The portability of overseas education hinges on the values ascribed to qualification and experiences earned overseas. The ascription of the values incurred from overseas education, or the exchange rate of overseas "credentials currency" at home, rest upon several factors. In this section, we will discuss how these factors affect the transferability of overseas "credentials currency".
Recognition
Whether or not overseas education and trainings can be recognized at home, and how easily and widely they are recognized, often strongly influence degree holders' employment opportunities and channels of employment. Recognition of overseas credentials involves official recognition by the home government and professional associations, and social recognition by employers and the general public at home.
Recognition, especially social recognition, was not only built on the reputation of the HEI from which credentials were granted; it was also shaped by the cultural distance between home and study countries as well as the status of the study country in the strata of knowledge production in the capitalist world system.
For those who had graduated from NUS or NTU in Singapore, their degrees/diplomas were not only officially and socially recognized but considered prestigious at home. The prestige attached with their degrees was based on the perceptions that these institutions were highly competitive, and that Singapore was a more developed country. None of my interviewees encountered any difficulty in finding employment at home, though none were employed in the government sector.
Many mentioned their experiences of earning special attention at job interviews, receiving recognition from colleagues and supervisors at work, and among friends and family. For example,
033: (NUS 學歷在找工作時）有很大幫助啦，而且如果你是 KL 找工作，
NUS 的，我覺得 NUS 的文憑蠻值錢很好用，我那時候剛回... ...
然後有些工作就是直接看到你是 NUS 文憑直接給你 offer... 在
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048: ...You said you were graduate from NTU, no one will question your credential.
Ma: So it's like a guarantee, like...
048: It's like a guarantee, because they know. It's such a good university... I'm talking about engineering... I'm talking about business and companies. They know all the NTU graduates can do the work. If I see an NTU, which I don't see any, none of them is coming back to work, in my firm yet. If I see any NTU, I would grab him. I would've grabbed him. And among some of my clients, some of them are from NTU, I can see. (An NTU-Singapore alumnus)
Another interviewee who had gone to Taiwan for university education and later to NTU in Singapore for his Master's study attributed the different recognition these two degrees would receive in Malaysia to the disparity in social recognition in level of study, HEI, and study country:
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The experiences of the Japan-educated group demonstrated a somewhat different pattern of recognition received for their overseas credentials. Like the Singapore-educated group, none of the Japan-educated interviewee worked in the government-affiliated institutions in spite of the fact that their degrees were mostly officially recognized in Malaysia. However, most of the Japan-educated interviewees mentioned that the academic credentials and Japanese language ability they acquired from Japan, and in some cases the working experiences earned in Japan, helped them win impressions, recognition, and job opportunities especially from Japanese and in Japanese companies. An interviewee said:
Ma: When you think back, how did your degree you earned from XXX help you or did it help you in anyway?
025: I think it could have be any degree...
Ma: Not necessarily from XXX？
025: No, it could have been any degree, but I appreciated the fact that it was from Japan because I think, because I could speak Japanese, I came from a good university so I could get good opportunities in Panasonic and in Kao. I was given a lot of opportunities because of who I was, what I knew, what I could do, you know. So I was always given special, what do you call the...my boss always looked at me differently.
(A Japan-educated graduate)
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Comparing with Singapore, Japan is more distant from Malaysia in terms of culture, language, and education system. Nevertheless, the transferability of the
"credentials currency" acquired from Japan was high within the Japanese network because the appraisal system adopted was compatible with that in Japan. Therefore, as insiders, they could tell the "true value" of these credentials. For example, some interviewees stated that Japanese could appreciate more the degrees earned from prestigious universities in Japan:
Ma: Since both of you graduated from very prestigious universities, how do you think that your degree, did your degree help you in any way for example finding you employment, or...?
027a: Yes, especially when I came back to Malaysia, when I meet Japanese right? When they hear about my university, they were very
impressed.
Ma: So it was the same with you?
027b: Yes. I think is still important.
Ma: How about for people who graduated from like not so prestigious universities but from Japan?
027a: Uhh, because in Japan system they do not see like for example, in Malaysia here they have this CGPA system where they have the point system, in Japan they do not see that, because they have no point system, it’s just from which university you graduate.
Ma: So the university is like your nametag?
027b: Yes, correct.
(Japan-educated graduates)
Some Taiwan-educated graduates encountered the challenge on the job market for missing the official recognition at home. For a long time, the Malaysian government did not recognize the degrees and diplomas granted by Taiwanese higher education institutions with the exception of degrees granted by 18 programs in Taiwan in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine（星洲日報，2013）. The establishment of the Federation of Alumni Associations of Taiwan University, Malaysia (FAATUM) was mainly to advocate, as the official representative for all alumni association of Taiwan's universities in Malaysia, for official recognition for
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degrees earned in Taiwan. After Malaysia joined Washington Accord in 2009 - two years after Taiwan in 2007, the Alumni Association of National Cheng Kung University of Malaysia and FAATUM took the initiative in gaining official recognition of engineering degrees granted by Taiwan's HEIs through the international accreditation system. In 2011, the Board of Engineers, Malaysia (BEM) acknowledged the recognition of engineering degrees accredited by Taiwan's engineering programs endorsed by the Institute of Engineering Education, Taiwan (IEET).6
Although the Malaysian government announced in July of 2012 that the degrees granted by Taiwanese HEIs would be recognized by Malaysian Qualifications Agency (Agensi, Kelayakan Malaysia, MQA), this recognition was only in academic terms.
Except the degrees granted by the 18 programs in degrees in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine, Taiwanese degrees have yet to be authenticated by the Public Service Department of Malaysia (Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam Malaysia;
JPA). Therefore, many of those with Taiwanese degrees still could not work in the government sector in Malaysia.
Partly due to the lack of official recognition, Taiwan was often not considered as a proper destination for overseas education. A few interviewees did mention the opposition from friends and family for their choice to study in Taiwan. For example, one interviewee explained her choice for studying in Taiwan:
007: ...衡量之下覺得，既然我出國學費比（在本地念私立大學）
6 BEM recognized the engieeering degrees granted after 2004 by the engineering tertiary programs accredited by IEET.
31 official recognition for their Taiwan-earned degrees was not a concern either in their choice to study in Taiwan or in their job search upon return home. They were not interested in working in the government sector, and with degrees earned from Taiwan they could still work in the private sector.
011:我覺得（台灣學歷有沒有被承認）沒有差別，因爲承不承認是政 recognizable and even was undervalued on the job market. One interviewee who had acquired undergraduate training in Taiwan and later received an MA degree from Harvard compared the values of these two degrees on the job market, in both Malaysia and in Singapore:
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As a result, underemployment was not uncommon among Taiwan-educated graduates, especially in the early days (before the mid-1980s):
020：（回來之後）剛開始的話是…其實那個時候留臺畢業生…也不只
33 individual's first steps in his or her career trajectory but also shapes the propensity in self-employment. In the case of Taiwan-educated graduates, the relative lack of recognition of their overseas "credentials currency" at home can be an important factor encouraging them into entrepreneurship. To them, self-employment can be a good solution to pave an alternative path for upward social mobility from the one embedded in the corporative culture emphasizing impressive education backgrounds and the reputation of HEIs from which degrees were earned. This explains the high inclination of self-employment among Taiwan-educated graduates in both the mainstream and niche markets as shown earlier in Figure 1. This was well elaborated in the interview with a Taiwanese alumni association leader:
020：也因為留臺學位不受承認，變成說我覺得留臺人就因為這個被打
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(A Taiwanese alumni association leader)
Within the ethnic Chinese community, especially among those who are familiar with the education system and culture of Taiwan, the credentials accumulated in Taiwan are more easily recognizable. For example, one interviewee shared his positive experience in job application with his NTU degree earned from Taiwan:
018: 我覺得基本上找工作都蠻順利的，不過也沒有說找很多，不過確
China-educated graduates experienced a nuanced pattern of recognition. Like Taiwan, for a long time the degrees granted by Chinese HEIs had been mostly unrecognized officially in Malaysia. Since 2012, the degrees granted by Chinese HEIs
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could be recognized by Malaysian Qualifications Agency (Agensi, Kelayakan Malaysia, MQA), and yet they were still not authenticated by JPA. Therefore, in most cases, those with Chinese degrees still could not work in the public sector in Malaysia.
Exceptions exist, however. Degrees in Chinese literature, Chinese medicine, and medicine granted by nine programs in a total of nine Chinese HEIs were officially recognized by JPA. In one case, the choice of study program (Chinese literature at a certain university) and study country (China) was not only shaped by the concern for official recognition of academic credentials, but by the requirement to be fulfilled by the Malaysian government scholarship she was entitled to received :
036: 能夠上到北大去讀書，是因為我拿到馬大的獎學金，馬大的一個
Without official recognition at home, some would experience stern barriers in entering certain professions to practice their trainings, especially in those fields that required certification. One interviewee had received a degree in medicine from a prominent university in China and yet needed to go through an excruciating process after returning home in order to be able to practice medicine in Malaysia:
046: 像我們是在中國念醫科，馬來西亞是不受承認的，所以當那些不 受承認的大學，你讀了醫科回來你需要考一個醫學資格考試，所 以就是需要去申請，申請後他就是幫你派到三間大學，有一個是 馬來亞大學，有一個是馬來西亞理科大學，然後還有一個就是馬 來西亞國民型大學，這三個大學去考那個資格考試。在這段期間
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Knowledge Applicability, Technological Gap, and Authenticity
The extent to which the value of overseas education can be realized and appreciated at home differs generally by disciplines: trainings in professional/skilled-based disciplines are often more portable. Field data showed that, as demonstrated in Figure 1, those who had received degrees in business, finance, and engineering were more likely to find employment related to their trainings than those who had been trained in humanities and social sciences.
A deep look inside the data revealed that, under the general umbrella of disciplines, three more specific elements were involved in shaping the value, as well as the portability of the value, of overseas "credentials currency." First is knowledge applicability. The more the knowledge and skills acquired through overseas education are applicable on the job market, the more likely these overseas credentials would be transferable and valued at home, which would in turn benefit upward social mobility.
For example, one Taiwan-trained graduate in business and finance said:
007: 那工作(做了）一年半，對啦，學以致用，真的，還蠻學以致用。
因為你是在那個科系出來，你比別人更快去學習很多東西，然後 很快地上手，很快可以勝任，所以基本上我那一年半其實還蠻順 利的，老闆短期內就（讓我）升職了，然後老闆也交託很多重要 的一些工作給我。
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The second element is technological gap between study country and home country. The wider the gap in technological advancement and industrial development between study country and home country, the more difficult and less likely the knowledge and skills acquired overseas could be transferred back home and be applied at work. Some interviewees graduating from Singapore, Japan and Taiwan shared their experiences about this:
056b: My current job (as a lecturer), there are some interesting things I like, for example teaching. ……So I actually enjoyed that the profession, because it allows me to interact with the younger minds. Teaching nowadays in Malaysia, and anywhere in the world is different, because technologies are involving. …… We also have practiced innovation; all our slides are updated, uploaded to a server, at a website people can download. ……If they have better lab facilities, I could jump start my research career faster, rather than applying for grants and using the grants to buy the equipments back, so that will take some time to jump start.
我 try 找了半年也是沒有什麼 feedback,過後我在 Malaysia 就在 KL 恰巧就有 application，就剛好拿到這個工作。
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For Taiwan-educated graduates whose degrees were denied official recognition back home, the knowledge and technological gap between Taiwan and Malaysian could further bring frustration when they wished to find employment on the job market and apply their trainings at work. This may well explain the relative low correlation between fields of trainings and employment among Taiwan-trained graduates as well as their inclination in self-employment, brokerage, and direct marketing. One interviewee, who had been trained in engineering at NTU (Taiwan) but left the industry a few years later and became a broker, shared his personal experience and observation:
016：因為我們以前認為，因為大家回來都是各自發展自己的專業嘛！但是
（An NTU-Taiwan alumnus in engineering）
The third element is authenticity: the extent to which study country, or the institution that offers trainings and degrees, are qualified as the center of knowledge production. The best examples are studies in language, literature, and history; those
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who wished to study Chinese language, literature or history would usually consider China or Taiwan as the best destinations to pursue their trainings, and those who had studied Japanese language and/or Japanese literature in Japan never doubted their choice of study country. Consequently, those with these kinds of academic credentials are likely to utilize their trainings on the job market to be employed in the academia or work in the ethnically-oriented niche market. As one interviewee who had studied Chinese literature in China put it:
Another Taiwan-trained alumnus who worked in the Chinese media industry in Malaysia also talked about the advantage he had on the job market with the overseas credentials he had accumulated in Taiwan:
馬：那我想請教你，在你的觀察當中，比如説去海外念書得到的資歷，
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Market Demand and Expected Return
The exchange rate of “credentials currency” relies on the market demand for the individual's human capital as well as the expected return that the market may offer. As discussed earlier, employers are willing to pay more to whom with fervently demanded skills and credentials, and those with highly sought-after credentials and skills would often invest their human capital on the market in exchange for higher economic return and social status.
Labor market segments are different in their demands for skills as well as in their abilities and potentials to attract talents and offer returns. In this study, the Singapore-educated group was composed with NUS and NTU alumni with backgrounds mostly in business, finance, and engineering. These skills and knowledge in these disciplines are generally not only portable transnationally but also in high demand in industries and corporations back home. With their well received education credentials, skills, and English language ability, these Singapore-trained graduates were in good standing on the local job market, which resulted in a very high correlation between education credentials and employment as shown in Figure 1. This may well explain the low return rate among NUS and NTU alumni as mentioned by many NUS and NTU returnees participating in this study, some even called themselves "exceptions" (e.g., 051). The significant income gap between Singapore and Malaysia indicates a higher economic return from the former for the skills in demand. Meanwhile, the competition on the former's job market is also fiercer. For example, one interviewee described the income gap between these two countries in her profession:
001: 工資上面的差距會很大。比如說那邊三千馬幣，不是，三千新幣，
001: 工資上面的差距會很大。比如說那邊三千馬幣，不是，三千新幣，