More on MUST

Malaysia University of Science & Technology (MUST) continues to create controversy in the country. I've blogged about it not too long ago as a RM100 million fiasco, especially with regards to its supposed tie-up with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). More recently, MUST is still regarded as a "success" by the Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, which left our Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Sdr Lim Kit Siang speechless.

Well I've received a letter from K, who's a rare graduate of MUST, to provide us all a better picture of the university.

"I just stumbled upon your blog entry "RM100 million MUST Fiasco" from December 2006. I'm writing to you now to give you a better understanding of MUST. I'm actually a graduate from MUST, who enrolled in 2004. I was in the third batch of students for MUST, although I was the pioneer batch for my particular department. As far as I know, there were 3 departments in 2002, 5 in 2003 and 7 in 2004. I was also the final batch of students to receive the full scholarship given by the Ehsan Foundation, which includes a RM60,000 waiver for school fees and a monthly stipend of RM1300 (for my 18 months of full-time study). For the 2002 batch, the intake was roughly about 40+ students, the 2003 batch about 80-100, and my batch about 100-120. The drop-out rate was pretty high, especially for certain departments such as Biotechnology, who will lose about half of its students within one semester (the workload is quite brutal, and the syllabus is very engineering-based, which can be quite hard for students that do not have the appropriate background). During the first 3 batches, all students that were accepted into MUST automatically received the scholarship waiver and the monthly stipend. FYI, each intake consisted of about 98% Malaysian Chinese, with a few Malay and Indian students.

I was previously an engineering graduate from UPM, and had never experienced the US style of education. The facilities in MUST were first class, even though we were in Kelana Square. We occupied about 6 floors. Each department had its own set of labs, either computer labs or science labs. The faculty staff was excellent and mostly had gained their postgraduate degrees in esteemed universities, such as Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, etc. Most faculty were expatriates, but not Caucasian. We had faculty from India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, etc. My own Head of Department was from Harvard, and even though he was young, the manner in which in he taught us were far and beyond any lecturer I've ever met in UPM. We had to earn our degrees by taking about 9 subjects and doing a research thesis. Besides the full-time faculty, we also had adjunct faculty (local lecturers) that taught in specialty subjects. I
would just say the adjunct faculty’s style of teaching is what I'm accustomed to when I was an undergraduate in UPM.

Our coursework revolved mainly around assignments. Each subject required a term paper, which had to be carefully researched. In my first semester, a few students were accused of extreme plagiarism, which included myself. At that time, I was struggling so much with the workload that I didn't bother to research properly. The faculty allowed us to rewrite the assignment, but told us to write down our own opinions instead of someone else's. From that time onwards, it was not unusual to find students spending up to 12 hours a day in the university, sometimes even more. I have lost count of the days I slept in my lab simply because I had to use the Internet facilities for research (I don't have broadband access at home). Our information had to be backed up by reliable sources, which usually consists of journal articles and books (Internet websites are not considered a reliable source), which explains the long hours on the Internet. Needless to say, I have never worked harder in my life, not even when I was working.

Our syllabus was based on subjects taught in MIT, although some were not even offered in MIT. For some subjects, we had to watch the video lectures that had been taped in MIT, and for most subjects, we were doing almost the same assignments and tutorials given in MIT. All assignments were posted online, and we had to submit it online. Our assignments would be corrected in soft copy and e-mailed to us. Each term paper had to be presented in a professional manner and marks will be given for presentation. Since attendance for lectures also accounted for a small portion of a grade, my faculty stated that students who asked more questions during lectures would be given higher marks and those that didn’t ask any were not given any marks at all (It’s quite impossible to skip classes when there’s only 7 students in a class, so 100% attendance is not a big deal)

After my first year, MUST decided to withdraw the scholarship program. That's when the intake numbers fell drastically. By this time, the first batch of students had had their convocation and all students had been dismayed when we were informed that our degrees would not be endorsed by MIT. So without the MIT endorsement and scholarship program, the university had difficulty recruiting students that were willing to take a RM60,000 loan. All the problems regarding the withdrawal of the scholarship scheme, the refusal to lower the fees, and the subsequent reduction in intake, I personally blame on the university management. Not the admin, and certainly not the teaching staff.

Another issue that has yet to be resolved is the convocation for MUST graduates. Only the 2002 batch has had their convocation (in 2004). In that convocation, only 28 ppl received their scrolls, as the rest of the batch had yet to complete their thesis. Five Cabinet Ministers attended the convocation that day, which is the highest number of Cabinet Ministers I ever got to see at one time. Since 2004, there has yet to be a convocation for the remaining graduates of the 2002 batch, and the graduates of the 2003 and 2004 batches. Personally, I am not optimistic that a convocation will be held anytime soon.

There were only 40 students for the 2005 intake, which then dwindled to less than 20. There were only 4 students for the 2006 intake, all for the IT Dept. A lot of the international faculty has left, and a lot more will leave when their contracts expire this year. It's just sad that such a university with so much potential, with such great facilities and faculty, will be remembered as a "failure". Perhaps you might think that RM100 million was wasted on so few ppl, but then again, how many Malaysians actually have the opportunity to receive such education? I feel privileged that I received the scholarship, and even though my Masters cert does not have the endorsement from MIT, I feel that I have received an education of world-class quality.

Hope you have a better view of the whole MUST issue now."

Thank you K for leaving us a little wiser. The ministry should certainly pay heed to hear from its graduates and faculty.