A friend of mine who is doing his PhD research at one of the local universities is chosen to attend a prestigious international scientific conference in June, fully sponsored by the government.
My friend is a smart guy, I have no doubt about that. The only problem is that lots of his time is spent on watching porns and downloading anime torrents… yes, that’s how easy it is to study PhD in our universities (or perhaps my friend is really a genius lol).
Can’t imagine how our government has managed to choose this fella to represent our country to meet with the best scientists around the world… well, have a nice trip regardless, my dear friend.
The Higher Education Minister has released Setara, the first-ever local rating system for higher education institutions in Malaysia. University of Malaya (UM) is the only public higher education institution to obtain a five-star (out of six) rating.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said that “the purpose of Setara is to enable universities to measure their quality and see where they stand in relation to one another.” [Thestar]
Thing is, the comparison is meaningless if we don’t have any university that is on par with the world’s best universities. There is no point being the best among the worst.
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Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional Malaysia (PTPTN) has submitted the names of the 200,000 loan defaulters to the Immigration Department to stop them from leaving the country.
The move to ban loan defaulters from travelling abroad was taken after PTPTN’s previous measures to recover the loans including publishing their names, blacklisting them, taking them to court and imposing higher penalties brought little success.
This action should work against defaulters that want to travel (because of work or vacation), but I am not sure how many people are actually affected with this new rule… perhaps just 10-20% of the total numbers.
Frankly, PTPTN should up their ante to tackle this issue. Taking the loan defaulters to court should work well, and it should be enforced systematically… making sure that nobody would escape from the hook. The defaulters will start to take the matter (repaying loan) seriously if they know that they would be in deep trouble if they failed to do so.
PTPTN can also work with other agencies to snap the defaulters. This travel-barred is a good start; they should also cooperate with EPF, LHDN and private banks etc. to make life difficult for the loan defaulters… the defaulters could (and should) be barred from taking other loans (house, cars, credit cards) and having their EPF deducted as loan repayment.
Most of these people do have a job and can afford to repay the loan; if they are indeed unemployed or for some reason could not make the payment at the moment… they should apply for a postponement of repayment or other options depending on the circumstances.
There is no point trying to raise the conscience of the loan defaulters… they probably don’t care or else they would have started paying their loans at the first place. Stern actions would work much better.
A letter from reader Hafiz Ismail…
Bogus University Operated by Malaysian on BBC
Everyday the Malaysian image to the world are tainted by works of con artists and the people holding office in our country are not doing anything to stop these people from operating. It is a sad day for higher education in Malaysia, and the lobbying to make Malaysia a centre of global educational excellence.
Just like setitik nila merosakkan susu sebelanga, these fraudsters are mockering the genuine degree holders and legitimate institutes of higher learning in our country.
Uncle Lim had wrote in his blog about these bogus universities not long ago. Now the BBC and other medias in the UK are carrying news and investigative reports on bogus universities, including the one Uncle Lim pointed out. These reports did mention the fraudster’s name, where he comes from (Malaysia). Anyone who reads these news may have second thoughts about education in Malaysia.
I for one, is truly ashamed.
Feel free to surf to the websites below. The one on BBC is particularly interesting as the investigation was carried out by a BBC reporter who went undercover. A 2 part video are included on the website.
BBC ll Guardian ll Accountancyage ll Timnesonline ll Personneltoday
These blog entries were written by fellow Malaysian individuals and educationists, Tony and Idlan, who did their own investigation:
link 1 ll link 2 ll link 3 ll link 4
These educationists have done their investigation long before BBC did theirs, as Uncle Lim had written his entry as well, but no one takes serious action on the fraudsters. It is ironic that rather than taking action, some people (artists, millionaires, attention seekers, and politicians) are glorifying these fake degree mills.
And the media to promote them further.
A very sad day for Malaysia.
Kind regards,
Hafiz Ismail.
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UPM in confrontation with its students again. [Malaysiakini]
Lee Song Yong, a second-year computer science student is in a battle with Universiti Putra Malaysia to get back a notebook that security personnel confiscated on Aug 22.
UPM on the other hand is seeking disciplinary action against Lee for not cooperating with the varsity officers during the confiscation.
This is not the 1st time UPM is involved with similar confrontation; another student had his laptop confiscated in September but his issue is settled sooner with the involvement of some opposition politicians.
I don’t like seeing lawyers and politicians involving in university affairs, but the lack of transparency from UPM in handling these disciplinary issues has left me no choice but to believe that the student is being victimized instead of some political agendas.
The disciplinary proceeding is a really bad joke as Lee’s lawyer mentioned. Do UPM authorities really expect the students to just hand over their expensive belongings when told to do so without questions asked? Besides, do they have enough reasons to do so?
Update Nov 23 – Lee is suspended for one semester for ‘obstructing campus officers from performing their duty’. [MP Lim]
Malaysia universities have completely fallen out of the Top 200 Universities list from THES-QS World University Rankings in 2007. [Full list in PDF].
I never like the THES-QS ranking system which favoured universities with English Language as teaching medium. The top 16 universities are from English speaking countries; only 3 out of the top 25 are from non English speaking countries… and the fact that the top university in Germany (Heidelberg University) only ranks at 60th doesn’t give much credibility to the ranking.
Honestly, I don’t give a damn about how Malaysia universities are positioned in the list. That however doesn’t change the fact that our quality of higher education is in an embarrassing state. We don’t need a ranking to justify that; I graduated from UM 5 years ago, I know how bad we were… and the situation has probably worsen in the last few years.
Make no mistake, Malaysia has excellent talents. We have lots of Malaysians doing well in foreign universities; I have friends that didn’t perform well in SPM or STPM, but exiled in foreign universities… we have great potentials, and we are competitive. Those potentials are however wasted by our local universities… talents are being shaped into mediocre graduates, which is quite a shame.
I have written a post in August regarding the problems in our local universities in response to Badawi’s recent education plan; read it if interested.
Prime Minister and UMNO president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi opened the UMNO General Assembly on Wednesday (Nov 7) at the Putra World Trade Centre. The following is the full text of his opening address [TheStar]…
STRENGTHENING CONFIDENCE – VENTURING INTO A NEW ERA
Alhamdulillah, with God’s will, we are convene for the 58th UMNO General Assembly.
2. Our assembly this year takes place in the glow of the 50th Merdeka celebrations. This is also our first assembly for the next 50 years. Beginning the first national elections, UMNO, as part of the Alliance and subsequently Barisan Nasional, has formed the national government based on the principle of power sharing. It also spearheaded the drive towards independence.
3. The Malayan Government, considered to be lacking in experience, faced myriad challenges. Twelve years after independence, the nation was riven by racial riots that threatened its survival. Thanks to mutual understanding and a strong spirit of cooperation, we overcame this test. That dark time in our history became a valuable lesson that taught us the need to strengthen our unity.
4. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Government introduced three major measures. First, the Rukun Negara was introduced as a national ideology to ensure national unity and safeguard the integrity of the nation. Second, the New Economic Policy was designed to develop our economy based on fair and equitable growth. Finally, the Barisan Nasional was introduced as an effective and inclusive political vehicle. The implementation of these three measures has brought success, guaranteed our survival and brought us the prosperity that we enjoy to this day.
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University Putra Malaysia security personnel allegedly broke into a student’s room and illegally confiscated a laptop computer and other electrical items and documents. [Malaysiakini]
Friday night, 4 staff members of the student affairs department (HEP) in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, raided the room of Yee Yang Yang, a first-year student in Hostel 13 who is a member of a pro-student grouping.
He was interrogated from 11pm to 1am, and his laptop, handphone, MP4 player, 2 pendrives, leaflets and personal documents were confiscated. [Jeff Ooi]
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