tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post114625905270398002..comments2024-03-21T20:10:28.943+08:00Comments on EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA: More postgraduate students - Quantity versus QualityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146712096820195852006-05-04T11:08:00.000+08:002006-05-04T11:08:00.000+08:00Agree with you 100% KM.In truth, it isn't all that...Agree with you 100% KM.<BR/><BR/>In truth, it isn't all that difficult to get into postgrad courses in Local Universities. <BR/><BR/>All you need to do is .<BR/>1. apply (easier said then done since most local Uni's don't practice roling admissions. if you miss the NST/Utusan advert, you'll ahve to wait till next year)<BR/>2. satisfy the admission criteria with basically is the posession of a good first degree (i.e. 2nd class upper or better). <BR/>3. be willing to take it up on a near full time basis (i.e. classes at least on one weekday)<BR/>4. don't choose an MBA. Those are expensive & in demand. Then again, its arguable if an MBA is postgrad education or management training on steriods.<BR/><BR/>& thats it really. The fees are not expensive (2,000+ per year about 5 years ago) & there is no apparent ethnic quotas.<BR/><BR/>The Minister's plan to double/triple postgrad enrollment assumes there is a latent unmet demand for it, something I would disagree with.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146662482220068552006-05-03T21:21:00.000+08:002006-05-03T21:21:00.000+08:00to anon with double post above,though i do agree w...to anon with double post above,<BR/><BR/>though i do agree with you that the standard of getting a PhD has dropped over the decades, it is not as simple as how you make it out to be. the long time and paperwork is alone enough to desuade wannabe doctorates from pursuing these higher degrees. <BR/><BR/>respectable unis overseas have strict standards to adhere to. plagiarism is not as rife as how u make out to be. external examiners are always involved during oral defense. and in some good universities, the floor is open for the public.<BR/><BR/>regarding your point on very little lab work. i think perhaps you yourself do not really understand the nature of PhD work. for a start, not all the arts and sciences require lab work. even for those that do, u have failed to realize that most of research work is to do .. RESEARCH. that is, lot's of litterature review and read-up that will take up the bulk of ones time.<BR/><BR/>publications are an important part of research. usually, a PhD candidate should at least have published 2 papers worthy of international peer-review journals/publications throughout their candidacy. conference proceedings and presentations of the progress of their work can be substituted instead. <BR/><BR/>to counter your 3rd point "Lots of stupid data collation and questionaires". this depends on the area the person is researching on. primary research usually requires first-hand approach in obtaining valuable data. this includes interviews, surveys, questionnaires, etc. these data that is mainly used for quantitative research, which is then later analysed during the middle stages of research work.<BR/><BR/>as for your 4th point "You cant even be an expert in your tiny 'niche' of knowledge." i'm not sure how u define as being an expert in the first place. do enlighten me.<BR/><BR/>in summary, while the standards of academic research has fallen globally over the past decades, the rigours of obtaining a PhD is still not as easy as most people think. it used to be that only the gifted can take seat in academia, but these days it is more on hardwork and the ability to perform independent work sustained over a lengthy period of time that matters.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146621708564229762006-05-03T10:01:00.000+08:002006-05-03T10:01:00.000+08:00Nowadays, obtaining PhD is easy! You got the money...Nowadays, obtaining PhD is easy! You got the money, you can "buy' your PhD<BR/><BR/>Gone are the days when getting PhD means,:<BR/>1 You got to work long hours into the night and almost everynight<BR/>2 You got to defend yrself at the Viva against the External Examiner who is the real experts in the field<BR/>3You got to produce results which merit publications into peer reviewed international journals<BR/>4 You got to do the work on your own with little or no supervision<BR/><BR/>Nowadays, the PhD produced are no longer following the above benchmark...<BR/><BR/>1 Very little lab work<BR/>2 More plagiarism<BR/>3 Lots of stupid data collation and questionaires<BR/>4 You cant even be an expert in your tiny 'niche' of knowledge<BR/>etc etcAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146621631273751042006-05-03T10:00:00.000+08:002006-05-03T10:00:00.000+08:00Nowadays, obtaining PhD is easy! You got the money...Nowadays, obtaining PhD is easy! You got the money, you can "buy' your PhD<BR/><BR/>Gone are the days when getting PhD means,:<BR/>1 You got to work long hours into the night and almost everynight<BR/>2 You got to defend yrself at the Viva against the External Examiner who is the real experts in the field<BR/>3You got to produce results which merit publications into peer reviewed international journals<BR/>4 You got to do the work on your own with little or no supervision<BR/><BR/>Nowadays, the PhD produced are no longer following the above benchmark...<BR/><BR/>1 Very little lab work<BR/>2 More plagiarism<BR/>3 Lots of stupid data collation and questionaires<BR/>4 You can even be an expert in your tiny 'niche' of knowledge<BR/>etc etcAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146595978086748732006-05-03T02:52:00.000+08:002006-05-03T02:52:00.000+08:00Undertaking a PhD is no easy feat. If wannabe acad...Undertaking a PhD is no easy feat. If wannabe academics are in it for the money and/or prestige, I'm afraid you're sorely wrong. Don't waste your time and money. You must love what you do in academia or else you're going to find the 3-4 yrs of PhD work long and tedious. There are many other ways of making money.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146532522583005212006-05-02T09:15:00.000+08:002006-05-02T09:15:00.000+08:00I am currently pursuing my PhD at one of the local...I am currently pursuing my PhD at one of the local universities. I am also a working mother who feel marginalized by the current system. I tried very hard to get sponsorship for my PhD locally but to no avail. I feel that many lecturers at public universities keep giving lame excuses for not pursuing their PhD, locally or overseas..they got everything financed for heaven sake!...my friends who are in the same program take things for granted and end up failed the first assessment! They just not serious about it. We cannot change people..they have to change themselves..Well, I am a frustrated student..:)...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146518220714960452006-05-02T05:17:00.000+08:002006-05-02T05:17:00.000+08:00Dont say Malaysia, even in USA, freedom of speech ...Dont say Malaysia, even in USA, freedom of speech to incite racial issue is not allowed. You want to be some members of the KKK or something? Grow up people and think.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146469087163255902006-05-01T15:38:00.000+08:002006-05-01T15:38:00.000+08:00To "A concerned graduate student",May I ask which ...To "A concerned graduate student",<BR/><BR/>May I ask which uni are you in? Just curious.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146468925428741562006-05-01T15:35:00.000+08:002006-05-01T15:35:00.000+08:00Anyway, back to the topic. I guess we can all agre...Anyway, back to the topic. I guess we can all agree that inflating the statistics to meet government objectives is not going to help, in fact, it is just going to make it worse.<BR/><BR/>However, I think one of the main points regular visitors fail to realise is that we are still a young and developing country. We have ambitions, we have goals. Developed nations take many generations to improve themselves, except for maybe Singapore. Even Taiwan have their own problems with their education systems whereby the standards have dropped to inflate PhD numbers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146462927487966542006-05-01T13:55:00.000+08:002006-05-01T13:55:00.000+08:00Yeah, i read some of those post removed earlier, k...Yeah, i read some of those post removed earlier, kinda extreme...good job Tony and KianmingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146461094426109522006-05-01T13:24:00.000+08:002006-05-01T13:24:00.000+08:00Thank you Tony and Kian MingThank you Tony and Kian MingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146455281322314412006-05-01T11:48:00.000+08:002006-05-01T11:48:00.000+08:00Dear Tony,Thanks for moderating the comments poste...Dear Tony,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for moderating the comments posted at this blog. I personally feel that some people were trying to "hijack" your blog and turned it into their cyberspace for rantings.<BR/><BR/>I personally feel that the resources allocated to education in Malaysia is not good enough. Perhaps, in term of percentage of GDP, this can be quite high. But the "absolute" amount of money "invested" in education is still very low compared to developed nations. To produce and train a PhD candidate requires lots of funding; consumables, equipment, infrastructures, research hub, research expertise etc. Do we have the money to spend on R&Ds?<BR/><BR/>From my experience as graduate student (at one of the local public uni), MSc candidates apply for Vote F to fund the research projects. You'll be really lucky if RM3000 is secured/year. Perhaps RM5000/year for PhD. With this limited amount of funding, it is not possible to venture into higher ends R&D.<BR/><BR/>Now, try to imagine, if the resources commited to higher education is not tripled in the coming years, but the postgrads intake is to be tripled... how will be the resources be distributed. Just do your maths.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146453692176262532006-05-01T11:21:00.000+08:002006-05-01T11:21:00.000+08:00I had read one of the comments before it was remov...I had read one of the comments before it was removed. To all our young readers think rationally. We are in a multi racial country.<BR/><BR/>Let us make an analogy, suppose in a family there is a child A who is hardworking (similarity xxx) and 3 child B (similarity yyy). A is successful in life due to his hardworking and B isn't. B come back and ask you as a father for help. Will you help? If you don't, definitely B will create problems. Those who have kids were understand what I mean.<BR/><BR/>My education years was in the late 60's to early 80's. In my time all form 5 took the MCE (SPM now). We are graded by a pass (Grade 1, 2 or 3) and fail. Non bumi can only go to form 6 if you have a grade 1. Grade 2 or 3 sorry you have to find your ways. As for our counterpart, grade 1 will go overseas or gov. college. Grade 2 will enter mara and grade 3 will enter form 6. In my time we have to paid school fess for studying form 6 but our friends are free. As a results of this lots of poor students have no place to go. Those who are rich will go overseas. Luckily TAR college was formed and absorbed these students.<BR/><BR/>When we have problems, find a solution shouting and fighting will not help. It only brings more misery. We can't have equality even our ten fingers is not the same length. When we are oppress only will make us more hardworking. You want your rights but what our counterparts will said? We know very well it's impossible to get what we demand. Do you want this country to be in chaos? I'ts not because we are scare but will there be any winner or loser in a chaotic country. We have TAR college and now UTAR. As least it solve some problems. Don't just make noise but no action.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146445075897092272006-05-01T08:57:00.000+08:002006-05-01T08:57:00.000+08:00This is completely ridiculous...I really don't und...This is completely ridiculous...I really don't understand where this number comes from? We already have 'thousands' if not 'millions' unemployed graduate? Are we going to add more?? Even nowdays, most post graduate student in local university choose to do master or PhD as a 'short cut' because they can't find a job out there..Does gov think if this people get their master or PhD degree, it's become easier for them to get a job??? Get real! It's become harder! nobody going to hire an overqualified person..<BR/><BR/>I always advise my friends/junior/student, NOT to do their master/ PhD unless they really want to do teaching, research or consultation. There's so many things out there for them to explore, let them work for few years then only allow them to further study..We can't afford to have 'over flow' graduate anymore...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146420116728959532006-05-01T02:01:00.000+08:002006-05-01T02:01:00.000+08:00To Anon @ Sun Apr 30, 10:13:31 PM,Keep your racist...To Anon @ Sun Apr 30, 10:13:31 PM,<BR/><BR/>Keep your racist views to yourself. This world needs less of people like you who have nothing in mind but to incite anger. There is a line between freedom of speech and inciting racism. If you wanna pick a fight, then fight like a man and not hide behind your many pseudonyms in cyberspace. Moron.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146408668668566302006-04-30T22:51:00.000+08:002006-04-30T22:51:00.000+08:00If freedom of speech means ranting about Chinese b...If freedom of speech means ranting about Chinese being XXX and Malays being YYY and Indians being ZZZ, then yes, there is no freedom of speech.<BR/><BR/>If freedom of speech means writing irrelevant comments (often with only ill-intent) to the post, topic or blog, then, again there is no freedom of speech. The owners of this blog would like to keep the site useful for interested readers and not for disgruntled unreasoned rantings about anything under the sky.<BR/><BR/>Please feel free to refer to a <A HREF="http://educationmalaysia.blogspot.com/2005/12/quick-editorial-note.html" REL="nofollow">post </A>written earlier on our editorial policy.Golf Afflictedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16363347839543221577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146406411534356402006-04-30T22:13:00.000+08:002006-04-30T22:13:00.000+08:00Sigh, this is it. There's no freedom of speech at ...Sigh, this is it. There's no freedom of speech at all in this country, even cyberspace. Good job, government of BNAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146399307907827822006-04-30T20:15:00.000+08:002006-04-30T20:15:00.000+08:00Tony and Kian Ming,The last comments have been not...Tony and Kian Ming,<BR/><BR/>The last comments have been nothing but racially incited slander. PLEASE monitor the comments section. <BR/><BR/>I find it quite amazed how one person can actually write so much within 30-40 mins.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146394798031809952006-04-30T18:59:00.000+08:002006-04-30T18:59:00.000+08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146394579829847802006-04-30T18:56:00.000+08:002006-04-30T18:56:00.000+08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146394472055633402006-04-30T18:54:00.000+08:002006-04-30T18:54:00.000+08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146394239931459562006-04-30T18:50:00.000+08:002006-04-30T18:50:00.000+08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146394144567480782006-04-30T18:49:00.000+08:002006-04-30T18:49:00.000+08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146394044695159622006-04-30T18:47:00.000+08:002006-04-30T18:47:00.000+08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12123329.post-1146393819218828362006-04-30T18:43:00.000+08:002006-04-30T18:43:00.000+08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com