Marketing Education in Sarawak
Authors: Muniapan Balakrishnan , Gregory Margaret Lucy , Ling Lim Ai 
Published: March 2016

The state of Sarawak is the biggest among the 13 states in Malaysia. It is strategically located in South East Asia in the island of Borneo. In the state of Sarawak, Marketing education has seen a tremendous growth over the years. Marketing is one of the most sought-after business courses by many school leavers. In Sarawak, Marketing education is provided by public and private universities and institutions of higher education in the form of degree and diploma courses. Marketing education views marketing as a discipline that can be learned through the classroom (off the job). However the employers' perspectives differ as they prefer hands on (on the job). The main challenge confronting the Sarawak institutions of higher learning is to produce marketing graduates capable of being competent marketing practitioners serving in public and private sectors. The question that remains unanswered is whether the marketing education curriculum content matches the trends and major forces in our external environment as proper attention to these dimensions will enable the institutions to produce graduates equipped with the relevant skills in the workforce or whether the curriculum content has been designed in recognition of the fact that students will need to cope with the complex nature of today's business planning and decision-making. The literature on marketing education in Sarawak, is limited and very few research articles are found exploring the effectiveness. The authors have contributed to the field of Marketing education in Sarawak in one of their previous article published five years ago. Therefore this chapter is an attempt by the authors to explore the effectiveness of marketing education in meeting the organizational needs in Sarawak from the perspectives of employers. This study uses qualitative methods which includes interview (face-to-face and telephone), informal discussions, email communications with managers, personal observations by the authors, and a review of literatures in the area of Marketing education. Marketing education, like marketing practice, is dynamic. Marketing education should continually evolve in such a manner to accommodate and satisfy various stakeholders such as government, business and industry, academics as well as students. The findings reveal several issues and challenges of Marketing education from the employers' perspectives in Sarawak. These findings will be useful for curriculum design of marketing courses. It will also assist marketing educators in understanding the organizational needs of marketing knowledge, skills and abilities required of a graduate. Future marketing students will also be able to know the industrial and organizational expectations required of them as a marketing graduate. This chapter clearly identifies some of the deficiencies in the area of practical skills required by marketing graduates in the context of Sarawak. This chapter is expected to provide the framework and prospect for conducting an in-depth quantitative research in Marketing education in future in Sarawak (Borneo).