ASSESSING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PREPAREDNESS FOR THE 21 ST CENTURY SKILLS

Abstract

Universities are more important in arming students with critical thinking, digital literacy, creativity, leadership, and other 21st-century skills in the fast-changing employment environment of today. The degree to which higher education courses and teaching strategies combine these competences is investigated in this quantitative study from student viewpoints. Two hundred and sixteen from six different fields at Sindh Madressatul Islam University, Karachi, answered a structured survey; SPSS was used to analyze the results. The results expose a general belief that colleges do not adequately include real-world applications, multidisciplinary approaches, or experiential learning into their courses. The findings highlight how urgently curricular changes, faculty development programs, and creative instructional approaches must be adopted to close the gap between academic knowledge and professional needs. Emphasizing the need of digital integration, interactive learning, and competency-based education to improve students' professional preparedness, this paper adds to the continuing conversations on higher education transformation. Future studies should concentrate on spotting successful policies and initiatives to better match university education to modern job demands.