The King Says...

Hey hey hey, even the King, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail is putting on the pressure to the higher education community to reform itself to improve quality and standards. As reported by Bernama, His Majesty asked university administrators to be prepared to listen to ideas from others although these might not be in line with their aspirations.

"A silent culture is not a healthy culture in an institution of higher education. The ability to view ideas or grievances should be cultivated as this is a platform to practise expressing views at the international arena."

Yang di-Pertuan Agong also asked the local universities to be benchmarked against other established universities (National University of Singapore, anyone?). And in what is can be regarded as a public chiding of our universities:

"Integrity and accountability can be jeopardised by issues such as leadership without clear visions, submission to external pressure, not practising knowledge culture, poor service providers, bribery, breach of trust and graduates who are not competitive and marketable. These issues need to be addressed before any institution can claim its place in the world ranking"

The Minister of Higher Education Datuk Seri Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh was present at the event. But was he listening?

Hear Prof Wang Gungwu Speak

As part of Sunway University College Distinguished Speakers' Series, Professor Wang Gungwu will be speaking on: Understanding China's Present Economic Transformation. The details are as follows:

Date: 15 February 2006
Time: 1700 hrs
Venue: Lecture Theatre 6, 4th Floor, Sunway University College
Admission is Free.

Due to limited seats, booking is encouraged. Contact Marilyn/Jacqueline @ +603 7491 8622 ext 8141/8172.

Because China's rapid economic growth continues to amaze the world, some of us may forget that China took 1.5 century (from the Opium War onwards) to get her economic act together. Wang Gungwu, Asia's eminent China scholar, will look at China's Long March toward the market economy, how and why it was adopted and the vast energies it has unleashed. He will also discuss the problems that rapid growth has created and the challenges facing China as she moves into the 21st century.

Professor Wang Gungwu is currently the Director of East Asian Institute & Professor at Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences in the National University of Singapore. Professor Wang's impeccable credentials include a PhD from London University, Professor of History at Universiti Malaya, Far Eastern History at Australian National University, Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University as well as Vice-Chancellor of University of Hong Kong.

Professor Wang is often one of the losses of Malaysia's academia who we always talked about. I'm not sure if he is still a Malaysian today. Maybe someone should ask him if he is interested in the postion as the vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya. :-)

Singapore Management University

If there is a country which we should emulate in terms of setting the right foundations for a new (to be) world class university, it will be (unfortunately for some), Singapore.

Most of you would have heard of the two premier universities in Singapore, the National University of Singapore as well as the Nanyang Technological University, both regarded as top 50 universities in the world, according to the latest Times Higher Education Supplement survey.

However, there is a "new" university in Singapore (although possibly not so new in the sense that it absorbed certain established institutes and colleges) in a spanking new campus right in the heart of Singapore's Orchard Road - the Singapore Management University (SMU). Interestingly enough, the local New Straits Times did a thorough and complimentary review of the University today. Here are some snippets of the review:

Teaching

While most universities conduct classes in huge lecture halls, SMU limits its students to a maximum of 50 per class. They don’t usually take down notes because materials would have been posted on the Intranet a few days before class.

"It is a state-of-the-art campus. But most importantly, we adopt a different pedagogy in educating our young minds. Our students don’t attend lectures and tutorials. They learn through small-group seminars which stimulate interaction. As a result, students become more bold, confident and articulate and are much sought after," says Hanson [Assistant Director of Corporate Communications].

Job Prospects

A survey conducted last year revealed that all of SMU’s students landed jobs within six months of graduation. About 60 per cent of them were offered jobs even before they finished their studies while 75 per cent have received at least two or more job offers.

Teaching Assessments

The university has a unique system where students, at the start of each term, are given "e-dollars" to bid online for courses, preferred professors and time slots. And while professors grade students for their course work, students rate their lecturers on their teaching and mentoring capabilities.

[Try doing this in Malaysian universities, and there might just be a revolt by the lecturers.]

Quality of Lecturers & Academics

More than half of them come from outside Singapore while 90 per cent of them obtained doctoral degrees from Ivy League institutuons [I'm extremely impressed! Compare this against only 30% PhD holders in Malaysian universities from don't know where] and are familiar with the American education system.

"In the education business, it is important not to compromise on the quality of professors. We don’t employ people who are looking for jobs. Instead, we go headhunting for the best brains and offer them a package that would attract them to Singapore," says Goh [Director for Undergraduate Admissions].

Malaysian-born Chua is an example. The 26-year-old who completed his bachelor and doctoral degree at the prestigious Wharton School in just five years is now SMU’s youngest assistant professor. He has been with the university since 2003.

Well, that's a real example of focusing on quality and not quantity. I'd not be surprised if SMU climbs the world rankings table quickly in the next few years.

No Fancy Spectacles

First we have the controversy of taking mobile phones to schools (which I never got round to blog about), and now some schools are clamping down on fancy spectacles. Hmm...

In a frontpaged report by Nanyang Siang Pau, two secondary schools in Penang – the Penang Chinese Girls High School and SMJK Heng Ee – have barred students from wearing “peculiar” and colourful spectacles to class.

The ban is apparently to "prevent" students from following ("跟风") the latest trends of some of their hippier classmates, and spending extravagant amounts of money on the fancy frames. The principal of Penang Chinese Girls High School, Yeoh Eng Sim was quoted to have said that "stern action will be taken to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand".

过去以来，戴奇形怪状或抢眼眼镜上学学生大有人在，只是一小撮而已。如今已有越来越多学生“跟风”，所戴的眼镜花样百出。一些学生还戴了镜框全白或粉红眼镜到校，太引人注目了，连我也不能忍受。基于当时学校还没有全面禁止，我们只能见一个，劝一个。”

The principal also added that the thick and multicoloured frames is totally unbefitting for a student's image - "完全不符学生形象".

I can understand the disruption that mobile phones can bring to the a student's attentiveness as well as the conduct of classes - but "fancy" spectacles a "major" disciplinary issue? I would have thought that's the business of the parents, not the school. Next, they will regulate what type of school bags designs you can bring to school and possibly the type of stationery (designer pens versus 50 cents ball point pens) etc. etc. etc.

Loosen up! It's no wonder there are those who think that without UUCA, there will be daily riots and demonstrations by students.

Abolish UUCA?

There's a forum organised on the controversial Universities and University Colleges Act:

"Abolish the UUCA - Give New Life to Students"

Date: 11 February 2006 (Saturday)
Time: 9.30am - 4.00pm
Venue: Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur
Admission is Free

Unfortunately, my day trip to Singapore has been extended to the weekend. Hence I'm unable to make the forum. For those interested in finding out more about the UUCA or understanding what you can do about it, do take part :-)

The forum is divided into 2 sessions, with the details as follows:

Session I: IPT without UUCA - Is it Possible?
(moderated by YB Su Keong Siong, ADUN for Pasir Pinji)

Speakers:
Yusri Mohamad (President, ABIM)
Datuk Paduka Ibrahim Ali (Former MP for Pasir Mas)
Sdr Amer Hamzah (Lawyer and Human Right Activist)
YB Loke Siew Fook (ADUN for Lobak)

Session II: Activist Perspective on UUCA
(moderated by YB Fong Po Kuan, MP for Batu Gajah)

Speakers:
Sdri Soh Sook Hwa (DEMA)
Sdr Helman Sanuddin (Student Activist)

Discussion and formulation of memorandum
(chaired by YB Loke Siew Fook)

Kindly contact Carmen or Lau at 03-79578551 for registration.

Read also Kian Ming's post on UUCA as well as my little write up here for context.

Oh, and also, if anybody would like to do a "report" of sorts on the above forum and post it here, email me. Have fun!

Think global, Act global

As per Tony's most recent post, I think it's commendable that UTM is looking at hiring professors from the West in its efforts to improve its 'branding' and international 'image'. Hopefully, the lecturers that are employed will be of a decent standard and are able to boost teaching and research standards in addition to the 'branding' effects. (How UTM are going to attract these academics is another story since I can't imagine any world-class academics currently teaching in world class universities wanting to transplant themselves to UTM). But at least the UTM VC, Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Zulkifli Ghazali, recognizes the changes currently taking place in the higher education marketplace and is trying to respond to it to the best of his ability.

I recently read this advertisement in the Feb 4 edition of the Economist newspaper. NTU was asking for applications for the position of the provost of the university. The ad describes the provost positon as the 'University's Chief Academic Officer' and reports to the University's President. It describes NTU as an institution with 'an undergraduate and graduate population of over 25,000 from over 50 countries, with an international faculty of over 1,300.' It also emphasizes that English is the medium of instruction and administration.

The fact that it put up an advertisement in the Economist shows that NTU is clearly trying to spread its net to an international audience. The fact that it has employed Heidrick and Struggles, an international executive search agency, to undertake this job search also shows that they are serious in compiling an interview list that is international and internationally competitive.

The possible hiring of someone with international experience not only brings the direct benefits of having the abilities and capabilities of a foreign provost but the fact that NTU shows that it is searching for international talent also boosts its image in the eyes of academics, journalist, leaders and thinkers all over the world. They are clearly ahead of the 'branding' game and their playing field is clearly in the international rather than the local or even regional arena. They have a clear strategy to reach the achievements that they are striving for and I would not be too surprised if NTU becomes a premier reseach university in Asia in the not too distant future and perhaps internationally as well.

I'm glad that some of our VCs recognize that the higher education playing field can no longer be a localised affair and that they are trying to do come up with some coherent responsese. The NTU advertisement puts it perspective, for me at least, how far we have to go to even catch up to them, to say nothing of trying to be like Cambridge or Oxford. (On this last point, I wonder if the UTM VC really thinks that Cambridge and Oxford are the two best universities in the world in terms of research or if they have the best brand names in the world. I say this because Oxford and Cambridge are looking at the best practices of US universities and I would say that Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and other top US universities are probably at the cutting edge of most of what is ground-breaking in research)

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Looks West

Well, there's two pieces of interesting news in this single report by the Star entitled "UTM to hire dons from West".

Firstly, of course, as the title suggested, the vice-chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) said that "the university would recruit at least 30 top professors from the West and Australia".

Secondly, and more interestingly - an surprising not covered by the New Straits Times who did the earlier story - apparently the contract for the incumbent vice-chancellor, Prof Datuk Mohd Zulkifli Ghazali who was reportedly not renewed - has been renewed! But since it's quite "out of topic" for this post, I'll blog about it in the next one :-)

The newly "re-appointed" vice-chancellor celebrated the new lease of life by making a move to "re-brand and internationalise" UTM.

“These professors will help to lift the name and status of the university and make it more well-known,” he said, adding that each faculty will have at least three top professors. The professors, who include those from France, Italy, the United States and England, will serve in all 10 faculties of the university.

Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Zulkifli even went so far as to say that he would like UTM "to be like Oxford or Cambridge". One of the first moves, probably more symbolic than anything else, is to have all sign boards to have English versions in addition to Bahasa Malaysia.

More interesting, good news for the students, but bad news for laggards of the English language in the university's academia - the vice-chancellor announced that "our professors will also have to adapt to having discussions or meetings in English".

Nevertheless, the vice-chancellor seems to have started on a spirited note. Lets hope that the move to recruit foreign academics is a serious attempt to boost our teaching faculties as well as research capabilities and not something silly like boosting the international teaching faculty to improve rankings.

The vice-chancellor should take the recruitment process one step further. Whoever recruited should have their academic resume published for public analysis to establish their credibility as indeed being "top academics" from the West.

Lecturers Can't Speak Inggeris

Further to an earlier article published in the Star a few months back and blogged here, the Star reported today that lecturers at our public universities continue to be using Bahasa Melayu to conduct lectures for science subjects despite practically the entire secondary school syllabus using English to teach the relevant subjects. The first batch of the English policy-based students have already enrolled into our universities this year.

If the primary and secondary school system can go cold turkey with the conduct of lessons in English, I cannot understand it when universities need to implement a snail-paced policy of conversion of Mathematics and Science programmes to English - with the most convenient excuse being the students are not ready for it.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Mohd Salleh Mohd Yasin said that because of various constraints, implementation would be gradual.

“Our target is to have at least 30% of the first-year Maths and Science degree programmes in English, gradually increasing to 50% and then 100%. It was never going to be entirely in English from the beginning as our students come from various backgrounds.”

However, a survey of several undergraduates in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), UKM and Universiti Malaya reveal that "some lecturers' English is so weak that what they say is practically incomprehensible", the lecturers were politely requested to teach in the national language instead.

At the start of the first semester, students had asked two lecturers to teach in English, but their command of the language was so poor that the students implored them to revert to Bahasa. “We couldn’t understand half of what they said,” a student said.

This probably relates back to one of the criticisms by Dr Ng Swee Choon blogged here earlier that the conduct of lectures in Bahasa Melayu instead of English for the medicine faculties is affecting the quality of the graduates as practically all materials and advances in medical science is published in the English language.

In my earlier post, it was reported that UPM had invested some RM1 million to train lecturers to conduct lessons in English as long as 3 years ago. It is clear that the outcome of the training appears to be ineffective.

I cannot understand how these lecturers were appointed in the first place as practically any credible masters or PhD degrees in science and mathematics from reputable universities around the world would have been conducted in English. It does present a fearful picture about the quality of lecturers we have at our local universities and their academic intellect - do they even read?

Maybe instead of passing the irrelevant civil service "Efficiency Level Assessment Test", as well as the new arbitrary "Standard of Academic Excellence Test" for university lecturers (blogged here), all lecturers and academics must pass the simple 'O' levels English test to determine recruitment and promotion prospects. And for those who don't obtain at least a 'D' - a pay cut!

No Cure for Medical Schools?

The response the expose made by the Director-General of Health Datuk Dr Ismail Merican, blogged here earlier, has been pretty extensive. In fact yesterday, the chief editor of the New Straits Times, Brendan Pereira gave our Deputy Minister of Higher Education Datuk Fu Ah Kiow some rarely witnessed public verbal slapping in his regular column Plain Talk.

Dr Ismail was doing Malaysians a great service by calling attention to this problem of theory-only doctors walking the corridors of hospitals here. He knew he was opening himself up for attack.

Just like clockwork, Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow hit back with the language of a schoolyard bully. He said: "He should know better than to make sweeping statements."

Ouch. As Sdr Lim Kit Siang suggested, Datuk Fu might just be taking the knife for his boss (whose, if anyone has noticed, silence is just defeaning).

To add additional credibility to the case, Dr Ng Swee Choon, a cardiologist at the Sunway Medical Centre, who started blogging just this year at the Heart of the Matter, wrote a damning post with regards to the state of medical education in Malaysia. Dr Ng highlight three key issues leading to the falling standards of medical education in Malaysia - the politicisation of medical education, the removal of English as the medium of instruction at medical schools as well as the privatisation of medical education.

Just like the fact that the Kelantanese were promised a University in the event of the last by-elections victory, there appears to be a desire to have a medical college in every state hence the recently set up private colleges such as the Perak Medical School, Melaka-Manipal Medical College as well as the Penang Medical School.

More critically, Dr Ng alleged that there were medical colleges which were started with just one lecturer in each major field or department, with curriculum and facilities "planned [and built] as they go along".

One of the recent policy changes which I believe that the Government did right was to switch the medium of instruction for mathematics and science to the English language. However, as highlighted in an earlier post, the teaching of the science subjects at universities continues to be taught to a large extent in Bahasa Malaysia. To quote Dr Ng, once one is not fluent in the English language, one will "lose out in all the medical advances and progress".

And the first come, first served basis of setting up private medical schools have resulted in drastically lower standards in medical education.

Private medical schools are approved, without due study, but on "who is asking" to build basis. Everybody with a college wants a Medical school as it is prestigious. It's okay, even if we lower our standards, have part time lecturers, shared facilities, or scrape by with the barest minimum in facilities.

It is therefore not surprising to find that we have doctors who can't write medical reports, or make a clinical diagnosis. Some cannot conduct a proper medical examination, and some cannot treat. Have you seen doctors who perform surgery with a textbook openned next to him for step by step reference?

Ewww.... that's a really scary thought. But all these problems are not new, nor were they just highlighted recently. Trawling back the archives of statements made by Sdr Lim Kit Siang, you would find that he has called for a 10-year medical education masterplan almost 4 years ago when the then University Malaya Vice Chancellor Prof. Datuk Dr. Anuar Zaini Mohd Zain sounded the alarm over the decline in teaching standards in public and private medical schools, warning that a lack of qualified academic staff was affecting medical education and the quality of doctors produced.

Even then, Prof Datuk Dr Anuar have argued that the ratio of medical lectureres to students is too high at 1:16 when it is 1:5 in Singapore. If it is 1:16 at our top medical school, I can only expect much worse at our local private medical colleges. What is worse is that we are dealing with the shortage by importing foreign medical academic staff from Bangladesh, India and Myanmar - with apparently one college solely depending on these group of lecturers!

And not to mention the fact that we have a private medical college set up recently, Allianze College of Medical Sciences (ACMS) - whose website is inaccessible for weeks by the way - which is "twinning" with a less than assuring North Sumatra Medical University.

ACMS which is located at Menara Umno in Penang, was one of the institutions which "offered" places to 50 out of 99 students who scored 4As for the STPM who were denied places in the medical faculties in the local public universities. Unsurprisingly, only 4 accepted the places which meant the first 3 years of study in Medan, before returning for 3 years locally. Yes, that was how the Government "resolved" the top students denied entry controversy - by sending them to dodgy private colleges twinning with universities from a country with a poorer reputation in education than Malaysia.

While I may not agree with some of the recommendations made by Sdr Lim, his call for a concrete and specific policy to enhance and maintain the quality of medical education must be heeded. Unlike the other fields of the education, medicine is probably the most critical of courses to be dealt with, for it deals with human lives, and Malaysians' health should not be made to suffer for its bureaucratic incompetency.

We can only conclude that our medical education system is in need of surgery, and hopefully our policy makers can come up with the cure soon enough.

The Learning Connection

I thought I would put up a plug for an education venture - The Learning Connection, opened by a friend of mine, Sara Brennerman at Mont Kiara. The Sunday Star did a little write up about the centre yesterday as well.

Unlike the typical learning centres you'd find out there, The Learning Connection targets children who have learning problems or disabilities, including dyslexia or attention deficiency.

Sara is a learning specialist in special education in the United States before coming over to Malaysia to teach at Mont Kiara International School. She has since decided last year to resume her work with children with learning disabilities. As per the write up in the Star:

Right now The Learning Connection has just a few kids and part-time teachers. Brenneman hopes that the number of students will increase over time. Although Brenneman says she would rather work with preschool children, she does accept and help children up to the age of 10.

Now, The Learning Connection offers a preschool programme for children aged between four and six years. There is also tuition for students with learning disabilities where one-hour individualised sessions are planned according to the student’s needs.

For more information, call 03-2094-5917, e-mail sara@learningconnection.com.my, or go to www.learningconnection.com.my.

World Bank Wants Practical Ideas

Yes, they want practical ideas from you, that is if you are aged between 18 to 25. Unfortunately I'm too old to take part :-)

The World Bank organises yearly international essay competitions, and they are ready to accept submission for this year. Together with its partners, they would like to invite you to participate in the International Essay Competition 2006 to share your experience and ideas on community work and participation in public life. The deadline of submissions is on the 2nd April, and finalists will be invited to present their case and their essays to the Jury at a conference in Tokyo at the end of May.

To participate, one has to write an essay of no more than 10 pages (4000 words), including a one-page abstract, on one of the two topics:

* How do you contribute to solving community problems?
* How do you influence decision making?

Essays will be graded on originality, clarity, and the use of concrete examples and proposals. The jury consists of people from various world-class universities and development councils, including the University of Texas - San Antonio, Cairo University Egypt and AIESEC International.

A quick note for the high achievers and students with ambitions out there. I've previously posted a couple of events and competitions here on the blog and have offered help and expertise to those who may require them. However, I noted that response has always been pretty dismal which either demonstrates that this blog doesn't reach the targetted audience or the readers often just can't be bothered. Do note that these events and competitions are often extremely enriching and often, even if you don't get to win, you will benefit significantly from taking part in the exercise itself. For those seeking to differentiate yourselfs, and particularly for those interested in enrolling into the top universities of the world, the experience will add significant weight to your application. I have often been asked by graduates on how they can add "oomph!" to their resumes, and taking part in these competitions in earnest would definitely be one of the methods.

You can find out more about the previous year essay competition and its winners here. Thanks to Tiara for the alert on her blog.

United World College Scholarhips

There are many who have asked - what are the options for students who have just completed their SPM besides the traditional STPM, or 'A'-Levels. Well, there's the less conventional but increasingly popular International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, which I've yet to write about, which is also offered at the United World Colleges.

So if the picked up the Star Education today, you would see an article introducing the 12 United World Colleges (UWCs) around the world and the scholarships being made available for Malaysians.

For the academic year 2006-2008, Malaysia has been offered places for SPM/ International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) holders at UWC in Hong Kong, India, Norway, United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Two places are offered at two new colleges: UWC Costa Rica and UWC Bosnia. For the first time this year, Malaysian students with good SPM or equivalent results can also apply for the UWC of the Adriatic in Italy with the view of specialising in Physics or Music at tertiary level.

Prospective candidates will need to know that the selection criterias are highly competitive and stringent and only students with "at least six distinctions at SPM or 50% A/A* at IGCSE with good co-curriculum records should apply."

Successful applicants must be committed to community service and have a passion for music, drama or sport. The selection process looks for candidates with an open mind and the personal qualities which will enable them to live and study for two years in an intensive multicultural environment.

For more information as well as application forms, you may contact the Malaysian National Committee secretariat at infomy@uwc.net or call +603 7880 5455/66.

For those interested in first hand accounts of experiences as a student at the UWCs should visit TinKosong. Nithiya, a current a first year at UWC-USA, New Mexico, wrote a nice little piece of his experience as well as providing a background to the history of UWCs.

... 200 students from over 90 countries in a setting that facilitates cultural, political, and socio-economic exchange. I’ve only been in the UWC-USA, New Mexico, for about 5 months, and my world-view has experienced an incredible shift. Imagine, walking to the cafeteria and sitting at a table with students from 6 other countries, discussing the latest elections results in Liberia, with each region bringing a completely different mode of thought, or, staying up till 2 in the morning discussing the virtues and pitfalls of Marxism. It’s all very intellectually stimulating.

One of co-hosts of TinKosong, Ng Eng Han is also currently a student at UWC-USA, has received his admission into Dartmouth College via early admission. He has also written a short piece on the IB diploma programme - what it's about and where it's offered - yes, it's actually offered in Malaysia as well.

The guys at TinKosong runs an active conversation thread at the site for any prospective students interested in finding out more information with regards to either the UWCs or IBs or for that matter, about getting into the top schools in the United States.

Good luck! And thanks to LYL for the alert.

Beating All Odds II

You would have read about the previous blog posts (here and here) about a Priya who beat all odds to score straight As in her UPSR examinations. But we all know that Priya isn't the only one doing that in Malaysia. The Star Education segment today covered a few stories about three different students facing their respective challenges in their life, and yet performed incredibly well for their education and school examinations. Read more about Hoe Sing, Moganesri and Nitiakaran.

The reason why I like to hear these stories and of course, to write and spread their stories (after all, how many of you actually read the Sunday Star Education segment?) is to instil the belief that no matter what the background of a child is, there is every opportunity for him or her to do well in education. And if they were to do well in education, that is the ticket for them and their families to break the poverty cycle and jump out from the poverty trap.

23 year old Hoe Sing, one of five siblings cared for by their rubber tapper mum for example, still remembers his late father’s words, which was told to him when he was in kindergarten.

“My father told me the only way to escape poverty was to study hard,” says Hoe Sing, who was born with a cleft palate and harelip.>

Hoe Sing worked very hard to improve his prospects via education. Hoe Sing is currently pursuing a degree in accounting at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman on a full scholarship after scoring 3As and a B for his STPM. And the spirit I like best about Hoe Sing:

“I intend to repay all the help I’ve gotten from everyone, not necessarily in monetary terms, but by doing what I can for others. When I’m financially stable, I plan to contribute as much as possible to society – that will be my way of showing everyone how thankful I am,” he says.

Moganesri also demonstrated that it's never too late to start the "serious" pursuit of education process. From no 'A' in PMR, to only 1A for her SPM, she scored straight 4As for her STPM.

“My life took a turn when I went to Form Six. I started to really enjoy my studies, which helped me concentrate more. I also decided that I had to set a good example for my younger siblings,” says Moganesri.

I wouldn't advise one to leave it to that late to "turn things around" though. I do believe that STPM is probably the "last chance saloon" for one to do well and gain entry into a reputable university, which unfortunately is critical in providing quality further education as well as markly improving career prospects post-graduation.

And finally to quote what Nitiakaran's mother constantly emphasized to him - "Education is the only wy to achieve a better life". Hear! Hear!

What's Up Doc?

Well nothing too much actually, besides more visiting and hosting an open house for my long-suffering employees :-) Apologies for the lack of posting over the last 2-3 days - for those that are concerned, no, I've not been put in lock up for meddling with firecrackers (my friend did though) nor have had my head shaved bald for shuffling numbered tiles. :-)

There have however been no shortage of issues to write about though - which means an even longer backlog of blogs to write. There is however, one particular issue, which I've been meaning to write for the past 8 months or so, but for one reason or other have not gotten around to it. It has to do with the fact that everybody have the irresistable urge to become a doctor. Well, either that or they would like their sons and daughthers to become one.

Well, I think I've got enough materials to put up at least 3 separate posts on the issue, especially now that something unsurprising but critical has been "exposed" with regards to medical education in Malaysia. And not surprisingly with me warming my butts for a couple of days, Sdr Lim Kit Siang was the first to the post to blog the issue.

In a fearful frontpage report by the New Straits Times, the Director-general of Health Datuk Dr Ismail Merican said that there are many doctors in hospitals "who did not have clinical skills such as patient care, familiarity with the signs and symptoms of diseases, diagnosing illnesses, and doctor-patient communication."

He asked the simple question of "Who do we blame when we get doctors who do not have the necessary clinical skills?"

Ouch. Obviously the Ministry of Higher Education felt the pinch for the Deputy Minister, Datuk Fu Ah Kiow replied with all guns blazing.

"There is no reason why we cannot produce competent doctors with enough clinical experience when their syllabus is checked by the Malaysian Medical Council, which is chaired by Dr Ismail, and by academicians... We only give out medical degrees when the college and the degrees are recognised by the MMC. With this condition in place, I cannot understand why Dr Ismail has to say that the doctors produced are lacking in clinical skills."

The focus of the criticism by Datuk Ismail appears to be with the private medical colleges who were unable to provide sufficient (if any at all) clinical training for the medical students. There was even an accusation somewhere which alleged that certain private colleges were conduct medical classes out of rented shoplots, which was true for Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST) as a temporary measure prior to moving to their new campus in 2005.

For those interested, there are only a total of 12 medical colleges in Malaysia, 7 and 5 government and private medical colleges respectively. The other medical colleges are International Islamic Medical College (1995), Penang Medical College (1996), Melaka-Manipal Medical College (1997) and Perak Medical College (1999).

As rightly pointed out by Sdr Lim Kit Siang, pin-pointing the exact fault contribution between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education will not be a particulary fruitful exercise. What is important now, is how will we resolve the critical issue of incompetent doctors in our public hospitals.

The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has raised, as far back as 2002, concerns with regards to the rapid increase in private medical colleges in Malaysia.

Owing to the increase in the number of medical colleges within a short period, the MMA is very concerned that standards will be compromised if the following issues are not addressed.

• Lack of trained and qualified lecturers
  
  
• The ratio of lecturers to medical students should be transparent. In the medical faculty of the National University of Singapore, it is 1:5
  
  
• The curriculum now varies from traditional to problem-based learning (PBL) and there are 10 different examinations conducted by 10 different colleges. To maintain a uniform standard, it is advisable to have the same curriculum, and one common examination
  
  
• Attaching private medical college to an existing government hospital may put a stress on existing manpower resources, and also the physical facilities may not be adequate. Private medical colleges should build their own teaching hospitals
  
  
• Selection of students in all private medical colleges should be supervised by the Ministry of Education and minimum criteria for admission should be met

Obviously the suggestions made by the MMA have not been heeded by the Ministry of Higher Education.

The problems faced in private medical colleges is not any different from the other private colleges. The only difference is that one deals with the lives of the people, which makes it critical, while others will just be unemployed. When private college churn out computer science degree holders who had little or no practicals in programming, I just don't recruit them. However, I believe that the local public hospitals are actually obliged to employ these doctors upon their graduation, irrespective of their abilities.

While the case involves the quality of medical students our private (and possibly public) colleges and universities are producing in Malaysia, the bottom line is something which I've harped about consistently over the last couple of months. The uncontrolled liberalisation of the education sector and the mushrooming of private colleges with the necessary regulation and quality enforcement has resulted in the predictable steep decline in standards.

It is not difficult for the Ministry of Higher Education to enforce some of the sensible proposals made by the MMA. How difficult is it to ensure certain minimal qualifying criteria to study medicine and standardise examinations? It is obviously difficult as it will affect the viability of these colleges as they may not be able to attract sufficient students to these courses. And with standardised examinations, students from weaker colleges will fail badly which will in turn objectively tarnish the reputation and hence the financial viability of the college.

The clear question to ask then, is whether there is a conflict of interest in the Ministry's attempt to increase the number of private colleges and it's objective to set Malaysia as a commercial education centre for foreign students with the need to maintain and raise the standards of higher education in Malaysia.

Will it come the day when the first question we ask the doctor, is where he obtained his degree? There'll be a few more posts on this topic.

Malaysian Qualification Agency

It has been reported that the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) will be established in June and will take over the functions of the National Accredition Board (LAN).

How is the MQA different from the LAN? Datuk Dr Sharifah Hapsah Shahabudin, who is the Chief Executive Officer of LAN as well as the head of the provisional MQA team gives us some clues in the article by the New Straits Times.

At present, approval for the conduct of particular courses at the institutions of higher learning is a separate process from its accreditation. Hence you actually can have courses which are approved but are not accredited with the LAN.

Ah... is this a case of the right hand of the same ministry not knowing what the left hand is doing? Looking at the statistics, it appears that unaccredited approved courses outnumber accredited ones by more than 3 to 1 (2,646 to 727). Hence it appears that a student in the higher education sector in Malaysia is more likely to be pursuing an unaccredited programme than an accredited one. Would that explain the reasons why student loans are currently granted to unaccredited programmes?

We now also learn that accreditation is a voluntary exercise by the respective educational institutions. This means that upon receiving approval for the courses, the institutions have no obligations to have the course accredited by LAN. Then, at this point of time, "approval" by the Ministry of Higher Education is the only point in which the "quality" of the courses are vetted. Or is it?

Datuk Dr Sharifah Hapsah Shahabudin admitted that currently, the Ministry only does a cursory check on the programme outline before giving approval. Hence current students should take note that the stamp of "approval" from the Ministry is not in anyway to be taken as a stamp of a course which has met even the minimum quality benchmarks set by agencies such as the LAN.

Datuk Dr Sharifah Hapsah Shahabudin did add that with the merger of the approval and accreditation functions in the new MQA, the process will become synchronous and all courses will undergo the accreditation process in accordance to the new quality framework. But it does send shivers down the spine to think that all this while, colleges, mostly private ones, are probably able to come up with poor programmes and yet still obtain the necessary approvals from the Ministry.

The MQA Act is expected to be tabled and passed in Parliament in June, to replace the LAN Act. As always with many government acts and regulations which are noble in intent, the biggest questions concerning the MQA will be whether it will be substantive enough and whether it will set the quality bar high enough to ensure that the courses accredited do indeed possess the attributes of a half-decent programme.