Nottingham Extravaganza

In conjunction with the just concluded "Nottingham Games", our most senior officials in charge of Education spent a couple of days deliberating educational issues with Malaysian students in the United Kingdom (UK).

The Nottingham Games is billed as the largest Malaysian sporting event in the UK, this year’s game was the biggest so far involving more than 7,000 Malaysian students from 70 universities across UK.

What was interesting however, was the extensive nature of the dialogue, presentations and discussions with the Malaysian students. For a start, the panelists included:

• Dato Mustapa Mohammed, our Minister of Higher Education
• Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, our Minister of Education
• Dato’ Dr. Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hassan Shahabudin, Vice-Chancellor, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
• Prof. Dato’ Dr. Dzulkifli Abdul Razak Naib Canselor, Universiti Sains Malaysia
• Dato' Dr. Salleh bin Hassan, Education Planning & Research Division Deputy Director, MOE
• Pn Hajah Noor Rezan Bapoo Hashim, School Division Director, MOE
• Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim, Education Planning & Research Division Deputy Director, MOE
• Dr. Mohd. Padhil bin Hashim, Planning & Research Division, MOHE

I for one, would applaud the Ministries for having these dialogue sessions with Malaysian students although I must say that I'm a little taken aback by the number of top guns making the trip to the UK.

I would also not comment on the potential outcome of the dialogue and exchange which you can read in here, here or here.

What I would love to have happen however, is for the respective Ministries to hold such functions here. I'm certain that there will be plenty like me, who wouldn't hesitate to write papers, present and attend such dialogues if held in the country, not out of it.

Ethical Limits to College Advertising?

No, I'm not attempting any plugs here. ;p

My wife spends approximately 2 hours a week conducting Law classes for students reading business administration at a local private college. It's not one of the more established ones, but neither is it an unknown institute. [What to do, the hubby might not be gainfully employed at some point in time in the future, hence got to find supplemental income for the family ;p]

She has been teaching for only approximately 2 months or so. But it appears that the private college has absolutely no ethical qualms about milking the fact that an Oxford graduate is teaching there. Apparently, they intend to run advertisements promoting the college to such effect.

Goodness! She's not even a permanent lecturer there, she's not teaching at a premium rate and not to mention the fact that she has yet to be paid for her classes to date. And the subject she is teaching is only an elective subject for the relevant degree programme.

I've always complained about the local private colleges stretching the ethical limits (for example, here and here) of marketing themselves and their educational programmes. Can it be stretched any further?

Money for Easier Access?

Here's an interesting piece of news published in the Financial Times yesterday.

Students from a little known Saudi university are to be helped into Oxford colleges as part of a deal involving a £2m gift from the kingdom's defence minister.

In documents seen by the Financial Times, the university formally thanks Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz for "his munificent benefaction to the Ashmolean Museum" and outlines arrangements for bringing students from Prince Sultan University in Riyadh to Oxford.

In the memorandum of understanding, Oxford promises to "endeavour to identify four to six colleges with resources and expertise" for visiting students from Prince Sultan University. It will also "seek to expedite the application process".

Apparently, this has infuriated senior members of the university who want "to see a clear separation of Oxford's academic mission from its fundraising activities."

Peter Oppenheimer, a senior academic at Christ Church College, said: "Prince Sultan [University] is not Princeton. Of all the thousands of universities in the world, why are we having a special relationship with a second-rate university? It is hard not to conclude that a foreign university have bought their way in."

Although the university insists that "[t]he document states that students will have to satisfy the admissions criteria in the same way as any other student", there appears to be obvious concerns to the integrity of the entire process.

Anyone sees the potential similarities to the alleged RM500 million "donation" to Cambridge University by our very own Government? Will it raise an equally damaging furore whereby our universities get labelled "second-rate", or worse?

Yang di-Pertuan Agong Scholarships

I've not heard of this scholarship before and was surprised when it was featured in today's NST but I'm glad that these 10 receipients are able to go overseas to pursue a post-graduate degree. It seems that this is part of an overall trend where more and more scholarships are being provided by different bodies (both public and private) for talented Malaysians to go overseas to pursue their post-graduate studies. I hope that this trend will continue.

The NST report only said that 5 of these recipients were pursing Masters degrees while the other 5 were purusing PhDs, all in the field of science and / or technology of their choice. It didn't list down where every individual was heading to with the exception of these two individuals: Nik Noor Jehan Nik Mokhtar, 22, who is heading to Oxford and Yee Wen Huei, 24, had chosen to pursue his Masters in Automotive Engineering in Michigan University, United States. These 10 were selected out of a pool of 283 applicants.

It is interesting to contrast this scholarship with those offered by the JPA. I suspect that all (or almost all) of the 283 applicants were applying to or had already applied to specific universities for specific courses before applying to this Yang di-Pertuan Agong scholarship. Tony has argued, quite convincing, that the JPA should only offer scholarships to individuals at the STPM or college level and not at the SPM level and furthermore, that the JPA should offer scholarships only to those who have offers from established universities. I think that this is a much better use of resources and incentives and it should certainly by applied at the post-graduate level.

I'm sure that part of the selection criteria for this Agong scholarship included whether the applicant already had a firm offer to a graduate program overseas and whether these programs belonged to well known universities (or universities with established programs). This immediately weeds out those people who are just 'thinking' of pursuing a post graduate degree but have not taken the necessary steps like researching different programs, taking the necessary graduate exams (GRE, GMAT, etc...), and applying to their universities of choice.

Of course, we cannot be sure of what the exact selection criteria of this scholarship is and whether all the recipients were headed to established schools or programs, without more information but I'm fairly confident that the individuals chosen are highly motivated and talented and are serious about their post-graduate studies.

It is also interesting to note that they are not 'bonded' to any organization but are only required to come back to work in Malaysia, whether it is the public or the private sector. I think this is a very open minded policy but I also hope that there will be some punitive financial measures associated with not coming back to Malaysia (like paying back a substantial portion of the scholarship upon deciding not to come back). After all, if we have the carrot, we also need to have the stick.

Good luck to this pioneering batch of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Scholars and may they do themselves, their family and their country proud!