Other universities under the spotlight

OK, after highlighting the inadequacies of the profile of certain facilitators at KDMC here and here, I thought it would only be fair to examine other universities in Malaysia, both private and public.

(Incidentally, despite alerting the executive director of KMDC, the profiles of their facilitators have not been changed in regards to how they list their qualifications or the description of their job experience)

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll be looking at the CVs of teaching faculty in selected public and private universities in Malaysia notably the Universty of Nottingham's Malaysian campus, Monash's Sunway campus, MMU, UKM, USM and UM.

From my cursory web searches, these are some of my initial impressions:

1) The qualifications of the teaching faculty in these universities are legit (especially compared to the ones we've seen listed in KDMC)
2) The public universities do not list the full CVs of their teaching faculty (this is standard practice in the US) and that most of the private universities DO list the full CVs of their teaching faculty
3) There is a practice of having Associate Professors who do not have PhDs in both the public and private universities (this is very uncommon in the US although this could be justified if the person in question has an extensive publication record)
4) The private universities listed here do have active research agendas among its teaching faculty

I'll also try to highlight and compare some of the departments which I'm more familiar with and come up with some simple recommendations moving forward.

First up, USM.

Perdana Leadership Foundation essay competition

I've plugged this competition before and I'll do it again, on behalf of a friend of mine who works in the Perdana Leadership Foundation. The Foundation is having an essay competition centering on the theme of “Nurturing the Minds of Future Leaders”. It is open to students from the secondary school level up to the undergraduate level. You can find out more details here.

I've asked my friend if we could publish some of the winning entries once they have been announced. I've cut and pasted my friend's email below giving more detailed instructions:

Prizes offered include the Proton Savvy for tertiary students, a Modenas scooter for upper secondary students and a mountain bicycle for lower secondary students. They also include laptop computers, iPods, and mobile phones, and MPH book vouchers.

The contest is divided into three categories: Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary and Tertiary (Undergraduates up to the age of 25) with three essay questions for each category, and a suggested list of resources, as below.

The objective is to encourage thinking and writing skills, as well as stimulate interest in Malaysian history.

Lower Secondary Level (700 – 1,000 words)

Select one of Malaysia ’s past Prime Ministers and discuss his contributions to the country.
Pilih seorang bekas Perdana Menteri Malaysia dan bincangkan sumbangan-sumbangan beliau kepada negara.

Suggested Resources

Tunku Abdul Rahman: memoir politik / Shariff Ahmad
Tunku: his life and times / William Shaw
Tun Razak: jejak bertapak seorang patriot / Zainuddin Maidin
Tun Razak: prince of Titiwangsa / Shariff Ahmad
Tun Hussein Onn / Siti Mariam Daud
Tun Hussein Onn: Bapa Perpaduan = Father of Unity / Abdul Rahman Shaari
Dr. Mahathir Mohamad Perdana Menteri kita: Era Permodenan & Globalisasi / S. Hashim Ahmad
Mahathir memartabatkan maruah bangsa / Amidah Hamim
Federal Constitution, revised in 2002 / The Commisioner of Law Revision, Malaysia
The Malaysian System of Government / Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
The Constitution of Malaysia : Its development 1957-1977 / edited by Tun Mohamed Suffian, HP Lee & FA Trindade

These references are available at Perdana Library. The full text of books can be accessed only in hard copy at the Perdana Library. News clippings and speeches can be viewed online via our Perdana Library website (http://library.perdana.org.my).

Upper Secondary Level (1000 – 1,500 words)

As a multiracial society, Malaysia faces challenges to maintain stability and harmony. Discuss how to develop a united Malaysian nation.
Sebagai sebuah negara yang bersifat majmuk, Malaysia menghadapi cabaran untuk memelihara kestabilan dan keharmonian. Bincangkan bagaimana untuk mewujudkan bangsa Malaysia yang bersatu padu.

Suggested Resources

Malaysia : pertumbuhan dan keadilan dalam masyarakat majmuk / Kevin Young
Masyarakat Malaysia : tinjauan dan perbincangan terhadap beberapa isu dan topik semasa / disunting oleh Zuraina Majid
May 13: before and after / Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra al-Haj
Nation building in Malaysia 1946 – 1974 / James P. Ongkili
Dynamics of nation building / J.E. Jayasuriya
Tunku Abdul Rahman - Dr Mahathir Mohamad: ke arah perpaduan / Idris Tulis
Federal Constitution, revised in 2002 / The Commisioner of Law Revision, Malaysia
The Malaysian System of Government / Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
The Constitution of Malaysia : Its development 1957-1977 / edited by Tun Mohamed Suffian, HP Lee & FA Trindade

Tertiary Level (1,500 - 2,000 Words)

Five lessons we can learn from the history of Malaysia , from Merdeka to the present day.
Lima pengajaran yang dapat dipelajari dari sejarah Malaysia, sejak Merdeka hingga ke hari ini.

Suggested Resources

Malaysia : sejarah kenegaraan dan politik / penyelenggara, Abdul Rahman Hj Ismail
21st century Malaysia : challenges and strategies in attaining vision 2020 / edited by Michael Yeoh
Malaysia in transition: politics and society / Abdul Razak Baginda
Malaysia ’s economic development: policy and reform / edited by Jomo K.S. and Ng Suew Kiat
Five men and five ideas: building national identity / Hng Hung Yong
Federal Constitution, revised in 2002 / The Commisioner of Law Revision, Malaysia
The Malaysian System of Government / Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
The Constitution of Malaysia : Its development 1957-1977 / edited by Tun Mohamed Suffian, HP Lee & FA Trindade
Malaysia 's political economy / Edmund Terence Gomez and Jomo K. Sundaram
Government & Society in Malaysia / Harold Crouch
A Malaysian journey / Rehman Rashid

These references are available at Perdana Library. The full text of books can be accessed only in hard copy at the Perdana Library. News clippings and speeches can be viewed online via our Perdana Library website (http://library.perdana.org.my). Our Library's opening hours are from 9am to 5.30pm, Mondays to Fridays. Contact Encik Adnan (03-8885 8940 or adnan@perdana.org.my. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) or Encik Munawar (03-8885 8954 or munawar@perdana.org.my. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) for further information.

Australians to Study in Malaysia?

In a statement which obviously defied belief when I first read it, I wonder why our Ministers must sometimes make such cringe-inducing statements which will only put us on the map for international ridicule.

Apparently, "Malaysia is working out ways to correct the imbalance of student exchange between Malaysia and Australia" according to our Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamad.

He said the number of Malaysian students studying in Australia way outnumbered the number of Australians studying in Malaysia. There are some 15,000 Malaysians studying in Australia compared with only two Australian students at the International Islamic University in Malaysia.

"We are hoping to attract more Australian students to study in Malaysia," he said without elaborating on the ways Malaysia was hoping to do that.

Yes, exactly, how are we going to do that?

Australia has more than 10 universities in the World's Top 200 based on the survey by Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), while Malaysia has only 2 which barely made the cut. Now, is there a wonder why there are hardly any Australian students here? Hmmm...

Postgrad Scholarships Only to Top Universities

In a surprising but welcomed move by the Ministry of Higher Education, Datuk Mustapa Mohamed announced that "the Government will only sponsor post-graduates for top prestigious schools abroad under a plan to produce quality professionals and to raise the standard of university lecturers."

Even the universities which undergraduates are being set to are also being reviewed, although the Minister did highlight that the rule will be more strictly enforced for postgraduates programmes.

As far as I'm concerned, this is an excellent move, if implemented accordingly. The next thing which is necessary, to encourage transparency and some form of consistency, is for the Ministry to announce the Universities which are pre-approved for specific postgraduate programmes.

A good mechanism which will take away "arbitrary" decisions by the often bungling Ministry officials, is to rely on certain set international benchmarks. For example, these top universities can be defined as universities which are recognised as the Top 50 in either the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) or the Shanghai JiaoTung University global university rankings table. These tables are not perfect, but they will certainly be a lot more objective than any list compiled by the local officials.

I can imagine however, the level of resistance to this policy which may come from vested interest parties, particularly those local academics who are unable to secure places in these instutions. The backlash may happen if the new ruling results in severely dampening the government's efforts to increase the number of PhD holders in the local universities.

I, and I'm certain my blog partner, Kian Ming, will implore Datuk Mustapa to stick to his guns and avoid pursuing a short-term and detrimental policy of increasing the quantity of PhD academics at the expense of quality.

Response by KMDC

I thought that the management of KDMC might be interested in our recent findings so I wrote to its executive director, Ms. Cheng Mien Wee, on behalf of Tony and myself to ask if she'd like to respond to our posts. She was very prompt in her reply and we've obtained her permission to publish her full reply here:

Dear Kian Ming & Tony

Thank you for your email and efforts to share with us the recent line of interest established in your blog on KMDC's programme offerings and the profiles of the associated pool of facilitators involved (directly and/or indirectly) in the delivery of KMDC's projects and programmes. We appreciate your invitation to us to respond to your statements.

KMDC is a management development centre, focused on offering training courses and management development solutions. KMDC is registered with the Ministry of Human Resources as an approved training provider. Our clients range from multinational corporations and small medium enterprises to individual professionals. The solutions we offer can be delivered in various modalities, from in-house training workshops to
accredited courses that lead to postgraduate qualifications by our partner institutions, when candidates enrolled with our partner institutions fulfill all the academic requirements associated with the programme(s) concerned.

I spoke with Prof. Zaharom Nain a few days ago, with regards the points he raised in his email to me. I understand the good intentions of Prof. Zaharom and the overall objectives your blog entitled 'Education in Malaysia', and I trust that Prof. Zaharom also appreciated my explanation to him with regards the context of KMDC's business and nature of our projects and programmes.

KMDC's website carries a sample list of facilitators, from its wider pool of other facilitators from across many disciplines (subject matter). The list of facilitators profiled on our website may change from time to time, according to the projects that KMDC may be focused on for that particular period, and KMDC's project consultants are
determined based on our clients' requirements. In the case of accredited training and management development courses, the delivery of such courses would be conducted by facilitators approved by the partner institution(s) concerned.

Based on the above, the contents of KMDC's website is reviewed and updated on regular basis. In this instance, Prof. Zaharom's telephone call to me was actually timely, as it also alerted our team on updating our website with more current information. I am pleased to share that we have worked with Dr. James Chong and Dr. Ragunathan and the other facilitators, whose profiles your blog has highlighted, and their work was appreciated by our clients within the scope of the projects concerned. KMDC 'removed' their names and profiles from the current KMDC webpage, as those projects have been completed some time ago.

Others on our current list of facilitators, like Dr. Alfred Chee and Dr. Lee Kean Thong, do still offer their advice and service as facilitators in relevant training and management courses offered by KMDC. We are pleased with our association with our facilitators and we would be pleased to arrange for Dr. Alfred Chee and Dr. Lee to speak with you should you and your colleagues be interested to learn more about their
respective profiles.

KMDC is committed to offering its clients with relevant and effective management training and development solutions, and we would be pleased to offer more details to you on our suite of current programmes.

Sincerely

Mien

Mien-Wee Cheng
Executive Director
KDU Management Development Centre Sdn Bhd
Levels 19 & 20, Block 3A
Plaza Sentral, KL Sentral
50470 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603-22738286
Fax: +603-22735933
Email: mwcheng@kmdc.com.my

UiTM Graduates More Employable

Now I do not want to get into a slanging war with Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) students and alumni with this post, there's enough of that sort going on in my earlier popular post on "UiTM - World Class?". Please also note that this post is not a slight at UiTM graduates as I'm fully convinced that there are good students and well qualified graduates from the University.

I thought it would be interesting to highlight the contradiction between the statement issued by the Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Mustapa Mohamed yesterday, versus a set of statistics released by the Deputy Minister of Human Resources, Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar (blogged here) back in July this year.

According to Datuk Mustapa, UiTM graduates are "more employable than other local graduates due to their strong command of English."

He said the curriculum in UiTM stressed on the importance of English to produce students proficient in the language.

“The employment rate of UiTM graduates is generally higher than that of other local graduates because they are good in English"... Besides, Mustapa added, the university offered hands-on courses that were relevant to the job market. He said the students were taught entrepreneurial skills.

However, based on statistics released by Datuk Abdul Rahman earlier on the unemployed graduates in Malaysia, the breakdown showed UiTM as having the highest number of unemployed graduates, as shown in the table below.
In fact, UiTM has more than double the number of unemployed graduates (16.2%) relative to the next highest university Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) (7.6%). Even after taking into account the significantly larger campus in UiTM, the statistics by Datuk Mustapa's fellow colleague doesn't provide any justification at all to his claim that UiTM graduates are more employable than those of other local universities.

There has been a spate of Ministers contradicting and correcting each other in and out of the Parliament recently - Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and his deputy, Datuk Noh Omar on new Chinese primary schools, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Awang Adek and Minister in Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Effendi Norwawi and others which I can't recall off-hand. Are they just displaying their incompetency as well as the unreliability of government data and statistics, or are they misleading the Parliament and the public?

On a separate note, it is worth noting that UiTM appears to have quietly removed its proclaimation that it's a "world class university" from its website, as blogged earlier, but have since termed itself as a "world class socio-economic achievement", which is probably less controversial. I've also been informed that UiTM has changed its vision to "become World Class University by 2020", according to reader and student, Khairul Idzwan, although I can't seem to find that reference on the website. At the very least, it appears that the UiTM administration is now a fair bit more grounded in its proclaimations, irrespective of whether my earlier blog post has played a part in the change. ;)

Arabic, Anyone?

Let me make my position clear on National Schools. I'm all for the concept of national schools in this country as the mainstream of education for students of all races. And I fully support the call by the Prime Minister that "national schools will be strengthened to become the school of choice for all Malaysians" in the 9th Malaysia Plan.

However, is it a surprise that Malaysians, particularly the non-Malay community are avoiding the national schools like plague, and deserting them for overcrowded vernacular schools? I've written plenty on the increasing "Islamisation" of our purportedly secular national schools, as being one of the key factors.

Now, even as mother tongue programmes have yet to be fully implemented in the schools, you will find bungling headmasters and education department officials implementing the most clumsy of policies like forcing Indian students in a school to take Arabic lessons and sit for the corresponding examinations!

Parents of Indian students of SK Sri Baki in Senawang are upset that their children, who are in Year One, were forced to take Arabic in school. Many of the pupils were forced to sit for the examinations even though there were no classes for the first six months, reported Malaysia Nanban.

The school had said that Arabic was a compulsory subject and the children had to sit for the paper.

When parents complained to the Headmaster, the Headmaster blamed the State Education Department. The officer in-charge of languages, Ustaz Hafizi of the State Education Department was queried, he argued that "headmasters were compelled to introduce Tamil, Chinese or Arabic to children of other communities."

Are these people even competent? Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, our dearest Minister of Education, is this your vision of the future of our national schools? How can you blame the vernacular schools for apparently causing national disunity, and the non-Malay community for their fears and paranoia, when the exalted "school of choice" for all Malaysians so obviously marginalises the non-Malay communities?

Triumph Over Poverty

I wrote about Education being compulsory in Malaysia yesterday. In the past, I've often highlighted little stories of students from the poorest of backgrounds achieving top grades beating all odds. This year is no different, where students from families living in poverty achieved top marks.

As reported by the Star, 12-year-old Has who lives in a 3m-wide bamboo house, and studied by the dim light of the candle achieved perfect scores for her UPSR examinations.

...rubber tapper Hariff Chiyok, 39, and his wife Chu Derging, 37, are blessed with Has, who was one of five orang asli pupils in Perak to score 5As in this year’s UPSR examination.

For years, the couple and their three children have been living in the self-built shack in Kampung Batu 8 here, without furniture, electricity or running water. Every night they wait for Has to finish studying before they go to sleep together.

In school, Has is an assistant head prefect and chairman of the school’s Young Cadets club, the Netball Club and Culture Club. Has’ perseverance has rubbed off on her younger brother Haleri, who emerged second in his class in a recent examination.

“We have always encouraged our children to study hard,” said Hariff, who treks one hour every day to a rubber plantation to earn his keep. At most, Hariff makes RM300 every month and spends RM15 monthly on candles so his children can study at night.

When he asked Has what inspired her to study hard, the girl replied: “I know that if I study hard, I will be able to give my family a better life.”

Yes, indeed Has. Study hard, and you will be able to give your family a better life. It is the best and most effective passport out of the poverty trap.

More dubious "Dr.s" in KMDC

This topic has really intrigued me and our readers as well. We had tons of comments in response to Tony's recent post on dubious faculty members in private colleges in Malaysia and it has already had an effect. The three names from the KDU Management Development Center (KDMC) which Tony highlighted - Dr James Chong, Dr. Ragunathan and boy genius, Dr Jacky Chin Yew Sin - have already been taken down from the webpage featuring the program's facilitators' profile.But other names remain on the same webpage and I thought it would be fun running through the profiles of some of the other facilitators.

Apologies for picking on KDMC (most other private colleges do not feature their faculty in such detail) but some points need to be made.

Firstly, some dubious "Dr.s" still remain:

Dr Lee Kean Thong
Bachelor of Applied Science (Hons) (M’sia, 1980)
MBA (Louisiana, USA, 1984)
Doctor of Business Administration (Louisiana, USA, 1989)

Academic and Professional Qualifications
• Qualifications: Master of Business Administration from University of Hull, United Kingdom.
(Sept 1999-Sept 2000)
• Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Business Administration University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
(Sept 1997-June 1998)
• Certificate in Human Resource Management, Australian Programme
(June 1995-December 1996)

Academic and Professional Qualifications

• Qualification : Bachelor of Applied Science (Hons)
• Institution : Univerisity Sains Malaysia
• Duration : 1976 to 1980

• Qualification : Master of Business Administration
• Institution : Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana, USA
• Duration : 1982 to 1984

• Qualification : Doctor of Business Administration
• Institution : Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana, USA
• Duration : 1985 to 1989

Does this mean that Dr. Lee obtained his MBA and Doctorate in Business Admin from Louisiana Tech in 1989 and then went back to school to obtain another BA and MBA from a UK university 10 years later? Was it because the business environment had changed so much that he had to go back to school to obtain a Bachelors and MBA in a field in which he already had a doctorate in? Does this mean that if I do get my PhD from Duke (eventually) that I need to go to another school to get another PhD or Masters 10 years from now?

We move on to Dr. Tay Jon Jon:

Dr Tay Jon Jon
Ph.D(h.c.)in Business Administration (Marketing) -
(Calamus Extension College, UK-2004)
MBA in International Management -
(Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia-1998)
BSc in Business Studies (University of Buckingham, UK-1990)
Post Graduate Diploma (Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK-1991)

While RMIT and the University of Buckingham are legit universities, Calamus Extension College, supposedly in the UK, is most definitely not. It is NOT listed as a degree granting university in the UK but is an internet extension college based in the West Indies. You can read about a 'professor' from Calamus in this quite hilarious post.

We move on to Dr. Alfred Chee Ah Chil.

Dr. Alfred Chee Ah Chil
PhD
MSc HRM (UK, 1998)
PG Dip, HRM (1996)

It doesn't say where he got his doctorate from. Anyone who doesn't list where he or she obtained his doctorate but still calls himself or herself a "Dr." immediately calls suspicion onto himself or herself.

It's a pity that Dr. Ch’ng Huck Khoon, the only genuine Dr in that list, gets his name associated with the other dubious "Dr.s" since he's legit.

Dr. Ch’ng Huck Khoon
PhD (Finance, USM 2001)
MBA (Finance, UK 2004)
ACIS (UK, 1997)
MCSM (M)
DipComm (TARC, 1993)

If by spending about half an hour, I can call into question the credentials of 3 of the 4 remaining "Dr.s" still listed on KMDC's webpage (as of today), why couldn't the management of KMDC do the same when vetting through these candidates as 'facilitators'?

In addition, I'm disappointed that the webpage of a management development center can be so unprofessional in listing the academic and professional qualifications of its trainers and program leaders.

Mr. Thomas Kok is listed as a course instructor / program leader and the following is his brief CV.

Mr. Thomas Kok
MSc ITB (UK, 2001)
Honours Diploma (NIIT, 1996)
IDPM (Parts 1-V) 1990
City & Guildes – 418

"Thomas holds a Master of Science Information Technology in Business from the University of Lincoln, where he researched and wrote extensively on “Customers’ Reaction and Usage of Electronic Banking in Malaysia”. He has experience facilitating executive education in the areas of Information Systems and Business Data Communications."

Is it just me or does anyone else not understand what "City & Guildes - 418" represents? Does IDPM represent the "Institute for Development Policy and Management" which is based in Manchester, UK? What does Parts 1-V mean? What is the NIIT? Is it the NIIT which is based in India or the one based in Mauritius?

Finally, I'd encourage our readers to read the bios of the individual trainers in greater detail. I'm sure that some of you would find the standard of English, "interesting", to say the least. One last example, under Dr. Lee Kean Thong again:

"Working as the programme consultant with KDU College from May 2001, handling the masters programme of University Lincoln, UK and Deakin University, Australia. Besides that, in charged of MA Work Based Learning Programme with Middlesex University."

Spelling and grammatical errors abound in the bios. While Tony and I are often guilty of such errors in our posts, we don't charge people thousands of dollars to attend executive training or MBA type programs nor do we run our blog as an educational institution. If I want to part with thousands of dollars (or ringgit) to attend these programs, the least I can expect is for the people who run these programs to be able to spell or write proper bios.

Even if the bios of some of the facilitators are genuine and they are top notch people in their respective fields, the fact that the program uses or recruits other dubious facilitators cast an overall negative light on the quality of the entire program.

Will the management of KDMC remove more facilitators or perhaps clean up some of the bios after reading this post? Let's wait and see.

Why finding a genuine PhD is not easy

In light of the popularity of Tony's recent post on dubious PhD faculty members in private colleges, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on why it's difficult to find faculty in private colleges who have genuine PhDs.

First reason - there are not that many people with PhDs in Malaysia in the first place. I'm not sure what the actual numbers are but I feel confident in saying that the proportion of Malaysians with a PhD, a genuine one that is (as opposed to conferred honorary doctorates or PhDs from the International Irish University), is relatively low, especially compared to developed countries. This problem is especially compounded as Malaysia is trying to expand its higher education enrolment, both in public as well as private universities, at such a rapid rate.

We can all do a simple mental exercise. How many people in our extended family can we think of who possesses a doctorate degree of any sort? How many close friends do we know who have a doctorate degree? How many of them are currently teaching or working in an education setting whether public or private?

I did this exercise myself. I realized that I'm the only person in my extended family who's currently pursuing a doctorate degree. (I have a younger cousin who's already gotten his doctorate from Wichita and his working there now) Among my circle of friends, the people whom I sorta grew up and went to school with (not including my academic friends I met while I was working in Malaysia), I can think of only 4 who have completed or are pursuing doctorate degrees (not including myself). Of these, one is still in Harvard, one is working in Shell in the Netherlands (PhD from U of Sydney), one is working in London with Amex (PhD from Cambridge), one is working in a bio-tech firm in Malaysia (PhD from Oxford).

My friend from Harvard will probably end up in the academia but in the US, not back home in Malaysia. The only one who went back to Malaysia isn't anywhere near an academic institution.

The second reason, in my humble opinion, as to why there are very few PhD faculty (especially teaching faculty) in private colleges / universities in Malaysia is that the job prospects are not particularly attractive, especially when compared to the investment, both financial and intellectual, which one has put in to get one's PhD. The pay isn't particularly attractive, especially compared to alternatives in the private sector, you have to teach large classes in the profit drive private colleges, you have little time and funding for your own research, which should be the driving force behind those who want to be in the academia.

The third reason - The few PhDs who end up in private colleges usually end up in administrative positions instead of in teaching positions because of their relative seniority and experience.

But, with so few people and so many positions, it is not surprising that some private colleges end up recruiting people with dubious PhDs in an effort to boost the credibility of its programs. But frankly, my wife and I were a little surprised that KDU, which we thought was a relatively well run private college, would have so many suspect PhDs in its faculty. So if a relatively well known private college like KDU is guilty of this practice, how about colleges who are not so well known, especially some of the fly-by-night outfits or those who are not located in Selangor / KL and are thus out of the spotlight?

One of our readers recently asked us if we knew what requirements LAN needed from the private colleges in terms of the qualification of their teaching staff. Tony and I don't know since the requirements are not exactly well publicized or transparent. But it would be interesting to find out what these requirements are and how many private colleges actually fulfill these requirements. (Note: We are still eagerly awaiting the 'rating' of private colleges by the MOHE to be released)

Obtaining a genuine PhD is a long and hard process. Not many people choose to go down this path. It takes at least 3 years and sometimes much longer, especially if you are in the US. There are not many universities or programs which will fund a foreigner for the entirety of one's PhD program. (Some US universities are the exception) The few who do end up going overseas to do their PhDs usually stay overseas because of better job prospects. Those who return home to Malaysia usually end up doing something in the non-academic private sector because of more attractive financial returns.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. I think there are some private colleges which are trying to develop into real research universities with good teaching faculty who have genuine PhDs. I don't think all the private colleges will adopt this model but some are moving in this direction. The push has been foreign universities which have set up branch campuses in Malaysia, namely Monash and Nottingham.

I don't know much about Nottingham and their faculty but I do know some people in Monash. I checked out their small Arts department, under the School of Arts and Sciences, and found that all of their teaching staff with doctorates are genuine. (Note: A sure sign of having dubious doctorate is when one doesn't even bother to list the university from which one obtained his or her doctorate from, such as the boy genious Dr. Jacky Chin Siew Yin from KDU)

Incidentally, someone alerted the management in KDU and the result is that the profiles of their staff, highlighted previously by Tony, have been taken down.

So maybe there is a silver lining in this cloud of dubious PhDs. Hopefully, the dubious PhDs won't drive down the value of a genuine PhD, if not my ongoing efforts at obtaining one from Duke will be in vain. :)

In the meantime, be vigilant in looking out for these fakes. And don't forget to drop Tony (tonypua@yahoo.com) or myself (im_ok_man@yahoo.com) an email when you do!

Education is Compulsory

While most of us will take it for granted that our children must receive a proper education, it's always depressing to find out that there are those who chose to neglect providing their children with formal education.

Did you also know that "Section 29A of the Education Act 1996 stated that parents who did not enrol their children in school could be fined RM5,000 or jailed six months"? Although I've never heard of anybody being prosecuted under the act, it's also good to know that the Government have in place certain measures to encourage families who are poor to attend schools.

Deputy Minister of Education, Datuk Noh Omar said "parents could no longer use poverty as an excuse for not enrolling their children in school because the Government had established the Poor Student Aid Fund to assist all unprivileged pupils."

Assistance provided includes RM200 for registration fees, RM50 monthly aid currently distributed to poor students which will be increased to RM70 next year as well as other benefits such as free breakfasts to needy pupils.

While I wasn't born in poverty, my parents were definitely not of the privileged middle class either. My father had up to Primary 3 education, and owned a small poultry farm selling eggs for a living while my housewife mother only managed to complete primary school. We lived (and my parents still do) in the kampung 10 miles from the town of Batu Pahat.

I would attribute what I have achieved today besides a little luck, to a good education and plenty of encouragement, guidance as well as moral support from my parents. I've always believed that education is the only true leveller in and of society. Hence, it is of the key reasons why I started this blog in the first place, having experienced the immeasurable impact of education, first hand.

Poverty is not an excuse of skipping education. Poverty should be very reason why education is compulsory.

Educare 2006

Educare was started in 2001 by Venerable B. Saranankara Thero. Its objective was to ease the burden of parents by distributing educational items to students in need. Educare is mainly to lend a helping hand to those in time of misfortune and students whose parents earn minimum wages.

In the beginning of 2001, this program has successfully raise educational items to 800 needy students. By 2005, Educare has provided educational items to over 4000 needy Malaysian students. The programme, which is in its sixth year running, is a joint effort between the Sri Jayanti Association in Sentul and Parkson Grand.

This year, Educare aims to help 5,000 needy students irrespective of race and religion from 74 government schools, 14 Hospitals of Malaysian Children’s Aid Society (MACAS) and 8 orphanages & NGOs throughout Malaysia with educational items from school uniforms to stationery sets.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow, who launched the programme on Saturday, rightly said that "he believed education was the key to eradicating poverty and it contributed to the economic and social growth of the country. "

You can help by donating educational items at the Educare collection area. They will be providing collection bins in all Parkson stores nationwide (except Parkson Suria KLCC). Your contribution can help these children lead better lives.

In addition, you can also pledge you support by purchasing school items via Parkson Online Mall.

Having gone through the online donation process this morning, I thought it was a tad messy. You can't actually donate cash, but instead you are required to purchase schooling items like uniforms and backs from the store. If you have never registered before, make sure you register first before shopping, otherwise, you'd lose your shopping bag details.

You can make payment via VISA or Mastercard, or alternatively via Maybank2U. What I thought was a tad unfair was that I was still charged shipping fees to my mailing address, even though it's a purchase specifically for donation at the collection centres in Parkson. Its probably an oversight on their part, and I treated it as petrol saved from going to Parkson itself to do the shopping. ;)

HSBC Young Entrepreneurship Awards 2006/7

This annual Business Plan competition is back again.

"The HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards is a regional business plan writing competition that invites talented post-secondary students from Hong Kong and other Asian countries to display their creativity and business acumen.

The local competition will take place from September 2006 to March 2007. Gold Award winners from each country or territory will compete for the Best of the Best Awards in Hong Kong in June 2007. The team that wins the regional competition will be awarded an HSBC business development fund of HK$100,000."

The Awards is an open competition and exclusively for Malaysian undergraduates. Details of the entry criteria is available here.

Winners of the Gold Award will receive HSBC self-development fund of RM10,000 per team and the opportunity to compete with other gold winners at the Regional Competition in Hong Kong to win a HSBC business development fund of HK$100,000. Winners of the Silver and Bronze Awards will each receive RM7,000 and RM5,000 respectively, and a trip to Hong Kong.

Other Awards include Certificates of Excellence, Merit and Appreciation.

Last year, The Reimagineers, consisting of Samuel Wee and Ng Khai Lee, did Malaysia proud by taking home the regional grand prize. Their business plan “Artbank Co-op”, which involves the collection, printing and sale of digital art as posters, and their excellent presentation skills wowed the judges.

Other past ideas include the implantation of a biochip in the human body to observe and monitor key health indicators, and a new application on mobile devices and PCs that matches consumer needs with relevant products.

The closing date of submission for Round 1 is pretty soon, on December 5th.

As per my offer last year, any keen participants interested in some unsolicited offers of assistance from the little entrepreneur here, please do not hesitate to email me. I'd be more than happy to assist where I can.

Good luck!

Meritocracy & Minorities

It has often been argued by those vehemently opposed to the meritocratic system in education that the system will result in students of poorer ethnic communities performing weaker in the system. I was in Singapore yesterday (and hence the lack of posts), and they have just released their latest Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), similar to our Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR).

We all know about how much Singapore has been praised and criticised for its "harsh" meritocratic system. Much to my pleasant surprise, the top three students from this year's examinations are all from minority communities, and two of them are Malay Muslims, who form not more than 14% of the population largely dominated by the Chinese community (77%).

Out of more than 50,000 students who took the examinations, the top 3 pupils in 2006 PSLE are (scores are out of 300):

• Rebecca Margaret Ranee Jeyaraj, 281, Raffles Girls' Primary
• Fadhli Mohamad Ikbal, 280, Tampines Primary
• Nur Atiqah Azhari, 280, Northland Primary

Hence the pertinent question to ask then, is did they achieve what they did because of the meritocratic system or inspite of it? I'd like to argue that they have achieved what they did with the asistance of a quality and meritocratic education system, which will provide each individual, irrespective of race or background to shine. As reported in ChannelNewsAsia:

For 12-year-old Tampines Primary student Muhammad Fadhli Mohamad Ikbal, it is an astonishing dream come true. With 280 points, the school prefect is just 1 point short of the top scorer in Singapore. He said, "I was not really expecting (it). I thought I'll get 260 or something like that. So, I'm going to pursue my ambition to study medicine."

His proud parents say Fadhli managed his time well in spite of his busy schedule, which included representing his school in badminton, chess and Taekwando.

His mother Fawziah Wahab said, "His teachers' dedication, the school giving him exposure like taking part in competitions, representing (the) school in competitions...(this has) helped to motivate him to study even better so that he can make the school proud."

Over at Raffles Girls', the country's top PSLE student was also an all-rounder, playing netball and participating in community involvement projects. Rebecca Margaret Ranee Jeyaraj said, "I studied hard, I pushed myself. I also didn't stress myself out too much, I wasn't too caught up....a day before the PSLE, I slept early to make sure I have a fresh mind the next day, so I could focus more on my work."

The achievement of the two Malay Muslim children are all the more impressive as they both are obviously not from privileged background as they attended neighbourhood schools, and not one of the elite schools like Raffles. And certainly, nobody can take away any credit from them for their achievements in a meritocratic system for which they could only have done it fair and square.

I hate to put politics into posts in this blog, but who are the UMNO heroes who were trying to claim that marginalised in Singapore? Not in the education system, they certainly aren't.

Dubious PhD Faculty Members

Regular readers of my posts will know that I'm fairly critical with regards to the standards and quality of academics and lecturers in many of our local private colleges. I've received complaints, many as comments in my earlier blog posts with regards to the lecturer's language abilities, experience as well as competence. Because of that, I've always urged the relevant authorities to require private colleges to published detailed resumes of faculty members to allow for more detailed scrutiny of the quality of teaching at the college.

Well, here's an additional important reason. It's something which I've known and hinted for a while now, but for one reason or other, I've not had time to conduct a thorough research on it, to make it a bigger expose here. But given a slow news week on education, I thought, I might as well publish all the evidence I have here, and possibly let the bloggers and readers out help out with additional research. ;)

I have discovered that a significant number of faculty members at some of our more prominent colleges employs PhD holders with qualifications secured at dubious or even bogus institutions such as the now infamous Irish International University, blogged here.

KDU Management Development Centre (KMDC), which operates as a professional development centre under KDU College Sdn Bhd in Petaling Jaya certainly employs some of these luminaries. In KMDC faculty profile pages, if you go through some of the instructors qualifications, you'd find that many of the facilitators doctorates are obtained from dubious sources. For example:

[Update 28 Nov 06: Please note that KMDC has removed some of the dubious profiles listed below from the website. I have saved copies of it to avoid defamation charges.]

1. Dr. James Chong PhD (Ire, 2002)
"Dr. James Chong has a PhD from Irish International University, Ireland..."

2. Dr. Ragunathan PhD (2002), MBA (1999)
"Dr. Ragunathan has a PhD in Business Administration and MBA from Newport University, United States... Dr. Ragunathan lectures on Research Methodology for the MBA and MSc programs."

For Dr James Chong, the university doesn't exist in Ireland, if it even "exists" at all! So where did you attend your PhD programme, the headquarters of IIU in Pakistan? As for Newport University where Dr Ragunathan obtained his PhD and MBA, it is definitely not recognised by the Office of Degree Authorisation in Oregon, United States, which clearly lists colleges which are either unaccredited or diploma mills.

More interestingly, I found a Dr Jacky Chin whose credentials are in my opinion, impossibly impeccable.

Dr. Jacky Chin Yew Sin DBA (Aust, 1999), PhD (Can), MBA (G. Mgt) (Scotland, 1997) MBA (Int. Bus.) (Aust), MSc (Can), BA (Hons) Acct (UK, 2000), BA (Hons) Bus Admin (UK, 2001), BEng (Hons) (Malaysia, 2000), BJuris (Malaysia, 2001)

Dr. Jacky Chin holds numerous academic and professional qualifications and has been awarded the Outstanding Young Malaysian Award (2000) in the Category of Academic Leadership and Accomplishment. He has written countless publications. Dr. Chin consults extensively and holds professorships in many International universities and learning institutions. He is currently undertaking 3 doctorate programmes in various leading universities.

And more interestingly, if you dig a little more on the over-achiever, you'd find that

...Malaysian academic, Prof. Dr Chin Yew Sin, has his name listed in the Record Book of World’s Initiators for his immense achievements in the academic field. Dr Chin holds 12 world records, some of which are: The first person in the world to have attended eight graduation ceremonies to obtain five degrees and three post-graduate diplomas and certificates from the US, UK, Australia, Scotland and Malaysia in a year; first person in the world to have four bachelor’s degrees and graduated in the same year; first person in the world to complete a Bachelor’s of Arts (Hons) degree in Business Administration in four months, a Masters in Business Administration in nine months and a Doctorate in Business Administration in 15 months; and first person in the world to have 72 qualifications, including 11 degrees, post-graduate diplomas and certificates, two diplomas, 15 certificates, seven professional certifications and 37 professional memberships.

Frankly, I would think Sir Isaac Newton would have difficulty competing with Dr Jacky Chin.

[Update: A little bird who spoke to the Centre's Director who gave "some excuse that Jacky Chin was only a 'consultant' for one project."]
Now with at least 3-4 out of KMDC's list of 7 faculty members in possession of doctorates originating from dubious sources, what does it reflect upon the institution itself? I have yet include faculty members whose PhDs and DBAs originates from a little known college in Australia, Southern Cross University, whose Graduate College of Management specialises in "distance education programmes".

Now, KMDC certainly isn't the only college which employs such faculty members. Prominent Chinese educationist, Dr Yap Sin Tian of Southern College, also secured his PhD from Kensington University in Hawaii/California in 1990, which has since been closed by court order. He has also obtained another Doctorate in Philosophy of Education from, ah, Southern Cross University in 1999.

Another director of the college, Dr Chong Swee Huat, apparently secured his doctorate from a St Clements University, with origins in Turks & Caicos Islands and various African sites.

And this simple discovery is just from 2 colleges which published a little detail on their faculty members. The little details allowed me to do a little investigative research. For most of the other private colleges, large or small, I have no access to names of faculty members which clearly limits my ability to uncover more "scandalous" information. I would not be surprised even, if some of our public universities may have unknowingly recruited some of these candidates with dubious certifications.

For the benefit of the fee paying students in the market, it is critical that the Ministry of Higher Education put down the necessary rules and regulations which requires the private colleges to publish the credentials of their key faculty members. With these information, at least it will be possible for students and concerned parties to be able to have a better idea of the type and quality of lecturers who they are likely to be taught in the college.

Should any readers out there managed to retrieve any other list of faculty members in other colleges, particularly those with apparent doctorates or MBAs, please feel free to email the list to me. I'll see what else I can find.

OK, it's been a long day, gotta get some sleep ;). You may also read more on my various posts on bogus universities here.