For those interested, the ASEAN Pre-University Scholarships offered by Singapore’s Ministry of Education is now open for applications.
The ASEAN Pre-University Scholarships are offered annually to outstanding students from the ASEAN region. They provide an opportunity for studies in top junior colleges in Singapore, leading to the General Certificate of Education (Advanced) Level Examinations. The scholarships are offered “in line with the Singapore Government’s long-term objective of helping our ASEAN neighbours develop human resource”.
Scholars will sit for the GCE ‘A’ Level examinations at the end of 2007. Those who secure good grades in the GCE ‘A’ Level examinations will have the opportunity to pursue undergraduate studies in Singapore or overseas on an undergraduate scholarship.
The closing date of the application is on 26th October 2005. Those already in Singapore schools need not apply. For more information on the scholarship and education in Singapore, please visit the scholarship website.
My only wish is that those who do succeed in securing the scholarship will one day return home to make Malaysia a better place to live for all Malaysians. :)
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Friday, October 07, 2005
Malaysian Examination Syndicate Regrets Error
Further to my blog post highlighting the annual debacle whereby UPSR, PMR or SPM examination papers contained elements from workbooks, the MES has in a press statement admitted that they have made an error in the PMR English examination.
They further stated that “action had been taken against the officer in responsible for the duplication”. The most amusing aspect is I wrote in my earlier post that the most severe punishment that the officer “responsible” will receive will be that he/she will be transferred to another department. As if on que,
They further stated that “action had been taken against the officer in responsible for the duplication”. The most amusing aspect is I wrote in my earlier post that the most severe punishment that the officer “responsible” will receive will be that he/she will be transferred to another department. As if on que,
“The officer has been transferred out of the production section pending further investigations as he was directly responsible for both the paper and the workbook.”So now, the incompetence will be “moved” to another department – the way it’s going, our ministries may just end up being incompetence officers playing musical chairs. The final products from these agencies will continue to leave much to be desired. A teacher who is teaching PMR classes was however happy that MES has taken action against the relevant officer, as reported in the Star yesterday.
“It’s about time the people in charge were held accountable. We hear of such mistakes year after year and nothing much is seen to be done.”Well, lets hope it all starts with one small step.
Malaysian Examinations Syndicate Backs Down
After being placed in the spotlight for 2 consecutive days as blogged here and here, it appears that the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (MES) has agreed to back down from its requirement for examination students, both PMR and SPM, to indicate their religion on their registration slips.
It was reported in the Star yesterday that, MES director, Dr Salleh Hassan said that “it would no longer be the case next year for all public examinations… The public has spoken and we have responded.”
The MES also said for the record, that there was no “hidden agenda” in requesting a candidate to indicate their religion. I actually believe that MES is honest in the sense that they do not have any such “hidden agenda”. However, their need to revise policies purely for “administration” purposes, with no tangible or intangible benefits leaves much to be desired. Most of this “administrative” tasks are pretty harmless in that they only serve to perform minor irritations. But very often, some of these “administrative” policies are just poorly thought out and ends up backfiring on themselves.
I think we have too many civil servants attempting to justify their pay and worth by formulating these “administrative” pains. Well, at least in this case, the MES director was quick to “repent” and not dig an even deeper hole for himself.
It was reported in the Star yesterday that, MES director, Dr Salleh Hassan said that “it would no longer be the case next year for all public examinations… The public has spoken and we have responded.”
The MES also said for the record, that there was no “hidden agenda” in requesting a candidate to indicate their religion. I actually believe that MES is honest in the sense that they do not have any such “hidden agenda”. However, their need to revise policies purely for “administration” purposes, with no tangible or intangible benefits leaves much to be desired. Most of this “administrative” tasks are pretty harmless in that they only serve to perform minor irritations. But very often, some of these “administrative” policies are just poorly thought out and ends up backfiring on themselves.
I think we have too many civil servants attempting to justify their pay and worth by formulating these “administrative” pains. Well, at least in this case, the MES director was quick to “repent” and not dig an even deeper hole for himself.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Malaysian Examination Syndicate's Big Bluff
Yesterday, I blogged about the concern raised by parents with regards to the fact that the religion of a student sitting for the PMR examinations being printed on the candidate's slip. The excuse which was given by the director of the Malaysian Examination Syndicate (MES), Dr Salleh Hassan, was to determine the number of Moral and Islamic Studies examination papers to print and “to prevent candidates who are non-Muslims from sitting for the Islamic Studies paper whether by accident or design”.
The reason given wasn't reasonable because you don't have to print the student's religion on the candidate's slip to determine the quantity of examination papers. Neither are candidates required to state their subjects on the slips to know whether they are taking those subjects (e.g., Sejarah), so why the need to print the candidate's religion?
The reason provided was silly enough to justify MES officials' incompetence and hence I didn't "dig" further. But little did I know that the officials' incompetence was so astounding that it appears that the reason given was a total fabrication!
As reported in the Star yesterday, Moral Studies are not taught or examined at PMR level! Moral Studies is only examined as an SPM subject for non-Muslims! What was Dr Salleh Hassan talking about???
Parents are rightfully angry with the reasons provided.
The reason given wasn't reasonable because you don't have to print the student's religion on the candidate's slip to determine the quantity of examination papers. Neither are candidates required to state their subjects on the slips to know whether they are taking those subjects (e.g., Sejarah), so why the need to print the candidate's religion?
The reason provided was silly enough to justify MES officials' incompetence and hence I didn't "dig" further. But little did I know that the officials' incompetence was so astounding that it appears that the reason given was a total fabrication!
As reported in the Star yesterday, Moral Studies are not taught or examined at PMR level! Moral Studies is only examined as an SPM subject for non-Muslims! What was Dr Salleh Hassan talking about???
Parents are rightfully angry with the reasons provided.
[They] are calling on the Cabinet to explain why PMR candidates need to indicate whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims in their registration slips.MES, having now dug a deep hole for itself, have no choice but to dig deeper. It continued to reiterate it's stand, but this time removing the "Moral Studies" reference.
“We demand to know what exactly is going on,” said an irate parent from Penang who was shocked to learn that Moral Studies was suddenly “included” in the PMR examination.
M. Gnanasegaran, a parent from Shah Alam, said the ministry’s explanation was not acceptable in a multi-racial nation and the Cabinet must discuss this serious matter. “People fear that there is a hidden agenda behind the requirement.”
“In order to avoid incidents whereby the Islamic Studies paper is administered to a non-Muslim candidate without the parents’ written consent, the MES requires that the registration and pre-printed identification slip placed on each candidate’s table contain information on his religion.”You know what's wrong with the above? Students not taking the Islamic Studies paper would NOT be sitting in the examination hall for that paper. So how in the world would these non-Muslim candidates be administered with the Islamic Studies paper is completely beyond comprehension.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
More PMR Screw Ups...
Sigh... even examinations now cannot go by without the annual cock ups. The latest published by the Star today is that there is a question in the PMR English paper which has been replicated word for word from a workbook. The irony is, this workbook is published by the Ministry of Education's very own Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (MES). The incompetence of some of these officials is just absolutely astounding - do they expect nobody to pick up the similarities at all?
Accordingly to the Star, the workbook was specially published in April after the Education Ministry revised the PMR English exam format. This was to prepare teachers and students for the new format and additional components like summary writing.
Teachers and parents are clearly unhappy with the entire episode.
Who know what other questions have been lifted from which other workbooks now that the integrity of the examination paper is in question.
What's the saddest thing about situations like this? The incompetent officials are likely to escape, with the "severest punishment" of being transferred to another department. Sigh, isn't that just a case of transfering incompetence from one department to another?
Accordingly to the Star, the workbook was specially published in April after the Education Ministry revised the PMR English exam format. This was to prepare teachers and students for the new format and additional components like summary writing.
Teachers and parents are clearly unhappy with the entire episode.
“How can we have identical questions in Paper Two and the Lembaga Peperiksaan’s (MES) workbook? Is this not unethical for the body that sets public exam questions to lift from its own publication?” asked an English teacher from a Kuala Lumpur school who has been teaching for more than 25 years.Apparently, that wasn't the only issue with the PMR English paper. The same teacher complained that "some of the questions and objective answers provided were lacking in quality and should have been prepared with greater care."
Who know what other questions have been lifted from which other workbooks now that the integrity of the examination paper is in question.
What's the saddest thing about situations like this? The incompetent officials are likely to escape, with the "severest punishment" of being transferred to another department. Sigh, isn't that just a case of transfering incompetence from one department to another?
Competitive Pressures … Or The Lack Thereof
A few weeks ago I discussed the issue of funding in universities in the context of the Economist survey of higher learning . In this posting, I want to discuss the issue of competition within and between universities.
The Economist survey argues that universities will have to compete for the best students as well as the best professors on a global scale. Indeed, world class universities such as Harvard conduct their faculty searches on an international basis. But this presupposes that there already exists a competitive framework among academics within the broader university system. There is a ‘publish or perish’ culture in the academia in the US. Assistant professors who are recruited after obtaining their PhDs are immediately put on tenure track and have 6 years to put together a publishing record which would include 2 to 3 articles in major journals, at least 1 book and other administrative and intellectual contributions to the faculty (organizing conferences, giving talks etc…). Even if these requirements are fulfilled, there is no guarantee that he or she will be promoted to Associate Professor i.e. receive tenure. In my limited experience at Duke, only about ½ of the junior faculty recruited end up receiving tenure (and this is probably an overestimate). And these junior faculty hires have been recruited from a pool of 300 to 400 job applicants! Getting a job is already difficult. Getting tenure is no walk in the park either.
In contrast, there are no such competitive pressures within the academia in Malaysia. There is no ‘publish or perish’ culture. It is possible to stay at the level of Assistant Professor (or the equivalent titles in Malaysian academia) all your life without publishing a single piece of academic work. Tenure, presumable starts when you are confirmed as a permanent staff at a local university. You can work yourself up the academic ladder by pursuing administrative rather than academic accomplishments. Even the standards of publishing are far from strenuous. A fellow academic told me that he has reviewed applications for academic promotions which have listed newspaper articles and translated books as part of their academic ‘resume’. It is almost impossible to get fired for lack of output. The steps are onerous and have to involve the Minister of Higher Education. Given these structures, is it any wonder that the standard of academia in our universities is in the deplorable state that it is in?
If the academic staff are poorly trained, under-qualified and are not given incentives to push the research frontier (by using both the carrot – promotion based on stringent academic requirements - and the stick – fired if does not receive tenure), how can they teach and train a new generation of students and scholars from within?
It is not as if these competitive pressures exist in the private institutions of higher learning. The main purpose of these institutions or businesses is to generate revenue and create profit. There is no incentive for the administrators in these universities to pressure their academic staff to publish. Their main function rather is to teach as many classes as their schedules will allow them.
But I see more hope within the private sphere because external competitive pressures operate in that sphere. Demand has forced many of these private institutions to increase the range of courses being taught (from 1 + 2 to 2 + 1 to 3 + 0) which in turn has forced these institutions to hire more qualified academic staff to teach these courses. As the number of private institutions increase including those full-fledged universities such as Monash and Nottingham, it would not be impossible to foresee that private universities would be forced to compete, not only by price point, but also by recruiting more qualified academic staff to boost its reputation. These private institutions might also give incentives to academic staff to collaborate with the private sector to bring in research funds and initiate projects that would enhance the reputation of that institution. Indeed, the private sector might also prefer to work with private institutions to avoid the bureaucracy that’s endemic to the public sector.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there emerges an elite layer among the private universities (Monash / Sunway, Nottingham, HELP) that will challenge and perhaps surpass the elite among the public universities (UM, USM, UKM).
So, are our public universities doomed? Unless the structure is changed such that the academic staff are properly incentivized, it is likely that they would continue to be mired in the muck of underachievement and lethargy. One consequence is that students in the public universities will continue to bear the brunt of these effects – poorly taught and trained and less employable. We have already seen some of these effects – the hue and cry over the large number of largely Malay unemployed graduates from the public universities. Another is that the larger economy will be affected by the shortage of skilled workers in key sectors, dragging down our long term growth prospects.
Before we can even talk about competing for the best students or best talents, our public universities have to clean up their act internally first – clear out the deadwood and bring in fresh, rightly motivated academic staff.
The Economist survey argues that universities will have to compete for the best students as well as the best professors on a global scale. Indeed, world class universities such as Harvard conduct their faculty searches on an international basis. But this presupposes that there already exists a competitive framework among academics within the broader university system. There is a ‘publish or perish’ culture in the academia in the US. Assistant professors who are recruited after obtaining their PhDs are immediately put on tenure track and have 6 years to put together a publishing record which would include 2 to 3 articles in major journals, at least 1 book and other administrative and intellectual contributions to the faculty (organizing conferences, giving talks etc…). Even if these requirements are fulfilled, there is no guarantee that he or she will be promoted to Associate Professor i.e. receive tenure. In my limited experience at Duke, only about ½ of the junior faculty recruited end up receiving tenure (and this is probably an overestimate). And these junior faculty hires have been recruited from a pool of 300 to 400 job applicants! Getting a job is already difficult. Getting tenure is no walk in the park either.
In contrast, there are no such competitive pressures within the academia in Malaysia. There is no ‘publish or perish’ culture. It is possible to stay at the level of Assistant Professor (or the equivalent titles in Malaysian academia) all your life without publishing a single piece of academic work. Tenure, presumable starts when you are confirmed as a permanent staff at a local university. You can work yourself up the academic ladder by pursuing administrative rather than academic accomplishments. Even the standards of publishing are far from strenuous. A fellow academic told me that he has reviewed applications for academic promotions which have listed newspaper articles and translated books as part of their academic ‘resume’. It is almost impossible to get fired for lack of output. The steps are onerous and have to involve the Minister of Higher Education. Given these structures, is it any wonder that the standard of academia in our universities is in the deplorable state that it is in?
If the academic staff are poorly trained, under-qualified and are not given incentives to push the research frontier (by using both the carrot – promotion based on stringent academic requirements - and the stick – fired if does not receive tenure), how can they teach and train a new generation of students and scholars from within?
It is not as if these competitive pressures exist in the private institutions of higher learning. The main purpose of these institutions or businesses is to generate revenue and create profit. There is no incentive for the administrators in these universities to pressure their academic staff to publish. Their main function rather is to teach as many classes as their schedules will allow them.
But I see more hope within the private sphere because external competitive pressures operate in that sphere. Demand has forced many of these private institutions to increase the range of courses being taught (from 1 + 2 to 2 + 1 to 3 + 0) which in turn has forced these institutions to hire more qualified academic staff to teach these courses. As the number of private institutions increase including those full-fledged universities such as Monash and Nottingham, it would not be impossible to foresee that private universities would be forced to compete, not only by price point, but also by recruiting more qualified academic staff to boost its reputation. These private institutions might also give incentives to academic staff to collaborate with the private sector to bring in research funds and initiate projects that would enhance the reputation of that institution. Indeed, the private sector might also prefer to work with private institutions to avoid the bureaucracy that’s endemic to the public sector.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there emerges an elite layer among the private universities (Monash / Sunway, Nottingham, HELP) that will challenge and perhaps surpass the elite among the public universities (UM, USM, UKM).
So, are our public universities doomed? Unless the structure is changed such that the academic staff are properly incentivized, it is likely that they would continue to be mired in the muck of underachievement and lethargy. One consequence is that students in the public universities will continue to bear the brunt of these effects – poorly taught and trained and less employable. We have already seen some of these effects – the hue and cry over the large number of largely Malay unemployed graduates from the public universities. Another is that the larger economy will be affected by the shortage of skilled workers in key sectors, dragging down our long term growth prospects.
Before we can even talk about competing for the best students or best talents, our public universities have to clean up their act internally first – clear out the deadwood and bring in fresh, rightly motivated academic staff.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
PMR: What's Religion Got To Do With It?
In a bewildering policy instituted by the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate of the Ministry of Education, students are now required to state their religion in candidate slips used for the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations. This issue was raised in the Star today.
Parents are rightly asking what has the student's religion got to do with sitting for the examinations? The information, in any way you look at it, is completely irrelevant, unless of course, they are now serving food during examinations? :)
Even if the motive of the Ministry is benign and "innocent", and purely for administrative purposes, by printing the candidate's religion on the slips may allow room for prejudices to set in, during the administration and marking of the examination scripts. Why should the Ministry allow such prejudices set in at all?
Most interestingly, our Deputy Education Minister Datuk Hon Choon Kim said he "was unaware of this development but said he would look into the matter."
Parents are rightly asking what has the student's religion got to do with sitting for the examinations? The information, in any way you look at it, is completely irrelevant, unless of course, they are now serving food during examinations? :)
A parent who called up The Star felt that such a requirement was taking a step backwards and went against the spirit of Vision 2020 which aimed to create a Bangsa Malaysia.So what did the officials at the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate say? The answers was seemingly straightforward and simple. They needed the information to "to determine the number of Moral and Islamic studies examination papers to print". The unit's director Dr Salleh Hassan said this was a "normal process".
“I hope the Education Ministry will stop this very unhealthy practice as it can be misconstrued. Some parents had protested in 2001 and the authorities had given an assurance that it would not be done in future.”
“Since the absence of such information will not hamper the smooth operation of the examination, I hope the ministry will consider removing it altogether.”
“It is for that purpose. We need to know who is sitting for Islamic Studies and who is sitting for Moral Studies... It (the requirement) is only for administrative purposes.”Err... what has the need to know the quantity of examination papers to print has got to do with printing the student's religion on the candidate's slip? I believe that in the normal process, each school would have submitted the number of students sitting for each subject for the examinations separately to the Ministry prior to the examinations. The Ministry officials will then consolidate the numbers and send the required quantities for printing. I cannot see how religion is also required to be printing on the slips. I don't see the candidate's slip stating "Sejarah" just to determine the number of candidates taking history. So how is it otherwise for Moral and Islamic Studies?
Even if the motive of the Ministry is benign and "innocent", and purely for administrative purposes, by printing the candidate's religion on the slips may allow room for prejudices to set in, during the administration and marking of the examination scripts. Why should the Ministry allow such prejudices set in at all?
Most interestingly, our Deputy Education Minister Datuk Hon Choon Kim said he "was unaware of this development but said he would look into the matter."
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Oxford University: Should I Apply? (III)
In the first two instalments whereby I gave my opinion with regards to some of the common questions asked in applications to the top universities, followed by a write up on my personal experience at Oxford University. Here, I'll try to outline the process of applying to Oxbridge universities (which isn't exactly straightforward).
Unfortunately, during the process of writing this instalment, I've just found out that I've made a major boo-boo with a critical information - it was some 15 years ago today that I made the application, and I hadn't realised that some of the application processes has changed. Oxford has made special arrangements for applicants from Hong Kong (most of them ends up at Wadham College), China, Singapore and Malaysia. As a result of the "special" application process, the closing date for applicants from Malaysia was brought forward to 20th September, which has just passed. I'll still proceed to complete this post, as the information might still be useful for some of you in future years. Much apologies for the error.
Much of the following information is obtained from the Oxford University admission website as well as The Times Good University Guide 2006. In addition, should you require additional information from those already at Oxford at this moment in time, please feel free to visit the Oxford University Malaysia Club website.
1. Selecting Your Subjects
Overall, there are approximately 3 applications to every 1 place at Oxbridge but there are big differences between colleges and subjects. Hence, the choice of subjects that you decide to ready at Oxbridge will actually make some slight differences in your admission probabilities. The following provides a sample of the differences between the relevant degree courses:
To see the minimum requirements required for your choice of courses, download the requirements table here.
2. Selecting Your College
One of the unique things about applying to Oxbridge is that not only do you have to select the university, you will have to select which college of the university you would like to apply to as well. There are about 30 colleges each at Oxford and Cambridge. The colleges at Oxford are ranked by the performance of each College in terms of the degree classifications achieved by the students. You can view the full rankings table here.
The top 10 colleges at Oxford for 2005 are:
In the Preliminary Application Form to Oxbridge, you'd be required to select your top 3 college choices. You may also leave the college selection blank and leave it to the University to "fill-in-the-blanks" for you. The advantage of leaving the college choices blanks is that the universities will typically select colleges with fewer applicants on your behalf. I took this method of application, which gave me Keble as my first choice. However, it should be noted that statistics apparently show that a lower proportion succeeds this way than if you opt for a particular college.
In addition, not all colleges offer all courses. You may refer to the following document to see which colleges offer the subjects of your choice.
3. Application Forms
The first application form which you would need to submit, is the University & Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) application form for universities in the United Kingdom (UK). UCAS is the centralised processing agency for the respective UK universities. You may identify Oxford or Cambridge (not both) as one of your choices in the list of university preferences. You may submit your application electronically via the UCAS website.
Next, you will need to complete a Oxford Preliminary Application form which you may download here (~800kb). It's the special application pack for Malaysia-based students.
15 years ago, I had to sit for the Oxford Entrance Examination, interspersed between my 'A' Level examinations. Thankfully, I received a conditional offer of 2 'E's for my 'A' Levels to take up a place at Keble College. Unfortunately, I had completed my 'A' Levels examinations by then, and didn't have the opportunity to really screw it up! :) Nevertheless, it was common then for the university colleges to make such offers as they were confident that candidates selected from the entrance examination are unlikely to perform that badly for their 'A' Levels.
However, towards the late 1990s, the entrance examination was largely scrapped due to criticism that the examination favours students from the rich 'top' schools. These 'top' schools rigorously coach their students in taking the entrance examinations, thus apparently providing them with unfair advantages over students of other government schools. I know that all the Singapore top junior colleges do that - unfortunately, I wasn't "late" enough to be part of the mechanised program. :)
But recently, the entrance examinations have been brought back in the guise of a "written test" as tutors are finding it difficult to fully differentiate the quality of students from interviews alone. In addition, it appears that scrapping the entrance examination did not play a part in changing the composition of students from the various types of schools. You may have a look at the sample written test questions for the various courses here.
Hence, as stated in the application pack for Malaysian students, there will be interviews conducted at Quality Hotel on the 25th to 26th October, and for those who go beyond the interviews, a written test held at the Petaling Jaya Community Centre in December. Some additional information and useful tips about Oxford interviews are available here. The interviews are conducted by a few tutors, on behalf of all the colleges at Oxford. I know that my wife's law tutor in Kuala Lumpur almost on a yearly basis to interview candidates for I'll often be dining with him sometime during October in recent years.
OK, I suppose that's all the "extra" information I needed to provide here. The standard information is easily available from the online forms and websites and prospectuses and the British Council etc. Use your resourcefulness to make the application work for you. That will be the asset that would be most valuable to help you gain entry into the university of your choice (besides of course, a little bit of brain matter). Once again, I apologise for the error on the closing date for Malaysian students, but I'm certain there are many of you out there who will be applying sometime in the future. Should you have additional queries, you can always email me.
Good luck and have fun!
Unfortunately, during the process of writing this instalment, I've just found out that I've made a major boo-boo with a critical information - it was some 15 years ago today that I made the application, and I hadn't realised that some of the application processes has changed. Oxford has made special arrangements for applicants from Hong Kong (most of them ends up at Wadham College), China, Singapore and Malaysia. As a result of the "special" application process, the closing date for applicants from Malaysia was brought forward to 20th September, which has just passed. I'll still proceed to complete this post, as the information might still be useful for some of you in future years. Much apologies for the error.
Much of the following information is obtained from the Oxford University admission website as well as The Times Good University Guide 2006. In addition, should you require additional information from those already at Oxford at this moment in time, please feel free to visit the Oxford University Malaysia Club website.
1. Selecting Your Subjects
Overall, there are approximately 3 applications to every 1 place at Oxbridge but there are big differences between colleges and subjects. Hence, the choice of subjects that you decide to ready at Oxbridge will actually make some slight differences in your admission probabilities. The following provides a sample of the differences between the relevant degree courses:
Degree Subjects | No. Applications 2004 | No. Acceptance | % AcceptanceSo, from the above, it does look like with the exception of Medicine and EEM, the sciences may appear to have a higher probability of entry. The percentage acceptance varies from year to year due to fluctuations with the number of applicants. Should you require information other subjects, please email me separately.
Classics | 262 | 114 | 43.5
Economics & Management | 608 | 84 | 13.8
English | 1,098 | 247 | 22.5
Geography | 247 | 78 | 37.6
Law | 1,105 | 211 | 19.1
Modern History | 813 | 243 | 29.9
Oriental Studies | 110 | 44 | 40.0
Physics & Philosophy | 42 | 13 | 31.0
Philosophy, Politics & Economics | 1,107 | 251 | 22.7
Biochemistry | 273 | 87 | 31.9
Biological Sciences | 229 | 90 | 39.3
Chemistry | 319 | 176 | 55.2
Computer Science | 103 | 28 | 27.2
Engineering | 406 | 135 | 33.3
Engineering, Economics & Management | 92 | 12 | 13.0
Mathematics | 553 | 178 | 32.2
Medicine | 1,090 | 154 | 14.1
Physics | 519 | 173 | 33.3
Source: The Times Good University Guide 2006
To see the minimum requirements required for your choice of courses, download the requirements table here.
2. Selecting Your College
One of the unique things about applying to Oxbridge is that not only do you have to select the university, you will have to select which college of the university you would like to apply to as well. There are about 30 colleges each at Oxford and Cambridge. The colleges at Oxford are ranked by the performance of each College in terms of the degree classifications achieved by the students. You can view the full rankings table here.
The top 10 colleges at Oxford for 2005 are:
- Merton College
- St John's College
- Balliol College
- Magdalen College
- University College
- Hertford College
- Exeter College
- St Anne's College
- ChristChurch College
- Keble College
In the Preliminary Application Form to Oxbridge, you'd be required to select your top 3 college choices. You may also leave the college selection blank and leave it to the University to "fill-in-the-blanks" for you. The advantage of leaving the college choices blanks is that the universities will typically select colleges with fewer applicants on your behalf. I took this method of application, which gave me Keble as my first choice. However, it should be noted that statistics apparently show that a lower proportion succeeds this way than if you opt for a particular college.
In addition, not all colleges offer all courses. You may refer to the following document to see which colleges offer the subjects of your choice.
3. Application Forms
The first application form which you would need to submit, is the University & Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) application form for universities in the United Kingdom (UK). UCAS is the centralised processing agency for the respective UK universities. You may identify Oxford or Cambridge (not both) as one of your choices in the list of university preferences. You may submit your application electronically via the UCAS website.
Next, you will need to complete a Oxford Preliminary Application form which you may download here (~800kb). It's the special application pack for Malaysia-based students.
15 years ago, I had to sit for the Oxford Entrance Examination, interspersed between my 'A' Level examinations. Thankfully, I received a conditional offer of 2 'E's for my 'A' Levels to take up a place at Keble College. Unfortunately, I had completed my 'A' Levels examinations by then, and didn't have the opportunity to really screw it up! :) Nevertheless, it was common then for the university colleges to make such offers as they were confident that candidates selected from the entrance examination are unlikely to perform that badly for their 'A' Levels.
However, towards the late 1990s, the entrance examination was largely scrapped due to criticism that the examination favours students from the rich 'top' schools. These 'top' schools rigorously coach their students in taking the entrance examinations, thus apparently providing them with unfair advantages over students of other government schools. I know that all the Singapore top junior colleges do that - unfortunately, I wasn't "late" enough to be part of the mechanised program. :)
But recently, the entrance examinations have been brought back in the guise of a "written test" as tutors are finding it difficult to fully differentiate the quality of students from interviews alone. In addition, it appears that scrapping the entrance examination did not play a part in changing the composition of students from the various types of schools. You may have a look at the sample written test questions for the various courses here.
Hence, as stated in the application pack for Malaysian students, there will be interviews conducted at Quality Hotel on the 25th to 26th October, and for those who go beyond the interviews, a written test held at the Petaling Jaya Community Centre in December. Some additional information and useful tips about Oxford interviews are available here. The interviews are conducted by a few tutors, on behalf of all the colleges at Oxford. I know that my wife's law tutor in Kuala Lumpur almost on a yearly basis to interview candidates for I'll often be dining with him sometime during October in recent years.
OK, I suppose that's all the "extra" information I needed to provide here. The standard information is easily available from the online forms and websites and prospectuses and the British Council etc. Use your resourcefulness to make the application work for you. That will be the asset that would be most valuable to help you gain entry into the university of your choice (besides of course, a little bit of brain matter). Once again, I apologise for the error on the closing date for Malaysian students, but I'm certain there are many of you out there who will be applying sometime in the future. Should you have additional queries, you can always email me.
Good luck and have fun!
Education Ministries: Are You Listening?
It’s quite interesting (and refreshing) the fact that many of the retired politicians and civil servants are speaking at various conferences and seminars and making plenty of sense. Nowadays, you will hear our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad speaking about the importance of mastering the English language and our former Finance Minister and UMNO Treasurer, Tun Daim Zainuddin arguing sharply, that education, not equity participation is the method to improve the Malay community. But they are not the only ones.
Former Education director-general Tan Sri Murad Mohd Noor have complained of a “overly bureaucratic education system” during his lecture on “Revolutionising the Education System” at the Higher Education Ministry on 26th September.
Tan Sri Murad was tasked by Tun Dr Mahathir in December 2002 to head a group to propose far-reaching educational reforms to redress what he had vividly described at the time as the “double hijacking” of the national school system from its original objective of catering to all races in Malaysia – sabotage of the Pupil’s Own Language (POL) programme and the attempt to turn the national schools into Islamic rather than Malaysian schools.
The report has been completed since August 2003 but unfortunately, it has never been publicised for debate by the education and public community. When queried by Sdr Lim Kit Siang in Parliament earlier in June, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin claimed that there is no need to make public the Murad report as “it contains recommendations and proposals to strengthen national schools and the administration of the Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR) which still needed to be studied in detail as they involve legal and financial implications”.
Just two days before Tan Sri Murad’s lecture, the first director of then Institut Teknologi Mara (now Universiti Teknologi Mara, or UiTM), Tan Sri Arshad Ayub argued for a “review of higher education policy” during a lecture organised by the Alumni of University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Tan Sri Arshad argued that too many colleges have been upgraded to university and university college status. (See also blog post here on "Skills Training".)
So, are the two education ministries listening? We would certainly like to hear from the ministries their replies to the above suggestions and constructive criticisms. Very often, the only thing we hear from these ministries are “Everything OK”, when everyone knows they are not “OK”. If these ex-senior civil servants and prominent educationists can’t make these ministries listen, I’m not sure who else can.
To quote Tan Sri Arshad, who was as polite and diplomatic as he could be, in being critical of the Ministry of Higher Education:
"The Higher Education Ministry needs to be strengthened. It does not have the capacity to deal with the many issues facing higher education and the growth of the industry."
Former Education director-general Tan Sri Murad Mohd Noor have complained of a “overly bureaucratic education system” during his lecture on “Revolutionising the Education System” at the Higher Education Ministry on 26th September.
"When the Government wants to promote IT literacy, they go about it by spending millions on building computer labs. Actually, what would make students IT-literate is content, what books they read, what is taught to them, the quality of their teachers, their ability to think.”Hey, hey, hey, this was exactly the point that was raised when our Minister of Education, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein tried to justify his “Smart Schools” achievements recently. (See blog post here.)
Tan Sri Murad was tasked by Tun Dr Mahathir in December 2002 to head a group to propose far-reaching educational reforms to redress what he had vividly described at the time as the “double hijacking” of the national school system from its original objective of catering to all races in Malaysia – sabotage of the Pupil’s Own Language (POL) programme and the attempt to turn the national schools into Islamic rather than Malaysian schools.
The report has been completed since August 2003 but unfortunately, it has never been publicised for debate by the education and public community. When queried by Sdr Lim Kit Siang in Parliament earlier in June, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin claimed that there is no need to make public the Murad report as “it contains recommendations and proposals to strengthen national schools and the administration of the Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR) which still needed to be studied in detail as they involve legal and financial implications”.
Just two days before Tan Sri Murad’s lecture, the first director of then Institut Teknologi Mara (now Universiti Teknologi Mara, or UiTM), Tan Sri Arshad Ayub argued for a “review of higher education policy” during a lecture organised by the Alumni of University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Tan Sri Arshad argued that too many colleges have been upgraded to university and university college status. (See also blog post here on "Skills Training".)
"A college should remain at college level first. Only the best should be universities. We are so concerned with expanding enrolment at our public and private institutions of higher learning that we fail to ask whether some of these students are ready to pursue degrees."Tan Sri Arshad also raised the all important issue of “whether Malaysia’s higher educational institutions had sufficient teaching manpower.”
"Should they be pursuing diplomas instead? I think a quarter or even half of the existing number of students pursuing degrees should be doing diplomas. Perhaps this is why we now have a problem of unemployable graduates."
"Do we have good people to teach architecture, engineering, medicine? By good people, I don’t just mean PhD holders. A good lecturer should not just be a PhD holder but a member of the professional body in their areas of expertise. If you are teaching engineering, you should have a PhD and also be accepted as a member of the professional body governing engineering."This comment is interesting because, apparently, based on an anonymous comment given in the post here, Universiti Malaya are appointing candidates struggling with their PhDs to permanent lecturer positions.
So, are the two education ministries listening? We would certainly like to hear from the ministries their replies to the above suggestions and constructive criticisms. Very often, the only thing we hear from these ministries are “Everything OK”, when everyone knows they are not “OK”. If these ex-senior civil servants and prominent educationists can’t make these ministries listen, I’m not sure who else can.
To quote Tan Sri Arshad, who was as polite and diplomatic as he could be, in being critical of the Ministry of Higher Education:
"The Higher Education Ministry needs to be strengthened. It does not have the capacity to deal with the many issues facing higher education and the growth of the industry."
Friday, September 30, 2005
Oops... Universiti Malaya Has Done It Again
I think I must have sighed a thousand times when I turned to page 11 of the New Straits Times yesterday to find University Malaya (UM) putting up a full page advertisement commemorating its centennial celebrations.
In a poorly worded statement littered with 'suspect' English - UM showcased its 'Alumni of Great Fame'. On the advertisement, you'll find pictures of almost half the cabinet ministers and 4 menteri besars. Interestingly, next to the larger picture of our Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi, you'll find a large mugshot of our Minister of Higher Education, Dato' Dr Haji Shafie Mohd Salleh. Whoever did the Photoshop editing for the composite image should probably be shot.
The fact that the advertisement is an absolute waste of university funds should be bad enough. (See also earlier post on "Thick-Skinned Academics"). But you should read the statement and decide if UM have done itself justice.
It’s just amazing how we have a culture of celebrating mediocrity by proclaiming it to be monumental achievements. Being placed 89th is a commendable achievement, but it’s definitely not something to shout out loud about. And that’s actually before, we analysed the “real reasons” why the university was placed in such “lofty heights”. The university officials should just cross their fingers that the ranking compilers at the Times Higher Education Supplement do not figure out the potential errors in the ranking of Malaysian universities to save themselves from some major embarrassment in just 2 months time.
Even if UM wants to scream at the top of its lungs the achievements of the university over the past 100 years, it should focus on its academic and education achievements. For example, what are the prestigious international awards it has received? What are the breakthrough scientific research produced by the UM academic and research community? What are the percentage of graduates gaining employment within a period of 6 months? Those will be regarded as the real achievements of a top university – and not whether the Federal Territories Minister, Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad is an alumni of the university.
In a poorly worded statement littered with 'suspect' English - UM showcased its 'Alumni of Great Fame'. On the advertisement, you'll find pictures of almost half the cabinet ministers and 4 menteri besars. Interestingly, next to the larger picture of our Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi, you'll find a large mugshot of our Minister of Higher Education, Dato' Dr Haji Shafie Mohd Salleh. Whoever did the Photoshop editing for the composite image should probably be shot.
The fact that the advertisement is an absolute waste of university funds should be bad enough. (See also earlier post on "Thick-Skinned Academics"). But you should read the statement and decide if UM have done itself justice.
For a century, University of Malaya has practised and will continue to practise a code of excellence in the pursuit of knowledge. It has contributed immensely to the building of this nation like no other. UM has produced more than one hundred thousand graduates in various fields, who have gone to serve the nation with outstanding achievements and dedications. The Prime Minister of Malaysia YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah Hj Ahmad Badawi tops the list. Almost half of the Cabinet Members and four Menteri Besar are UM Alumni.Then at the bottom of the advertisement, it was added that:
Truly, the University of Malaya has and will continue to serve the country with excellence.
In 2004, UM was placed 89th in the 'University World Ranking' by The TIMES of LONDON. YAB Deputy Prime Minister earlier this year has challenged UM to be among the 50 best universities by 2020. To achieve this target, UM has to improve its position by 2.6 places each year. What is UM's position for 2005? Wait and see in November this year!!!Either the university has received some inside information that its placement will improve in this year's university rankings table by the Times Higher Education Supplement (not “The TIMES of LONDON”) or its really setting itself up for a major Humpty Dumpty moment.
It’s just amazing how we have a culture of celebrating mediocrity by proclaiming it to be monumental achievements. Being placed 89th is a commendable achievement, but it’s definitely not something to shout out loud about. And that’s actually before, we analysed the “real reasons” why the university was placed in such “lofty heights”. The university officials should just cross their fingers that the ranking compilers at the Times Higher Education Supplement do not figure out the potential errors in the ranking of Malaysian universities to save themselves from some major embarrassment in just 2 months time.
Even if UM wants to scream at the top of its lungs the achievements of the university over the past 100 years, it should focus on its academic and education achievements. For example, what are the prestigious international awards it has received? What are the breakthrough scientific research produced by the UM academic and research community? What are the percentage of graduates gaining employment within a period of 6 months? Those will be regarded as the real achievements of a top university – and not whether the Federal Territories Minister, Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad is an alumni of the university.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Changes in Education System Down South
Once in a while it’s always good to have a look at what’s happening in the education scene down south for Singapore’s doggedness in achieving academic excellence at all cost is often, barring some exceptions, quite a few steps ahead of Malaysia. That way, we may be able to learn from some of the experiences, both good and bad, making them relevant to our very own education system.
So, it’s a welcome read, to see veteran journalist, Seah Chiang Nee writing about the changes in the subtler aspects of the Singapore education system in his article entitled “Stepping up gear to produce a thinking workforce” published in the Star on 25th September.
We have always known Singapore to be almost excessively academically focused, hardworking and disciplined, conjuring images of tiny tots carrying oversized rucksacks of text and work books. They also produced some of the most competent engineers and scientists in the region. However, they have always been criticised for extreme emphasis on examinations and rote learning. As a result, “multi-national corporations have complained that this breed of scholars, while excelling in data knowledge, lacks personal initiative and needs hand holding.”
So it was some eight years ago, that the Singapore government launched a whole new strategy to “inculcate thinking minds and entrepreneurial skills”. From the anecdotes provided by Chiang Nee, it appears that the policy has been achieving some commendable success. Here are some of the little successes quoted here:
It also appears that in the quest to improve the system, no stones have been left unturned. Sacred cows such as the ‘O’ Levels have also been slaughtered, now with certain schools allowed “skip” the examinations. My alma maters in Singapore, Raffles Institution (RI) and Raffles Junior College (RJC) have to a certain extent “re-merged” having moved to adjoining premises earlier this year – and students are permitted to bypass ‘O’ Levels at RI and proceed straight to the ‘A’ Level curriculum at RJC.
As highlighted in the article, even “during the worst of Asia’s economic recessions when most governments had cut their education budgets, Singapore stepped up spending in this
field”. Many of the above measures will not produce results immediately and their full impact can only be seen possibly a decade later. There continues to be a certain amount of criticism on the education system in Singapore (which I won’t dwell on here), but the key here is that major reforms have taken and are continuing to take place.
Education has in fact, been highlighted by visiting Prof Issac Ehrlich of University at Buffalo (part of the State University of New York) as the 'secret weapon' for continuous, self-sustaining economic growth. His comments were reported in the Business Times on 19th September, strengthening the case for Singapore’s aggressive investment in education.
Basically, the theory is that economic growth can only be self-sustaining if it is endogenous. And endogenous growth comes from increases in productivity, which is a result of technological advance. The simple conclusion to such a theory, as Prof Ehrlich puts it:
Over at Malaysia, it may be too soon to attempt wholesale reforms such as that taking place in Singapore at this stage. It is most important for us to tackle some of the most basic issues that are plaguing our education system today, which appears to stifle our abilities to produce even competent graduates – whether in sciences, mathematics or languages. Our authorities need to remedy some of the “simple” shortcomings in our education system – the quality of teachers, the standards of languages, the state of school facilities and the impact of continued segregation in schools of the various ethnic groups.
So, it’s a welcome read, to see veteran journalist, Seah Chiang Nee writing about the changes in the subtler aspects of the Singapore education system in his article entitled “Stepping up gear to produce a thinking workforce” published in the Star on 25th September.
We have always known Singapore to be almost excessively academically focused, hardworking and disciplined, conjuring images of tiny tots carrying oversized rucksacks of text and work books. They also produced some of the most competent engineers and scientists in the region. However, they have always been criticised for extreme emphasis on examinations and rote learning. As a result, “multi-national corporations have complained that this breed of scholars, while excelling in data knowledge, lacks personal initiative and needs hand holding.”
So it was some eight years ago, that the Singapore government launched a whole new strategy to “inculcate thinking minds and entrepreneurial skills”. From the anecdotes provided by Chiang Nee, it appears that the policy has been achieving some commendable success. Here are some of the little successes quoted here:
- At Hougang Primary, seven-year-olds share their classrooms with an assortment of insects, plants and skeleton frames. In all 11 classes are objects highlighting skills that include IT, science, music or languages. “The children can touch and play with them. They will have fun and maybe make a mess of things, but hopefully discover new things,” said the principal Goh Ek Piang.
- From last year, Coral Primary children, working in teams, were given part of a long corridor to jointly plan and paint the wall as an ongoing art project. “The pupils take ownership of that corridor and feel responsible for that area,” principal Teo Bee Eng told reporters.
- The courses are becoming more innovative. A nine-year-old student, for example, is CEO of her school library cafe, getting a real, first-hand lesson on running a business. Forty students in her Edgefield Primary 3 class operate it. They have elected a 15-member board, which in turn chose Dominique Sng as boss. She has four managers in charge of finance, inventory, operations and marketing.
It also appears that in the quest to improve the system, no stones have been left unturned. Sacred cows such as the ‘O’ Levels have also been slaughtered, now with certain schools allowed “skip” the examinations. My alma maters in Singapore, Raffles Institution (RI) and Raffles Junior College (RJC) have to a certain extent “re-merged” having moved to adjoining premises earlier this year – and students are permitted to bypass ‘O’ Levels at RI and proceed straight to the ‘A’ Level curriculum at RJC.
As highlighted in the article, even “during the worst of Asia’s economic recessions when most governments had cut their education budgets, Singapore stepped up spending in this
field”. Many of the above measures will not produce results immediately and their full impact can only be seen possibly a decade later. There continues to be a certain amount of criticism on the education system in Singapore (which I won’t dwell on here), but the key here is that major reforms have taken and are continuing to take place.
Education has in fact, been highlighted by visiting Prof Issac Ehrlich of University at Buffalo (part of the State University of New York) as the 'secret weapon' for continuous, self-sustaining economic growth. His comments were reported in the Business Times on 19th September, strengthening the case for Singapore’s aggressive investment in education.
Basically, the theory is that economic growth can only be self-sustaining if it is endogenous. And endogenous growth comes from increases in productivity, which is a result of technological advance. The simple conclusion to such a theory, as Prof Ehrlich puts it:
'But the question is what accounts for the fact that technology keeps improving? We know the secret: it comes from the accumulation of knowledge and knowledge is human capital.'Prof Ehrlich argues that to explain that economic growth is a result of investment in education - and not the other way round (some argue that education increases due to increase in affluence) - by looking at the experience of the US over more than 140 years.
Prof Ehrlich postulates that a poor, post-civil war US managed to overtake the United Kingdom through massive investment in education with government measures such as the GI Bill - which offered returning US soldiers from Europe education aid - and the Morrill Act, which granted land to higher education institutions to be built in each state.Hence, I totally agree with the policy in Singapore to expand the budget for education even in the toughest of times, for it will ultimately enable a country to "leapfrog" its peers in terms of performance and achievements. It is arguably the only panacea to achieve the quantum leap of the nation. Of course, it needn't be said that the expanded budget should be utilised productively and not be subject to profound leakage (such as appointing incompetent contractors to build schools).
Over at Malaysia, it may be too soon to attempt wholesale reforms such as that taking place in Singapore at this stage. It is most important for us to tackle some of the most basic issues that are plaguing our education system today, which appears to stifle our abilities to produce even competent graduates – whether in sciences, mathematics or languages. Our authorities need to remedy some of the “simple” shortcomings in our education system – the quality of teachers, the standards of languages, the state of school facilities and the impact of continued segregation in schools of the various ethnic groups.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
"Are we turning our children into sissies?"
This article by Zainul Arifin in his "Intermission" column in New Straits Times makes a really amusing read. The first thing I thought was how am I going to highlight it in my blog and relate it back to education in Malaysia! But I guess, an article entitled above has to be related to the education we are giving our young, one way or another right? :)
The writer was quite rightly questioning the nature of society in the years to come whereby "despite our best intentions, producing a generation of sissies and weak-minded individuals to populate and power the nation in this 21st century?"
He asked the question whether we are so protective of our children from all "bad influences" from "bad people", to "poor hygiene", to reckless drivers to misadventures, such that "we are slowly turning our children into nerds and space cadets, whose only connection to reality is through nature documentaries, and well, umm, reality TV."
This quote quite funny:
The reason is clearly stated by Zainul in his article, and I couldn't agree more:
I suppose this is one aspect that our schools may only be able to do "so much" to increase the "resilience" in our children. In this case, it's really up to the parents to do the right thing, and find the right balance between healthy risks and practical learning and experience for our children. :)
The writer was quite rightly questioning the nature of society in the years to come whereby "despite our best intentions, producing a generation of sissies and weak-minded individuals to populate and power the nation in this 21st century?"
He asked the question whether we are so protective of our children from all "bad influences" from "bad people", to "poor hygiene", to reckless drivers to misadventures, such that "we are slowly turning our children into nerds and space cadets, whose only connection to reality is through nature documentaries, and well, umm, reality TV."
This quote quite funny:
I read somewhere that a greater proportion of our children now have poorer hand-eye co-ordination — a skill developed from an early age by running around, climbing, kicking and throwing things about — than,say, a few decades ago. But I am sure many of them have superior thumb-eye co-ordination, owing to prolonged exposure to video games.One of the most disappointing by product of the above protectiveness is the disapproval of sports.
Many parents these days disapprove of sports, especially contact sports like football, hockey or netball. Don’t even mention rugby. Notice how many of the former school rugby powerhouses can still hold their heads up high.Having been exposed to rugby in secondary school in Singapore (yes, squeaky polished Singapore), I'll definitely insist that he picks up the sport (if and when I do get a baby boy!). And I'll make sure that Xin Ying, my baby girl will make a half-decent athlete at the very least!
The reason, if I may speculate, is that parents have become overprotective of their children and are not supportive of organised sports, in case they break a sweat, or worse, injure themselves.
The reason is clearly stated by Zainul in his article, and I couldn't agree more:
Sports, as we know, builds character. Winning, and especially losing, instills values — how to be gracious in victory and how to pick yourself up from defeat. Failures offer opportunities for comebacks. Sports encourages teambuilding and comradeship and also teaches children social skills and tolerance, values they will take with them for the rest of their livesI believe that the whole protective thing plus the whole top-notch food and nutrition thingie is one of the major causes why our little boys and little girls today are not only becoming "sissies", but also becoming more than just a little overweight.
If we as parents show such fear and concern, what kind of impact will this have on the minds of our children? Don’t stay out of the house, it is too hot. Don’t play in the field, it is dirty. Don’t play games, you might be injured.
I suppose this is one aspect that our schools may only be able to do "so much" to increase the "resilience" in our children. In this case, it's really up to the parents to do the right thing, and find the right balance between healthy risks and practical learning and experience for our children. :)
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Oxford University: Should I Apply? (II)
Following the first post on some of the the typical questions that usually act as "barriers" to Malaysians applying to some of the top universities in the world, the following actually provides some nuggets of my personal experience at Oxford University.
I'm never going to be able to write my entire pre-application, my 3-year stay, my degree programme and other experiences in just one blog post (even if it's a long one like this). Hence, the focus of my writing will be on the nature of teaching and learning that's unique to Oxford and other similar institutions - which may be attractive to many of you out there. For the other readers of the blog from these institutions (I know you are out there), please feel free to add your personal experience, either to my personal email (which I'll then "re-publish") or in the comments column below.
Quick note: My experience below may have in a large part, to do with the degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) which I have taken. So students reading other subjects, particularly the science subjects will clearly have a different "experience". :)
1. Class Size
One of the most important facets of some of the top universities around the world is the small tutorial class sizes. Whilst in the first year, the class sizes may be as large as 8-10 persons, in my subsequent years, the class sizes were often no more than 3 persons.
In fact for certain subjects which are electives, for e.g., I took "Development Economics", I had 1-to-1 tutorial sessions. The small class sizes had certain implications for students. For example, it will be very difficult to evade doing your homework readings for it'll look really stupid when you are attempting to carry out a discussion with your tutor. You will obviously receive a lot of "personal attention", wanted or otherwise. :)
In addition, the small class sizes will ensure that you will have to speak up in the class. Asian students have a tendency to be timid, quiet and fairly non-participative in the classroom. However, when the classroom is only the size of 2 students, there's really very little space to hide from the tutor. I have always been regarded as a fairly vocal student in primary and secondary schools. However, when I was at Oxford, my Economics tutor actually wrote in one of my term reports that I was too quiet and needed to participate more during tutorial discussions!
That certainly plays an important part in honing one's quick thinking skills as well as the ability to express one's thoughts in the clearest manners.
2. College vs University
One of the oft quoted unique features about Oxbridge universities is the fact that the universities are basically made up of a cluster of semi-independent colleges. A description provided by the Oxford University website is quoted here:
I was enrolled in Keble College (picture above), which is quite large by Oxford standards with some 400 undergraduate and 150 postgraduate students. Yes, that's "large". :) Something that many students are not used to, is also the fact that most student stay for at least 2 years, in the college itself. To get to 8 am tutorials in the morning, you just need to wake up at 7.45, wash up, gulp down some breakfast, and make a 2 minute dash to the tutor's room. Yes, most of the tutors stay in the college as well :)
3. Lectures vs Tutorials
The most unique thing I find about my degree programme at Oxford, for better or worse, is the "disjoint" between lectures and tutorials. Lectures are run by the university, while tutorials are managed by the colleges. And with some 30 colleges managing tutorial schedules, you will find that most of the time, the lectures do not "jive" with the tutorial subject schedules. Hence, you might find yourself attending lectures on particular topics in the first term, but the tutorials for the same subject only begins in the third term. And of course, vice-versa.
Due to the fact that tutorials are of prime importance, lectures often take a back seat. That usually means that as the term goes by, I'll be attending less and less lectures. I won't be exaggerating to say that I probably attended an average of maybe only 2-3 hours worth of lectures a week throughout my entire course!
4. Tutorials
Tutorials are probably the most important aspect of one's academic experience at Oxford. Tutorials are scheduled to be twice a week, one for each subject which is being taken for the term. There are 3 terms a year, and 8 weeks for each term. So, every term, I'll be having 16 tutorials a term, 8 on say, "Organisational Economics" and another 8 on say, "Moral Philosophy (Ethics)".
So what's so tough about the tutorials, besides the fact that it's a tiny class? In most universities I'm aware of, tutorials are where the tutors will do some "teaching", students will be taking notes and they may be required to do some question-and-answer type homework. Over at Oxford, threre's little or no formal teaching done during tutorials.
What's typically done is that all students will have to prepare an essay on a particular topic prior to the tutorial session. The essay question and lengthy reading list would have been provided in the previous week. The first week's tutorial came as quite a shock for me because I was to prepare an essay on the "failure" of French Fourth Republic with absolutely no clue about French political history (I would have thought Charles de Gaulle was a character from Asterix!) - no prior tips, lectures, classes or preparation by the tutors. With only the reading list as a guide, we'll pilfer through the relevant books to churn out an essay in preparation for the tutorial in the following week.
Depending on the tutor, you might be required to read the essay out aloud during the tutorials and open yourself to some serious vivisection by the tutor and fellow tutorial mates during the 1-2 hour sessions. Put in some rubbish, and you are done for! The exercise is repeated twice a week, and that means a total of 16 essays every term. That's a lot of essays to write, considering that most universities only require 1-2 term essays (albeit, likely to be longer ones) handed in as "projects".
What's the ultimate effects of such a tutorial system?
The system is a complete contrast to say, National University of Singapore (NUS) which I had the privilege of attending for 2 weeks before I took off to Oxford back in 1991. The time-table at NUS is almost perpectually packed where students rush from lecture halls to tutorial rooms and back to lecture halls on a daily basis. If I don't recall wrongly, there's some 24-30 hours of official lesson time a week for a Bachelor of Arts degree at NUS (and they have longer term time of 10-12 weeks).
This is not to say that the Oxford tutorial system should be adopted by all universities. Certain students perform well in the NUS-type environment, while people like me definitely feels more "liberated" with the Oxford system. I know that in NUS, students are likely to be "screaming" that a lecturer is not doing his/her job if he/she did not provide lecture notes or handouts to accompany the lectures. He or she may even be reprimanded. However, at Oxford, no lecturer worth his salt will provide handouts during a lecture for you will be expected to listen and pick out the relevant points for your own consumption.
So at the end of the day, if you have a keen interest in challenging your thinking and writing skills with a lot of self-effort, then Oxbridge universities will definitely be the place for you.
5. Extra-Curricular Activities
Contrary to popular opinion that Oxbridge is all work and no play, it has an extremely vibrant non-academic environment. You are bound to find a society or interest group among more than 400, to match your own whims and fancies. If you can't find one that matches your interest, you are encouraged to set up one yourself. Yes, there are clubs dedicated towards the resurrection of King Arthur's Camelot.
With only 5-6 hours of official lesson time a week, I thoroughly enjoyed myself with various sports from rowing for a term, representing the college in the very active university hockey league over 2+ years as well as badminton and table-tennis. I took part in clubs such as the Laissez Faire Society and of course, the obligatory functions at the Oxford Malaysia Club (OMC) and Oxford University Malaysia & Singapore Association (OUMSA). Sometimes, I actually wonder back to try to figure out how I actually found time to study!
As highlighted at the start of this post, the above are just be nuggets of my experience during my 3 eventful and thoroughly enjoyable years at Oxford University. I hope to provide readers, and in particular, hopeful students a glimpse of life at Oxford and encourage more applications from Malaysians to these universities. I'm certain that I'm not the only one who has enjoyed myself, and I would encourage fellow alumnus as well as current students there to share your perspectives of the experience at Oxford.
The next update will be on the application process. A gentle reminder that the closing date of applications will be on the 15th October, for 2006 undergraduate entry. You need not wait for my update, go check out the Oxford admission site yourself!
I'm never going to be able to write my entire pre-application, my 3-year stay, my degree programme and other experiences in just one blog post (even if it's a long one like this). Hence, the focus of my writing will be on the nature of teaching and learning that's unique to Oxford and other similar institutions - which may be attractive to many of you out there. For the other readers of the blog from these institutions (I know you are out there), please feel free to add your personal experience, either to my personal email (which I'll then "re-publish") or in the comments column below.
Quick note: My experience below may have in a large part, to do with the degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) which I have taken. So students reading other subjects, particularly the science subjects will clearly have a different "experience". :)
1. Class Size
One of the most important facets of some of the top universities around the world is the small tutorial class sizes. Whilst in the first year, the class sizes may be as large as 8-10 persons, in my subsequent years, the class sizes were often no more than 3 persons.
In fact for certain subjects which are electives, for e.g., I took "Development Economics", I had 1-to-1 tutorial sessions. The small class sizes had certain implications for students. For example, it will be very difficult to evade doing your homework readings for it'll look really stupid when you are attempting to carry out a discussion with your tutor. You will obviously receive a lot of "personal attention", wanted or otherwise. :)
In addition, the small class sizes will ensure that you will have to speak up in the class. Asian students have a tendency to be timid, quiet and fairly non-participative in the classroom. However, when the classroom is only the size of 2 students, there's really very little space to hide from the tutor. I have always been regarded as a fairly vocal student in primary and secondary schools. However, when I was at Oxford, my Economics tutor actually wrote in one of my term reports that I was too quiet and needed to participate more during tutorial discussions!
That certainly plays an important part in honing one's quick thinking skills as well as the ability to express one's thoughts in the clearest manners.
2. College vs University
One of the oft quoted unique features about Oxbridge universities is the fact that the universities are basically made up of a cluster of semi-independent colleges. A description provided by the Oxford University website is quoted here:
One of the many advantages of studying at Oxford is the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of a large international University whilst living in a smaller college community. Your college will be the focus of your academic life, where you will attend weekly tutorials, for most of your time in Oxford. Your college will also provide you with accommodation and food at reasonable prices, as well as being the centre for your social life, offering entertainment, sports, music and drama facilities and events.
Colleges and Halls
The University
- select their own undergraduate students;
- are responsible for students' tutorial teaching and welfare;
- provide accommodation, meals, common rooms, libraries, sports and social facilities and pastoral care for their students.
- determines the content of the courses;
- organises lectures and seminars;
- provides a wide range of resources for teaching and learning in the form of libraries, laboratories, museums, computing facilities;
- sets and marks examinations;
- awards degrees.
I was enrolled in Keble College (picture above), which is quite large by Oxford standards with some 400 undergraduate and 150 postgraduate students. Yes, that's "large". :) Something that many students are not used to, is also the fact that most student stay for at least 2 years, in the college itself. To get to 8 am tutorials in the morning, you just need to wake up at 7.45, wash up, gulp down some breakfast, and make a 2 minute dash to the tutor's room. Yes, most of the tutors stay in the college as well :)
3. Lectures vs Tutorials
The most unique thing I find about my degree programme at Oxford, for better or worse, is the "disjoint" between lectures and tutorials. Lectures are run by the university, while tutorials are managed by the colleges. And with some 30 colleges managing tutorial schedules, you will find that most of the time, the lectures do not "jive" with the tutorial subject schedules. Hence, you might find yourself attending lectures on particular topics in the first term, but the tutorials for the same subject only begins in the third term. And of course, vice-versa.
Due to the fact that tutorials are of prime importance, lectures often take a back seat. That usually means that as the term goes by, I'll be attending less and less lectures. I won't be exaggerating to say that I probably attended an average of maybe only 2-3 hours worth of lectures a week throughout my entire course!
4. Tutorials
Tutorials are probably the most important aspect of one's academic experience at Oxford. Tutorials are scheduled to be twice a week, one for each subject which is being taken for the term. There are 3 terms a year, and 8 weeks for each term. So, every term, I'll be having 16 tutorials a term, 8 on say, "Organisational Economics" and another 8 on say, "Moral Philosophy (Ethics)".
So what's so tough about the tutorials, besides the fact that it's a tiny class? In most universities I'm aware of, tutorials are where the tutors will do some "teaching", students will be taking notes and they may be required to do some question-and-answer type homework. Over at Oxford, threre's little or no formal teaching done during tutorials.
What's typically done is that all students will have to prepare an essay on a particular topic prior to the tutorial session. The essay question and lengthy reading list would have been provided in the previous week. The first week's tutorial came as quite a shock for me because I was to prepare an essay on the "failure" of French Fourth Republic with absolutely no clue about French political history (I would have thought Charles de Gaulle was a character from Asterix!) - no prior tips, lectures, classes or preparation by the tutors. With only the reading list as a guide, we'll pilfer through the relevant books to churn out an essay in preparation for the tutorial in the following week.
Depending on the tutor, you might be required to read the essay out aloud during the tutorials and open yourself to some serious vivisection by the tutor and fellow tutorial mates during the 1-2 hour sessions. Put in some rubbish, and you are done for! The exercise is repeated twice a week, and that means a total of 16 essays every term. That's a lot of essays to write, considering that most universities only require 1-2 term essays (albeit, likely to be longer ones) handed in as "projects".
What's the ultimate effects of such a tutorial system?
- It's probably the ultimate version of anti-spoon feeding as there's actually hardly any "teaching", especially since I (and I'm pretty sure I attended more lectures than my fellow coursemates) attended only a minimal amount of lectures. Everything is to be discovered on your own through all the relevant reading materials. Tutorials are only meant more as "discussion" to ensure that you are on the right track, and to point out certain more pertinent points on a particular topic. It makes you ultimately resourceful.
- The system makes your brain work the hardest because, very often, you start from absolute zero to becoming almost exam ready for that particular topic, all within a period of one week.
- Your writing techniques and skills improves tremendously as you are required to produce top quality essays in the shortest possible time (usually just a couple of hours, because you'd have spent the rest of the prior week gathering and browsing the reading materials). It certainly helps with maintaining a blog like this while having a busy day job! And I can tell you from experience, this is one of the greatest assets to possess when writing reports, analyses, presentations and proposals.
- Your reading skills as well as the ability to sieve out key and relevant information is honed to near perfection, because some 70% (or so) of reading materials are not directly relevant (or are repetitive) and it's important to be able to tell them apart from the relevant points early. Otherwise, you'll never finish the reading list (some books on their own may take 3 weeks to complete!). You have only one week after all, not to mention that you'd still have to produce the essay.
- The active tutorial classes and the openness of debate allows one to hone your expression and debating skills, for not only you need to know what you are talking about, you will also need to know how to express it such that your tutor and course mates can understand you.
The system is a complete contrast to say, National University of Singapore (NUS) which I had the privilege of attending for 2 weeks before I took off to Oxford back in 1991. The time-table at NUS is almost perpectually packed where students rush from lecture halls to tutorial rooms and back to lecture halls on a daily basis. If I don't recall wrongly, there's some 24-30 hours of official lesson time a week for a Bachelor of Arts degree at NUS (and they have longer term time of 10-12 weeks).
This is not to say that the Oxford tutorial system should be adopted by all universities. Certain students perform well in the NUS-type environment, while people like me definitely feels more "liberated" with the Oxford system. I know that in NUS, students are likely to be "screaming" that a lecturer is not doing his/her job if he/she did not provide lecture notes or handouts to accompany the lectures. He or she may even be reprimanded. However, at Oxford, no lecturer worth his salt will provide handouts during a lecture for you will be expected to listen and pick out the relevant points for your own consumption.
So at the end of the day, if you have a keen interest in challenging your thinking and writing skills with a lot of self-effort, then Oxbridge universities will definitely be the place for you.
5. Extra-Curricular Activities
Contrary to popular opinion that Oxbridge is all work and no play, it has an extremely vibrant non-academic environment. You are bound to find a society or interest group among more than 400, to match your own whims and fancies. If you can't find one that matches your interest, you are encouraged to set up one yourself. Yes, there are clubs dedicated towards the resurrection of King Arthur's Camelot.
With only 5-6 hours of official lesson time a week, I thoroughly enjoyed myself with various sports from rowing for a term, representing the college in the very active university hockey league over 2+ years as well as badminton and table-tennis. I took part in clubs such as the Laissez Faire Society and of course, the obligatory functions at the Oxford Malaysia Club (OMC) and Oxford University Malaysia & Singapore Association (OUMSA). Sometimes, I actually wonder back to try to figure out how I actually found time to study!
As highlighted at the start of this post, the above are just be nuggets of my experience during my 3 eventful and thoroughly enjoyable years at Oxford University. I hope to provide readers, and in particular, hopeful students a glimpse of life at Oxford and encourage more applications from Malaysians to these universities. I'm certain that I'm not the only one who has enjoyed myself, and I would encourage fellow alumnus as well as current students there to share your perspectives of the experience at Oxford.
The next update will be on the application process. A gentle reminder that the closing date of applications will be on the 15th October, for 2006 undergraduate entry. You need not wait for my update, go check out the Oxford admission site yourself!
Monday, September 26, 2005
Matriculation vs STPM?
The debate over the use of matriculation examinations as entry requirements into local universities as opposed to the Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) will continue to plague our higher education system unless the educational authorities are able to be transparent about the entire process.
The officials at both the Ministry of Education, as well as that of Higher Education have continued to almost "robotically" deny and dispute any differences in the relative standards between the matriculation and STPM examinations.
In response to a letter from a reader at the Star who requested for a single examination to determine entry into the university, Pn Rubaayah Osman, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Higher Education responded on 28th August that:
Both parties in their statements will try the age old tactic of incorporating irrelevant analogies or arguments to digress and detract from the main issues.
Pn Rubaayah argued that "if every one is convinced about the fairness and effectiveness of one system, then it should be applied to all including having a single type of school rather than National, Chinese and Tamil schools."
Datuk Mahadzir on the other hand, said that "many people continued to be negative about matriculation programmes even though many moves had been made to improve them, including opening the programmes to non-bumiputras."
How is it that a single and fair entry examination into the local public universities analogous to "a single type of school"; or how "opening the [matriculation] programmes to non bumiputras" is an improvement on the assessment system is absolutely beyond me - and I'm sure it's beyond many of you readers out there as well.
The Malaysian education system do not require strictly, a single type of entry examination. However, it is critical that the various entry examinations are of transparent standards and equally accessible to all. The fact that matriculation assessments are "marked by local university academicians" does not give any confidence nor justification that the markings are fair, or are of high standards or are equivalent to STPM.
To ensure transparency, the easiest process is really to conduct a study by a reputable international institute on the various entry examinations in Malaysia and identify the differences in standard, if any. It shouldn't be very difficult to compare between the assessment papers of the students in the matriculation program versus that of STPM students.
In addition, the real telling point with regards to potential differences in standards between the two is by studying the effects of the two different pre-university streams on the results of the students in the public universities. I will have happy to contribute my expertise on statistics to help the authorities come up with the necessary regressive studies on the impact of matriculation studies versus that of STPM for Malaysian students. Should there be a wide disparity in standards between the two groups of students, there clearly something should be done. If there isn't, then publish these results and I'm certain the public will then be appeased.
It is my belief that in the interest of promoting the academic abilities of Malay students in the fastest possible manner, it is critical that they be exposed to the highest standard of academic competition (and not be protected from it). If a comparative study of the 2 systems do show a result whereby the matriculation students are significantly weaker, then my argument will be to abolish the matriculation colleges so that the Malays will be able to achieve better results in the universities through better preparation in the STPM courses. The faster the authorities recognises this, the better it will be for the bumiputeras.
For those interested in reading further with regards to my take on matriculation colleges, click here.
The officials at both the Ministry of Education, as well as that of Higher Education have continued to almost "robotically" deny and dispute any differences in the relative standards between the matriculation and STPM examinations.
In response to a letter from a reader at the Star who requested for a single examination to determine entry into the university, Pn Rubaayah Osman, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Higher Education responded on 28th August that:
Although there are two entry examinations – Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) and Matriculation – used for entrance to public universities, both are on par in terms of standards, curriculum and credit hours. It is not true that one is tougher than the other. This is a matter of perception.At the same time, the Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Mahadzir Mohd Khir responded to public feedback that the assessment for matriculation should be made transparent, like that of STPM by arguing that:
[The] assessment of matriculation exams should not be questioned as the papers are marked by local university academicians.The key problem why the public are clearly unconvinced by both the above arguments are strictly because they are not "arguments" at all. The statements were in effect saying that "if I said that A is equivalent to B, then A must therefore be equivalent to B, how can it be otherwise?"
“I dispute those who say the matriculation programme is substandard. The process may be different from STPM but the students’ achievements are the same.”
Both parties in their statements will try the age old tactic of incorporating irrelevant analogies or arguments to digress and detract from the main issues.
Pn Rubaayah argued that "if every one is convinced about the fairness and effectiveness of one system, then it should be applied to all including having a single type of school rather than National, Chinese and Tamil schools."
Datuk Mahadzir on the other hand, said that "many people continued to be negative about matriculation programmes even though many moves had been made to improve them, including opening the programmes to non-bumiputras."
How is it that a single and fair entry examination into the local public universities analogous to "a single type of school"; or how "opening the [matriculation] programmes to non bumiputras" is an improvement on the assessment system is absolutely beyond me - and I'm sure it's beyond many of you readers out there as well.
The Malaysian education system do not require strictly, a single type of entry examination. However, it is critical that the various entry examinations are of transparent standards and equally accessible to all. The fact that matriculation assessments are "marked by local university academicians" does not give any confidence nor justification that the markings are fair, or are of high standards or are equivalent to STPM.
To ensure transparency, the easiest process is really to conduct a study by a reputable international institute on the various entry examinations in Malaysia and identify the differences in standard, if any. It shouldn't be very difficult to compare between the assessment papers of the students in the matriculation program versus that of STPM students.
In addition, the real telling point with regards to potential differences in standards between the two is by studying the effects of the two different pre-university streams on the results of the students in the public universities. I will have happy to contribute my expertise on statistics to help the authorities come up with the necessary regressive studies on the impact of matriculation studies versus that of STPM for Malaysian students. Should there be a wide disparity in standards between the two groups of students, there clearly something should be done. If there isn't, then publish these results and I'm certain the public will then be appeased.
It is my belief that in the interest of promoting the academic abilities of Malay students in the fastest possible manner, it is critical that they be exposed to the highest standard of academic competition (and not be protected from it). If a comparative study of the 2 systems do show a result whereby the matriculation students are significantly weaker, then my argument will be to abolish the matriculation colleges so that the Malays will be able to achieve better results in the universities through better preparation in the STPM courses. The faster the authorities recognises this, the better it will be for the bumiputeras.
For those interested in reading further with regards to my take on matriculation colleges, click here.
Oxford University: Should I Apply? (I)
Well, here's something that I've been longing to write about ever since I started the blog. However, due to the non-stop issues plaguing the Malaysian education scene for the past few months, I kept procrastinating on writing about my alma mater. But I thought I shouldn't put the above aside any more because, the closing date for 2006 undergraduate degree applications to Oxford and Cambridge Unviersities in the United Kingdom will be closing on the 15th October 2005 (that's about 3 weeks time).
I will be writing on the current topic over 3 parts, the first here will answer some common questions asked with regards to applying to the top universities, the second will cover my experience at the university (what's life like there) and the third, covering the application process (and hopefully, some useful tips). The objective behind the posts is really to encourage bright Malaysian students to apply to Oxford University, or for that matter, other top universities around the world.
Throughout my experience, I have found that often, Malaysian students do not attend the top universities of the world - which I regard as the top 5-10 in the United Kingdom and the top 10-20 in the United States, largely due to lack of information, guidance, confidence and most of all, mis-perception. I hope that by posting here, it'll play a little part in encouraging more young, bright and talented Malaysians to apply, for it is my believe that more Malaysians are fully qualified for these universities than there actually are making the applications.
Usually, before one even gets to the point of seeking out more information about the respective top universities (e.g., reading up on the relevant prospectuses etc.), there are several questions which poses as "barriers" to the application process. These questions often discourage prospective candidates from applying to these universities. I shall attempt to provide some of my thoughts to these common questions here.
1. Am I Good Enough?
I can safely say that the number one question posed by aspirants to the top universities will always be "Am I Good Enough?". Barring the exceptional confident few, there will always be the fear that we are not good enough for the top universities of the world. The source of the fear, or lack of confidence, may have something to do with the fact that we originate from a third world country with an "average" type education system - what makes us think that we can fit in and be accepted by the best in the world?
Let me state here unequivocally - if you are the cream of the Malaysian education system (and by cream, I don't mean just the number 1s and 2s), then you are likely to have a decent shot at obtain entry into these top institutions.
If you have read my profile, you'd have known that I was fairly fortunately to have been enrolled into the top schools in Singapore as well as the United Kingdom. However, both these chances didn't come strictly because I was a "straight As" student - I was not. I was an above average student who was sort of "hovering" near the top, but never once, on top in terms of academic results. In primary school, my results always ranked me consistently between 5th to 12th, while in secondary schools in Singapore, I never got the straight 9A1s for 'O' Levels, or 3-4As for my 'A' Levels which I've always aspired to achieve. But in both instances, I've always thought that there's never harm in "trying", first by applying for ASEAN Scholarship in Primary 6 to study in Singapore, and later, by applying to Oxford before my 'A' Levels. On both occasions, I was extremely fortunate to have been successful.
The simple moral to the story is that if you are accepted, then you are good enough. And you are never going to know if you are going to be accepted if you do not apply. My advice to prospective candidates have always been not to allow them to judge themselves (which often discourages applications) but instead to let these scholarships or university admission bodies do their job. I mean, what's the very worse that can happen - you receive a rejection letter, and that's no different from the state you will be in (apply to other universities), should you have chosen not to apply to the top universities.
2. Why Should I Apply to the Top Universities?
Yes, it sounds a tad like a silly question, but it has been asked often enough such that I thought I should address it here. I won't be exaggerating to say that graduating from the top universities will often (although not always) let you walk into the jobs that you are keen on. Rightly or wrongly, you will be looked at, and treated differently.
Of course the other reason to join the top universities to receive the best education the world can offer - but that's saying the obvious.
3. What if I Can't Afford these Universities?
My answer to the above is quite simple. Worry about funding after you have received your offer letters to enrol into these universities. If you get accepted for a place at Harvard University, I'm certain, there'll be no short of scholarship offers or loan programmes available for you.
My parents definitely could not afford my education at Oxford - at that time, some 14 years ago, it still cost some GBP10,000 per annum in tuition and college fees alone. I was fully prepared to enrol into National University of Singapore (where I've managed to secure a place) should I fail in my quest for a scholarship. Persistence paid off, and I was finally successful in obtaining a full scholarship from Malaysia Tobacco Company (now, British American Tobacco) Foundation - yes, thanks to the Benson & Hedges smokers out there - after receiving many many rejection letters, particularly from Singapore companies which offered scholarships.
Once again, what's the worst that could happen? If you didn't manage to secure your financial assistance to the top universities, at the very least, you have the knowledge that it wasn't the lacking of brain-matter that hindered your progress. In addition, very often these universities will permit a deferment in the entry year as well - which will provide additional time for you to source for the necessary funding.
So, all you top 'A' Level and STPM students out there - there's really nothing which should stop you from applying to the top institutions in the world. You don't have to be a genius to be accepted into these colleges, and the top Malaysian students definitely have the capability to qualify. This is where the cliche comes in, "Just Do It!".
Quick Note: For those interested in applying to Oxford University before I post my subsequent updates, please visit the university admission pages here.
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