall, S., and Villareal, D. (2015). The hybrid advantage: graduate student perspectives of hybrid
education courses. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education,
27(1), 69-80.
Jiranek, V. (2010). Potential Predictors of Timely Completion among Dissertation Research
Students at an Australian Faculty of Sciences. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 5, 1-13.
Kaakinen, P., Suhonen, M., Lutovac, S., & Kaasila, R. (2017). Students experiences of peer-
support during a Master’s thesis process. Clinical Nursing Studies, 5(1), 22.
Khalid, N., Islam, D. M. Z., & Ahmed, M. R. M. (2019). Sentrepreneurial Training and Organizational Performance: Implications for Future. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 7(2), 590-593.
Muhammad, K., Saoula, O., Issa, M., & Ahmed, U. (2019). Contract Management and Performance Characteristics: An Empirical and Managerial Implication for Indonesia. Management Science Letters, 9(8), 1289-1298.
Nabi, G. R., & Bagley, D. (1999). Graduates' perceptions of transferable personal skills and
future career preparation in the UK. Education + Training, 41(4), 184-193.
Ovai, A. P., & Jordan, H. (2004). Blended learning and sense of community: A comparative
analysis with traditional and fully online graduate courses. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 5(2).
Parker, R. (2012). Skill development in graduate education. Molecular cell, 46(4), 377-381.
Sidhu, G. K., Kaur, S., Fook, C. Y., & Yunus, F. W. (2014), Postgraduate supervision: Comparing student perspectives from Malaysia and the United Kingdom. Procedia – Social and Behavioural Sciences 123, 151–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.1409
Tercanlioglu, L. (2004). Postgraduate Students' Use of Reading Strategies in L1 and ESL Contexts: Links to Success. International Education Journal, 5(4), 562-570.
In-Text Citation: (Hoon et al., 2019)
To Cite this Article: Hoon, T. S., Narayanan, G., Sidhu, G. K., Choo, L. P., Fook, C. Y., & Priyadarshini Muthukrishnan. (2019). Students’ Thesis Writing Skills in Postgraduate Studies. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(13), 426–435.
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
