FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGES

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HPEM7013
ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION
JANUARY SEMESTER 2017

ASSIGNMENT 1
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INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS

1. Your assignment should be typed using 12 point Times New Roman font and 1.5 line
spacing.

2. You are to submit assignment only in MS-WORD format unless specified otherwise.
Please refrain from converting text/phrases into picture format such as .gif / .jpeg / print
screen / etc.

3. Submission Method:

a. Face-to-face student:
You MUST submit a softcopy of your assignment online through myINSPIRE and a
hardcopy to your facilitator.

b. Online student:
You MUST submit a softcopy of your assignment via myINSPIRE and another
softcopy to the e-facilitator via e-mail.

You can submit your assignment ONCE only in a SINGLE file in myINSPIRE. You are
advised to keep a copy of your submitted assignment and the RECEIPT as evidence of
online submission.

4. Your assignment must be submitted on 24th 26th February 2017 (3rd Seminar).

5. Your assignment should be prepared individually. You should not copy another persons
assignment. You should also not plagiarise another persons work as your own.
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EVALUATION

This assignment accounts for 50% of the total marks for the course.

PLAGIARISM: MARKS DEDUCTION

Warning: The submitted assignment will automatically undergo a similarity check. If

plagiarism is detected, marks would be deducted as follows:

No. Similarities Group (%) Marks Deduction (%)

1. 0 30 0
2. 30.01 50 5
3. 50.01 70 10
4. 70.01 - 100 100

Assignments found to have similarities under any of the categories above; will not be
entitled to apply for appeal. For learners who fall into the 70.01-100 similarities group, the
access for online appeal for assignment remarking of the subject will be disabled from the
appeal options.

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ASSIGNMENT 1

OBJECTIVE:
To examine students ability to comprehend as well as to apply concepts such as the
concepts of human capital, investment in education and relationship between education and
return to investment in education that are generally discussed in seminars and on-line.

INSTRUCTIONS: You are required to complete the following assignment.

QUESTIONS:

Educational qualification may or may not contribute to the acquisition of skills in the work
place. Hence, one may be working in a field that is different from his/her educational
qualification.

A case study is required on the topic Education for acquisition of skills: Do educational
qualifications match the skills required in the work place? Do educational qualifications and
skills required in the work place differ between the male and female?

Hints
For this case study, you have to collect data from respondents working in different
professions. You may choose to conduct interviews or use questionnaires related to the
topic. Respondents can be chosen through non-probability sampling technique (i.e.
purposive sampling). Only information pertaining to annual income, gender, years of
schooling/studying, highest level of education, field of study in the highest level of education
and type of work will be needed. After data collection, use SPSS (Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences) to analyse the data. Respondents can be grouped in accordance with type
of work/profession and t-test can be used to determine significant differences in terms of
educational qualifications and gender when you have two groups of respondents.

Your case study should include the following outlines:

a. Theoretical framework and background of the study: Describe the latest empirical
findings related to the issues and justify why this study is important in the Malaysian
perspective. Formulate the aim and objectives of the study.
[10 marks]

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a. Research Methodology: Design your research approach with justification. Describe

the sample of your study and justify its representativeness. Describe the tools for
collecting data and the information you have collected. Lastly, describe the data
analysis technique.
[10 marks]

b. Result: describe respondents demography and the result of your data analysis in
accordance with your objectives.
[10 marks]

c. Discussion: Compare your findings with other empirical studies described in part (a).
[10 marks]

d. Concluding Remarks: Recap your important findings and make recommendations of

probable solutions.
[5 marks]

e. References: References must be consistent with APA style. There should not be
missing references.

[5 marks]

[TOTAL: 50 MARKS]

Assignment Format:
a. The assignment should contain about 3000 5000 words (15 20 pages).
b. Provide reference using the American Psychological Association (APA) format.
c. References should be the latest (year 2005 onwards).

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ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION (HPEM7013):

JANUARY SEMESTER 2017 ASSIGNMENT 1

ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES

a. Theoretical framework and background of the study: Student describes the latest
empirical findings related to the issues and justify why this study is important in
Malaysian perspective. Student may include the following in the discussion of the
theoretical framework:
The theory of human capital with reference to journal articles. Discussions may
include the following:
i. People are investing in human capital by going to school.
ii. The returns (or benefits) of this human capital investment include:
a. higher earnings
b. lower probability of unemployment
iii. The costs include foregone earnings while in school and out-of-pocket
costs of education.
iv. Brighter individuals get more education because they are more likely
to see that the marginal benefits exceed the marginal costs.
v. Organisations are investing to train its human capital.

From the theoretical framework, student can formulate the aim and objectives of the
study.
[10 marks]

b. In the research methodology, student designs his/her research approach with

justification; describes the population and sampling technique of the study and gives
reason(s) why the sample rightly represents his/her study population; describes the
tools for collecting data; describes what information must to be collected and
describes the data analysis technique.
[10 marks]

c. Student is required to describe the respondents demography and the result of

his/her data analysis in accordance with his/her objectives.
[10 marks]

d. Student compares his/her findings with other empirical studies in the discussion part.
[10 marks]

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e. In the concluding remarks, student is required to recap the important findings and
make recommendations of probable solutions.
[5 marks]

f. The references must be consistent with APA style and there should not be missing
references.
[5 marks]

[TOTAL: 50 MARKS]