Students’ Creative Potential in Higher Educational Institutions: A Case Study in Malaysian Public Universities

Abstract

The term “creativity” refers to a phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of
value for other people. This study aims to examine the creative potentiality among both undergraduate and
postgraduate students in higher educational institutions. To this end, a questionnaire survey was stratified
randomly administered to 490 students in four Malaysian public universities namely University of Malaya (UM),
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
(UTM). The required primary data was collected within two months from October until November 2011. The
main findings of the study showed that, firstly, most of the students stated that universities attempt to improve
creative potential among students and, secondly, the role of knowledge sharing, creative environment and
technology environment, curriculum of the study, team work and level of rock logic are very effective in
improving creative potential. Thirdly, the finding demonstrated that the level of creative potential is satisfactory
in these four Malaysian public universities. It is important for the universities to maintain focusing on creativity
and creative potential and try to further increase the creative potential for improving the self-importance.