




































Bangladesh Journal of Multidisciplinary Scientific Research 

 Vol. 3, No. 2; 2021 

ISSN 2687-850X   E-ISSN 2687-8518  

Published by CRIBFB, USA 

 

41 

IMPACT OF UNIVERSITY COMMITMENT AND STUDENT 

AMBITION ON GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY: A STUDY ON 

SELECTED PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN SYLHET 
 

 

Md. Abdul Muhith Chowdhury 

Assistant Professor 

Department of Business Administration 

Leading University, Ragibnagar, Sylhet, Bangladesh 

E-mail: muhith@lus.ac.bd 

 

 

ABSTRACT 

There is a growing concern in the areas of employability that has increased in the last few decades 

due to the increased growth process and global competition. This study is based on identifying the 

impact of university commitment and student ambition on graduate employability. The research 

aimed to investigate the job market scenario in Bangladesh by reviewing the literature and provide 

suggestions to different stakeholders of employability. In total, the sample comprises 100 responses 

from students who are in their final year of study. Different international and local studies on this 

topic have been reviewed, and a structured questionnaire was used for collecting data from the 

respondents. The multiple Linear Regression method was used to analyze the data statistically. 

The result indicates that a one percent increase in the commitment by the university will increase 

graduate employability by 45 percent, while a one percent rise in student ambition will help to rise 

graduate employability by 31 percent. 

 

Keywords: Graduate, Labor Market, Employability, University, Commitment, Ambition. 

 

INTRODUCTION 

Though employability was once seen as a western concept, nowadays it is essential for the 

underdeveloped and developing countries for their sustainability. The concept of employability 

can be viewed from the perspectives of the workforce, as a Human Resource Strategy, and 

perspectives of Individuals (Rothwell et al., 2008). Behle and Atfield (2013) identified that 

students' perception of employability often differs from the perception of employers. The students 

need to understand the concept of self-perceived employability for devising overall career 

development (Redmond, 2010). Employability can be measured as a 'psycho-social construct' that 

helps individuals to cope up in a rapidly changing environment. The first part of this paper sets the 

context of the study by stating the problem and reviewing appropriate literature; followed by the 

next part as the development of objectives and setting the hypothesis. Afterward, the research 

methodology section states the research design and data analysis tools, and based on that analysis 

was done. Lastly, the concluding remarks have been drawn. 

 

LITERATURE REVIEW 

The graduates need to understand the concept of self-perceived employability for overall career 

development and management (Redmond, 2010). There is a lack of research that has been done in 

Bangladesh to identify what it takes to make the graduates more employable (Chisty et al., 2007). 

The university education system in Bangladesh has faced a dramatic change for so many years 

because of political turmoil in public universities, and a quest for good quality by private 

institutions (Ahmed & Crossman, 2014). The youth unemployment rate has been doubled with a 

limited period of only 7 years between the years 2010 to 2017 (Chowdhury, 2020). All the 



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stakeholders (policymakers, HEIs, and universities) need to take appropriate action to enhance the 

employability of graduates. 

 

PROBLEM STATEMENT 

Graduate employability and overall employment levels that exist throughout the country are a 

matter of growing concern for the Government and policymakers in Bangladesh. The labor market 

in Bangladesh is still not being able to produce skilled manpower as per the expectation of the 

employers. The issue of employability should be considered with the highest priority by all 

stakeholders involved for their existence. There is still a mismatch in the unemployment and 

underemployment situation in Bangladesh. The present study aimed at highlighting the following 

questions: What extent of the effect the university commitment and student ambition have on the 

employability of graduates from the viewpoints of graduates. 

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH  

The main objective of this research paper is to analyze the impact of university commitment and 

student ambition on the employability of graduates. However, the specific objectives are to explore 

the following aspects: 

 To identify the problems in the job market in Bangladesh in relation to employability. 

 To highlight the implications of this research for future policy development. 

 

HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT 

With a view of fulfilling the objectives, two relevant hypotheses have been developed for this 

study: 

 H1: University commitment has a significant positive impact on graduate employability. 

 H2: Ambition of the Student has a significant positive impact on graduate employability. 

 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 

The study is empirical in nature where the convenience-sampling method has been used to collect 

responses from 100 students from four private universities in the Sylhet region of Bangladesh by 

using a structured questionnaire. The study used the employability scale developed by Rothwell et 

al. (2008) which covered 30 variables some of which were adapted from other studies in 

employability. Variables were measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 

5=strongly agree). Multiple regression analysis was done to test the hypothesis. A series of tests 

was conducted beforehand to authenticate the appropriateness of using regression analysis. 

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

The skewness and kurtosis of the dependant variable Graduate Employability were -.588 (S.E=.24) 

and .670 (S.E=.47) respectively. From the matrix scatterplot, it was evident that a linear 

relationship exists among the dependant variable (Graduate Employability) with the independent 

variables. Then, the scatterplot between Regression Standardized Residual and Regression 

Standardized Predicted Values (shown in the appendix) proved the Non-violation of 

Homoscedasticity (Pryce, 2002). With a Tolerance value of .870 (>.1) and VIF 1.150 (<10), 

multicollinearity was approved (Hills & Adkins, 2001).  

 

Table 1. Summary 

 

Hypothesis Statements Standardized 

Coefficients 

Significance Result 

H1 The commitment of the University has a positive significant impact on Graduate 

Employability 



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University Commitment -

> Graduate Employability 

.451 .000 Accepted 

H2 The ambition of the Student has a positive significant impact on Graduate 

Employability 

Student Ambition -> 

Graduate Employability 

.313 .000 Accepted 

 

From the result of the regression it is evident that university commitment and student 

ambition explained 39.1% of the variance in the employability of the graduates (R2=.391, 

F(2,97)=32.84, p<.001). University commitment has a significant impact on the employability of 

graduates (β = .45, p<.001). Likewise, there is also a significant influence of student ambition on 

graduate employability (β = .31, p<.001).  

The result indicates that a one percent increase in the commitment by the university will 

increase graduate employability by 45 percent, and likewise, a one percent rise in the student 

ambition will increase graduate employability by 31 percent. 

 

CONCLUSION 

This study has the potential for contributing to further research in the areas of university 

commitment, student ambition, and graduate employability. The collaborative view of graduates, 

Government policymakers, HEIs, and employers should be sought together for augmenting 

employability in general. Government policymakers, academicians, universities, and business 

organizations should work collaboratively. The HEIs should offer work-oriented courses to orient 

their graduates in a competitive job market.  They should design their course curriculum based on 

industry needs by emphasizing fieldwork, job shadowing, case studies, presentation skills, and 

group discussion. They can also introduce short courses on ICT knowledge, English, and 

communication skills. The universities should encourage students to participate in extracurricular 

activities, which results in the development of self-employability. The existing gap between study 

and employment can be minimized through employer engagement in education, training, and 

course content development. The government should upgrade education policy based on 

international benchmarking of competency-based curricula. 

 

REFERENCES 

Ahmed, R., & Crossman, J. (2014). Significance of Employability Factors: Bangladesh 

Perspectives. Retrieved from http://www.researhgate.net/publication/228597908 

 

Behle, H., & Atfield, G. (2013). Employability, Key Skills and graduate attributes The Global 

Student Experience: An International and Comparative Analysis. C. Kandiko and M. 

Weyers. Oxon and New York. 

 

Chisty, K. K. S., Uddin, G. M., & Ghosh, S. K. (2007). The business graduate employability in 

Bangladesh: Dilemma and expected skills by corporate world, Brac University Journal, 

IV(1), 1-8. 

 

Chowdhury, F. (2020). Work Integrated Learning at Tertiary Level to Enhance Graduate 

Employability in Bangladesh. International Journal of Higher Education, 9(4), 61-68. 

 

Hill, R. C., & Adkins, L. C. (2001). Collinearity. A companion to theoretical econometrics, 257-

78. 

 

Pryce, G. (2002). Heteroscedasticity: Testing and correcting in SPSS. University of Glasgow. 

 

http://www.researhgate.net/publication/228597908


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Redmond, P. (2010). The graduate jobs handbook: how to land your dream career. Trotman. 

 

Rothwell, A., Herbert, I., & Rothwell, F. (2008). Self-perceived employability: Construction and 

initial validation of a scale for university students. Journal of vocational behavior, 73(1), 

1-12. 

 

Rothwell, A., Jewell, S., & Hardie, M. (2009). Self-perceived employability: Investigating the 

responses of post-graduate students. Journal of vocational behavior, 75(2), 152-161. 

 

 

APPENDICES 

 

Appendix A. Figure 1. Histogram and Normal Q-Q Plot of Graduate Employability 

 
 

 

 
Data Extracted from SPSS 



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Appendix B. Figure 2. Histogram and Normal Q-Q Plot of University Commitment  

 

 
 

 

 
Data Extracted from SPSS 

 

 

 



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Appendix C. Figure 3. Histogram and Normal Q-Q Plot of Student Ambition  

 

 
Data Extracted from SPSS 

 

 

 

 

 



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Appendix D. Figure 4. Correlations 

 

Correlations 

 Employabil

ity 

Student 

Ambition 

University 

Commitment 

Pearson 

Correlation 

Employability 1.000 .476 .564 

Student Ambition .476 1.000 .361 

University 

Commitment 

.564 .361 1.000 

Sig. (1-tailed) Employability . .000 .000 

Student Ambition .000 . .000 

University 

Commitment 

.000 .000 . 

N Employability 100 100 100 

Student Ambition 100 100 100 

University 

Commitment 

100 100 100 

Data Extracted from SPSS 

 

Appendix E. Figure 5. Scatterplot between the Regression Standardized Residual and 

Regression Standardized Predicted Value 

 
Data Extracted from SPSS 

 

 

Copyrights 

Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the 

journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative 

Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 


