Upon attaining independence in 1957, most judges and lawyers in Malaysia received legal education and legal training in the United Kingdom. University of Malaya was the only premier law school in Malaysia during that time. Gradually, the number of law schools increased and now legal education is available in a number of both private and public universities in Malaysia. The landscape of legal education differ post 2008 when new law schools from public universities were made subject to a review conducted by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) – failure to obtain full recognition will result in students from the universities concerned, having to sit for Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) examination. In the light of this development, legal education in Malaysia has become under strict scrutiny by the legal fraternity, and thus it is a question of what reasonable expectation should the country set on the legal education provided by universities. This article will address legal education from the point of view of universities, the relevance of the CLP examination and the level of skills and knowledge required to produce ‘practice-ready’ graduates. The discussion also considers the availability of the 9-months pupillage before admission to the Malaysian Bar and other criteria for education as provided for by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). The whole paper will be based on the Legal Profession Act 1976, the MQA guidelines, the developments of legal education in Malaysia and the experience of laws schools under review by the LPQB and other stakeholders.

Persaraan merupakan situasi yang akan dilalui oleh semua individu yang bekerja secara formal. Tempoh persaraan menyaksikan individu tersebut melalui fasa-fasa baharu dalam rangka kehidupannya termasuklah dari sudut pendapatan, aktiviti kerjaya dan perhubungan sosial. Bagi individu yang tidak mempunyai persediaan, persaraan memberi implikasi yang besar bukan sahaja terhadap dirinya, malah kepada keluarga dan masyarakat sekeliling. Oleh itu, kajian ini dibuat bagi melihat kesedaran dan persediaan dalam kalangan Kakitangan Pengurusan dan Profesional (P&P) di Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) dalam menghadapi tempoh persaraan. Set soalan kaji selidik yang meliputi aspek pemahaman, kesedaran dan persediaan persaraan telah diedarkan kepada 120 orang responden dan telah dianalisis menggunakan kaedah kuantitatif. Dapatan daripada kajian ini diharapkan dapat memberi input kepada pihak-pihak yang berkaitan dalam merangka dan menyediakan program-program yang menjurus kepada persiapan bagi menghadapi persaraan.