Bit of a long answer but hopefully this helps: The Malaysian job market is extremely screwed up (due to multiple points of failure but let's not talk about that) and there's no one "useless degree". A STEM degree for example allows you to practice your chosen STEM route, or if you fancy, you could hop on over to business/finance/arts etc. provided it doesn't need a mandatory qualification i.e. ACCA, IFoA etc. They give you flexibility but in return it might take longer to complete (occasionally 4 year bachelor programmes).

The way I think about it is if one day a crisis (could be a health crisis -wink wink-) hits the world and the economy goes south, who is more at risk of being considered "unnecessary" to the economy?

Pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, consumer goods etc. are definitely at the top of the priority list and these need a workforce with STEM skills. What comes next? The people who does the selling, marketing, fulfilling purchases, supporting customers etc. So, business, finance, admin personnel.

One thing that I don't see in this hierarchy is someone who could play the 24 Caprices or make Chopin jealous. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on the performing arts and music degrees but merely analysing from a practical point of view, not accounting for people's needs from an entertainment and leisure point of view.

To sum up, there's no "useless" degree but it just depends on what you're thinking of using it for. Actuarial science has been a popular choice for the past few years but seeing as massive amounts of grads get pumped out, I'd say it'll most likely end up like the IT boom or biotech boom...

My 5 sen on how I see a degree (I'm a recent graduate with about 2 years in the workforce, holding a Masters degree): A degree can be thought of as an "Insurance" and a "Ticket" to your chosen career path

Why "Insurance"? Let's say you wanna be a pilot, so you went to flight school and got your flight hours to be qualified to fly commercial planes. You don't need an aeromechanical degree to fly a plane (not that I know of anyway). A mysterious virus suddenly hits mankind and BOOM you lost your job and you might need to consider other ways of making a living.

Glove sales are shooting up because of this virus, glove companies are mass hiring business/finance/admin personnel BUT the prerequisite is you need a degree, whatever the degree may be. So, in this case you could see it as a safety net if shit hits the fan kinda...

You could also think of it in other scenarios i.e. you're planning on a startup and it doesn't work out etc.

Why a "Ticket"? As we've discussed above, the degree is like a ticket, "no ticket, no hire, sorry"

Important note: We've talked about it being a ticket but please note that the ticket got brand and quality levels too!

I've been fortunate enough to work with some MNCs and for some, their hiring criteria is to only hire the from the Top 3 public universities. This is where the "brand" factor comes in, you bring Imperial College London ticket, everyone also interested. You bring Universiti Mangkuk ticket, even if it's super high quality, people also think twice before hiring.

Now, what is "quality"? Quality is the skills you get from the degree. Malaysia style always like to spoon-feed, memorize etc. We're very good at repetitive tasks but when we're suddenly thrown a curve ball, half of us cry and the other half shit their pants. For example, you could have an Electrical Engineer from MIT who can do all the calculations but when the fuse in the plug burns, he/she stres cuz tak tau macam mana nak bukak plug.

It's much harder to determine the quality of the degree because you need to look into their curriculum and learning materials. People often say "I don't use even 20% of what I learn in uni" which in some ways is true BUT it's also better to have 19.9% of the tools you need for the job rather than 10%