Saturday, November 19, 2005

Quietly, Quietly...

Yes, based on the latest pictures gathered in Universiti Malaya (UM), it appears that the university authorities have begun to accept (albeit reluctantly) that the celebration of banners and buntings on the "achievement" of the university in the THES world rankings table is completely distasteful and disgraceful.

BEFORE: Pictures taken on November 13th

AFTER: Pictures taken on November 18th

As you can see from the pictures above, while there continue to be buntings scattered around the campus, the numbers appears to have declined significantly by some 80-90%.

As "hinted" by the Minister of Higher education, and deduced on this blog earlier, word has been sent to the university's vice-chancellor to remove the silliness of the celebratory billboards and buntings. Although the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, officially denied that there was such "instruction" as reported in the New Straits Times, I was certain that the denial was purely to save the vice-chancellor some face.

Let's all see what happens next.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The VC is trying to save face.

Anyway, Prof Dr MOHAMAD ROM TAMJIS, Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, wrote: "UM falls in ranking but is on the right track". It should have been "UM falls in ranking and is on the right track (of dropping and dropping)".

The fact remains that UM is getting worse, academically, physically, and administratively. For people who work there in the last 15 years, there is no sense of improvement, growth, and joy.

On the other hand, there is a sense of decay and going down hill. Don't believe? Just visit the toilets in UM. Many years ago, a big sum of money was spent upgrading all the toilets in UM. Now, most of them are in a terrible state of condition - smelly, no water, water leaking, always wet floor, no toilet rolls or tissue paper, no soap, soap dispenser missing, mirror stolen, cubicle doors not lockable, hooks missing, no light, etc. First world facility - nah! Third world mentality - worse, 4th world!

The condition of toilets reflects the general state of an organization and a country.

Go visit the toilets of NUS and NTU and see for yourself how things improved there over the years: their lights and taps are fitted with sensors, automatic flushing, soap dispensers with soap, tissue rolls available, even fitted with a canister of air refreshener.

UM and NUS - a tale of two unis, one heading north and the other south. Can't wait to see THES 2006. Akan datang.

Anonymous said...

nicely said, anonymous. we definitely NEED more people from the grassroots level (academicians, staff, students, etc.) reporting about the ill-efficiencies of UM. whether it be physical tangible issues or intangible ones such as discriminatory policies, politicking, abuse of power, etc.

power to the people, its about time!

Anonymous said...

don't mean to be racist here. NUS and NTU administrators mostly consist of ch*nese. ch*nese are not even allowed to hold major positions in UM, so may i ask, how do we improve the quality of the university?

disclaimer: i am really fed up with the their attitudes. sorry to create tension here. just my personal opinion.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anony,

The racist issue is encouraged and propagated from the top level of administration down to the bottom. So in order to reduce the racist effect, the person controlling the uni should be impartial. So yes, the VC himself.

I believe getting rid of him and several of his top lackeys will have a chain effect on this racial stuff. Maybe not a cure yet, but it is a start. In US any racial discrimination is a serious offense and can be charged in the court of law. In Malaysia, they are doing it to your face and add insults over injury.

One of the issue that impede the quality of the university is racial discrimination. It totally defeats the purpose of having a university to begin with. So to solve this issue, I suggest people band together and appeal to someone of higher authority outside. The PM. Although he hasnt done anything yet, but it could be that he is waiting for the right moment to replace these people. At least that is what I hope. After all if you work as the CEO of a company and want to fire someone, you have to think very carefully who should you fire and why and how would you replace that guy. No?

Pur.Boy

PS: My vote, fire the VC first for he can be easilly replaced by many other people in the academia. Bring forth the guilotine (is this how it is spelled? hahaha,correct me if I am wrong.)

clk said...

I'm sure many would have read the advertorial in Star and NST on 20Nov 2005 issued by the VC in UM defending its position in the recent THES ranking.

Enough said! I'll no longer comment on this matter after reading the advertorial.

Waste of my time and brain cells...

Anonymous said...
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