The Lonely Journey

The disposable academic - Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time - The Economist

2011-12-30T09:34:00.004+08:00

ON THE evening before All Saints’ Day in 1517, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg. In those days a thesis was simply a position one wanted to argue. Luther, an Augustinian friar, asserted that Christians could not buy their way to heaven. Today a doctoral thesis is both an idea and an account of a period of original research. Writing one is the aim of the hundreds of thousands of students who embark on a doctorate of philosophy (PhD) every year.

In most countries a PhD is a basic requirement for a career in academia. It is an introduction to the world of independent research—a kind of intellectual masterpiece, created by an apprentice in close collaboration with a supervisor. The requirements to complete one vary enormously between countries, universities and even subjects. Some students will first have to spend two years working on a master’s degree or diploma. Some will receive a stipend; others will pay their own way. Some PhDs involve only research, some require classes and examinations and some require the student to teach undergraduates. A thesis can be dozens of pages in mathematics, or many hundreds in history. As a result, newly minted PhDs can be as young as their early 20s or world-weary forty-somethings.

One thing many PhD students have in common is dissatisfaction. Some describe their work as “slave labour”. Seven-day weeks, ten-hour days, low pay and uncertain prospects are widespread. You know you are a graduate student, goes one quip, when your office is better decorated than your home and you have a favourite flavour of instant noodle. “It isn’t graduate school itself that is discouraging,” says one student, who confesses to rather enjoying the hunt for free pizza. “What’s discouraging is realising the end point has been yanked out of reach.”

Whining PhD students are nothing new, but there seem to be genuine problems with the system that produces research doctorates (the practical “professional doctorates” in fields such as law, business and medicine have a more obvious value). There is an oversupply of PhDs. Although a doctorate is designed as training for a job in academia, the number of PhD positions is unrelated to the number of job openings. Meanwhile, business leaders complain about shortages of high-level skills, suggesting PhDs are not teaching the right things. The fiercest critics compare research doctorates to Ponzi or pyramid schemes.

Rich pickings

For most of history even a first degree at a university was the privilege of a rich few, and many academic staff did not hold doctorates. But as higher education expanded after the second world war, so did the expectation that lecturers would hold advanced degrees. American universities geared up first: by 1970 America was producing just under a third of the world’s university students and half of its science and technology PhDs (at that time it had only 6% of the global population). Since then America’s annual output of PhDs has doubled, to 64,000.

Other countries are catching up. Between 1998 and 2006 the number of doctorates handed out in all OECD countries grew by 40%, compared with 22% for America. PhD production sped up most dramatically in Mexico, Portugal, Italy and Slovakia. Even Japan, where the number of young people is shrinking, churned out about 46% more PhDs. Part of that growth reflects the expansion of university education outside America. Richard Freeman, a labour economist at Harvard University, says that by 2006 America was enrolling just 12% of the world’s students.

But universities have discovered that PhD students are cheap, highly motivated and disposable labour. With more PhD students they can do more research, and in some countries more teaching, with less money. A graduate assistant at Yale might earn $20,000 a year for nine months of teaching. The average pay of full professors in America was $109,000 in 2009—higher than the average for judges and magistrates.

Indeed, the production of PhDs has far outstripped demand for university lecturers. In a recent book, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, an academic and a journalist, report that America produced more than 100,000 doctoral degrees between 2005 and 2009. In the same period there were just 16,000 new professorships. Using PhD students to do much of the undergraduate teaching cuts the number of full-time jobs. Even in Canada, where the output of PhD graduates has grown relatively modestly, universities conferred 4,800 doctorate degrees in 2007 but hired just 2,616 new full-time professors. Only a few fast-developing countries, such as Brazil and China, now seem short of PhDs.

A short course in supply and demand

In research the story is similar. PhD students and contract staff known as “postdocs”, described by one student as “the ugly underbelly of academia”, do much of the research these days. There is a glut of postdocs too. Dr Freeman concluded from pre-2000 data that if American faculty jobs in the life sciences were increasing at 5% a year, just 20% of students would land one. In Canada 80% of postdocs earn $38,600 or less per year before tax—the average salary of a construction worker. The rise of the postdoc has created another obstacle on the way to an academic post. In some areas five years as a postdoc is now a prerequisite for landing a secure full-time job.

These armies of low-paid PhD researchers and postdocs boost universities’, and therefore countries’, research capacity. Yet that is not always a good thing. Brilliant, well-trained minds can go to waste when fashions change. The post-Sputnik era drove the rapid growth in PhD physicists that came to an abrupt halt as the Vietnam war drained the science budget. Brian Schwartz, a professor of physics at the City University of New York, says that in the 1970s as many as 5,000 physicists had to find jobs in other areas.

In America the rise of PhD teachers’ unions reflects the breakdown of an implicit contract between universities and PhD students: crummy pay now for a good academic job later. Student teachers in public universities such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison formed unions as early as the 1960s, but the pace of unionisation has increased recently. Unions are now spreading to private universities; though Yale and Cornell, where university administrators and some faculty argue that PhD students who teach are not workers but apprentices, have resisted union drives. In 2002 New York University was the first private university to recognise a PhD teachers’ union, but stopped negotiating with it three years later.

In some countries, such as Britain and America, poor pay and job prospects are reflected in the number of foreign-born PhD students. Dr Freeman estimates that in 1966 only 23% of science and engineering PhDs in America were awarded to students born outside the country. By 2006 that proportion had increased to 48%. Foreign students tend to tolerate poorer working conditions, and the supply of cheap, brilliant, foreign labour also keeps wages down.

Proponents of the PhD argue that it is worthwhile even if it does not lead to permanent academic employment. Not every student embarks on a PhD wanting a university career and many move successfully into private-sector jobs in, for instance, industrial research. That is true; but drop-out rates suggest that many students become dispirited. In America only 57% of doctoral students will have a PhD ten years after their first date of enrolment. In the humanities, where most students pay for their own PhDs, the figure is 49%. Worse still, whereas in other subject areas students tend to jump ship in the early years, in the humanities they cling like limpets before eventually falling off. And these students started out as the academic cream of the nation. Research at one American university found that those who finish are no cleverer than those who do not. Poor supervision, bad job prospects or lack of money cause them to run out of steam.

Even graduates who find work outside universities may not fare all that well. PhD courses are so specialised that university careers offices struggle to assist graduates looking for jobs, and supervisors tend to have little interest in students who are leaving academia. One OECD study shows that five years after receiving their degrees, more than 60% of PhDs in Slovakia and more than 45% in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Spain were still on temporary contracts. Many were postdocs. About one-third of Austria’s PhD graduates take jobs unrelated to their degrees. In Germany 13% of all PhD graduates end up in lowly occupations. In the Netherlands the proportion is 21%.

A very slim premium

PhD graduates do at least earn more than those with a bachelor’s degree. A study in the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management by Bernard Casey shows that British men with a bachelor’s degree earn 14% more than those who could have gone to university but chose not to. The earnings premium for a PhD is 26%. But the premium for a master’s degree, which can be accomplished in as little as one year, is almost as high, at 23%. In some subjects the premium for a PhD vanishes entirely. PhDs in maths and computing, social sciences and languages earn no more than those with master’s degrees. The premium for a PhD is actually smaller than for a master’s degree in engineering and technology, architecture and education. Only in medicine, other sciences, and business and financial studies is it high enough to be worthwhile. Over all subjects, a PhD commands only a 3% premium over a master’s degree.

Dr Schwartz, the New York physicist, says the skills learned in the course of a PhD can be readily acquired through much shorter courses. Thirty years ago, he says, Wall Street firms realised that some physicists could work out differential equations and recruited them to become “quants”, analysts and traders. Today several short courses offer the advanced maths useful for finance. “A PhD physicist with one course on differential equations is not competitive,” says Dr Schwartz.

Many students say they are pursuing their subject out of love, and that education is an end in itself. Some give little thought to where the qualification might lead. In one study of British PhD graduates, about a third admitted that they were doing their doctorate partly to go on being a student, or put off job hunting. Nearly half of engineering students admitted to this. Scientists can easily get stipends, and therefore drift into doing a PhD. But there are penalties, as well as benefits, to staying at university. Workers with “surplus schooling”—more education than a job requires—are likely to be less satisfied, less productive and more likely to say they are going to leave their jobs.

Academics tend to regard asking whether a PhD is worthwhile as analogous to wondering whether there is too much art or culture in the world. They believe that knowledge spills from universities into society, making it more productive and healthier. That may well be true; but doing a PhD may still be a bad choice for an individual.

The interests of academics and universities on the one hand and PhD students on the other are not well aligned. The more bright students stay at universities, the better it is for academics. Postgraduate students bring in grants and beef up their supervisors’ publication records. Academics pick bright undergraduate students and groom them as potential graduate students. It isn’t in their interests to turn the smart kids away, at least at the beginning. One female student spoke of being told of glowing opportunities at the outset, but after seven years of hard slog she was fobbed off with a joke about finding a rich husband.

Monica Harris, a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, is a rare exception. She believes that too many PhDs are being produced, and has stopped admitting them. But such unilateral academic birth control is rare. One Ivy-League president, asked recently about PhD oversupply, said that if the top universities cut back others will step in to offer them instead.

Noble pursuits

Many of the drawbacks of doing a PhD are well known. Your correspondent was aware of them over a decade ago while she slogged through a largely pointless PhD in theoretical ecology. As Europeans try to harmonise higher education, some institutions are pushing the more structured learning that comes with an American PhD.

The organisations that pay for research have realised that many PhDs find it tough to transfer their skills into the job market. Writing lab reports, giving academic presentations and conducting six-month literature reviews can be surprisingly unhelpful in a world where technical knowledge has to be assimilated quickly and presented simply to a wide audience. Some universities are now offering their PhD students training in soft skills such as communication and teamwork that may be useful in the labour market. In Britain a four-year NewRoutePhD claims to develop just such skills in graduates.

Measurements and incentives might be changed, too. Some university departments and academics regard numbers of PhD graduates as an indicator of success and compete to produce more. For the students, a measure of how quickly those students get a permanent job, and what they earn, would be more useful. Where penalties are levied on academics who allow PhDs to overrun, the number of students who complete rises abruptly, suggesting that students were previously allowed to fester.

Many of those who embark on a PhD are the smartest in their class and will have been the best at everything they have done. They will have amassed awards and prizes. As this year’s new crop of graduate students bounce into their research, few will be willing to accept that the system they are entering could be designed for the benefit of others, that even hard work and brilliance may well not be enough to succeed, and that they would be better off doing something else. They might use their research skills to look harder at the lot of the disposable academic. Someone should write a thesis about that.

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?fsrc=scn/tw/te/mp/thedisposableacademic

Majlis Konvokesyen ke 11 OUM pada 10 & 11 Disember 2011

2011-12-13T13:05:00.002+08:00

Cokmar OUM diletakkan dengan berhati-hati sebelum Majlis Konvokesyen di mulakan

Ucapan aluan Presiden dan Naib Canselor OUM, YBhg Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Anuwar Ali

Seramai 3,468 orang graduan menerima ijazah masing-masing pada Majlis Konvokesyen OUM yang ke 11 yang telah dijalankan dari 10 hingga 11 Disember 2011. Mereka menerima ijazah daripada YAB Tun Jeanne Abdullah, Canselor OUM pada hari pertama dan YBhg Tan Sri Azman Hashim, Pro-Canselor OUM pada hari kedua.

YBhg Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Anuwar Ali sedang membacakan latar belakang YBhg Tan Sri Arshad Ayub yang dikurniakan dengan Ijazah Doktor Kehormat Pengurusan

YBhg Tan Sri Arshad Ayub sedang menerima Ijazah Doktor Kehormat dari YABhg Tun Jeanne Abdullah, Canselor OUM

YABhg Tun Jeanne Abdullah, Canselor OUM sedang mengishtiharkan pembukaan Majlis Kovokesyen OUM ke11

Majlis ini telah dijalankan di Dewan Merdeka PWTC seperti konvokesyen yang lepas. Para graduan hadir bersama keluarga masing-masing membanjiri PWTC pada tingkat 4 di mana majlis ini dilangsungkan.

Dr. Siti Mazidah, graduan PhD (Pendidikan) sedang menyampaikan ucap terima kasih bagi pihak graduan

Salah seorang graduan sedang menerima ijazahnya dari YABhg Tun Canselor pada hari konvo pertama

Majlis dimulakan dengan perarakan akademik dan perarakan besar. Selepas itu lagu NegaraKu diikuti lagu OUM dimainkan.

Presiden dan Naib Canselor OUM memulakan majlis dengan ucapan aluan serta memohon izin Canselor untuk menganugerahkan ijazah-ijazah kepada para graduan.

Para graduan berdiri semasa perarakan akademik

Pada majlis kali ini, 3 orang graduan PhD dalam pendidikan berjaya menerima ijazah mereka. Antaranya ialah Dr. Siti Maziha yang telah diberi penghormatan untuk menyampaikan ucapan bagi pihak para graduan sekalian.

Kelihatan graduan sedang senyum lebar menandakan saat kegembiraan mereka

Terdahulu dari itu, YBhg Tan Sri Dato Arshad Ayub telah dianugerahkan Ijazah Kedoktoran Kehormat dalam bidang pengurusan bagi mengenang jasanya dalam bidang pendidikan jarak jauh.

Salah seorang graduan sedang menerima ijazahnya dari YBhg Tan Sri Azman Hashim Pro-Canselor OUM pada hari konvo kedua

Barisan ahli akademik sedang menanti saat untuk perarakan masuk akademik

Dr. Rosmah bersama Dr. Richard semasa majlis konvo

Majlis konvokesyen ini telah dijalankan dalam empat sidang dengan dua sidang setiap hari.

Para graduan sedang membetulkan jubah masing-masing sebelum majlis konvo

Para graduan sedang sibuk membeli ole-ole OUM di kaunter Alumni OUM

More than 60% of private colleges in Malaysia ranked as satisfactory - The Star

2011-11-10T18:22:00.000+08:00

By ALYCIA LIM

PUTRAJAYA: More than 60% of private colleges in Malaysia have been ranked as satisfactory, according to the first Malaysia Quality Evaluation System (MyQUEST), with a score of four stars and above.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said of a total of 403 colleges, 232 were qualified to be audited based on the criterias set by the ministry but only 210 agreed to be audited.

"The purpose of MyQUEST is to categorise the colleges which are excellent, good, or weak, and prepare the suitable approaches to help the weaker ones with their issues and challenges,” said Khaled at a press conference after the ministry's Integrity Day 2011 celebration here Thursday.

Of all the colleges, only three institutions - Penang Medical College, Segi College Subang Jaya and Taylor's College Subang Jaya were awarded the maximum of six stars.

Mohamed Khaled urged private colleges to continuously improve their quality and performance to remain competitive in the market and encouraged those that were eligible to participate in the evaluation system.

"If the colleges are genuine and confident, I do not see any reason why they would not want to participate."

He said the system would also help the public with deciding where they wanted to pursue their tertiary education.

"If a college is continuously ranked below three stars, the market would decide their fate," he said, adding that the ranking would act as a reference point for PTPTN loan approvals and requests to be upgraded to a University College status, among others.

Apart from the top three colleges, 20 colleges (9.5%) attained five stars, and 60 colleges (28.6%) attained four stars, with the remaining 72 (34.3%) receiving three stars and below

Using A Light Barrier To Repel Mosquitoes - Forbes

2011-11-03T09:04:00.002+08:00

Columbia physicist Szabolcs Marka

What if it turned out that you could ditch the bug spray to keep mosquitoes away –and use a beam of light instead? That’s what Szabolcs Márka, an experimental physicist, is in the early stages of researching.

Márka, 42, an associate professor at Columbia University, is an academic who lets his curiosity lead him. He had been studying optics as part of his astrophysics research (on what happens when two black holes merge) several years ago when the idea popped into his head that mosquitoes find their targets using complex sensory systems, so what about damaging or confusing those sensors? Working with colleagues including his wife associate research scientist Zsuzsa Márka (a physicist and a chemist) and Imre Bartos (an astrophysicist), he first tried knocking out and damaging the sensors of Anopheles gambiae, a malaria mosquito. Then the researchers came up with the idea of a light barrier. “We stumbled on this: If you have an invisible wall of light, how will mosquitoes and fruit flies react? They do walk or fly into it. Then they turn back. They don’t want to cross it,” says Márka. (Watch this video here to see how the mosquitoes stop at the invisible wall of light.)

He applied to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and got a $100,000 grant in 2008 to pursue the research. His results were so interesting that the Gates Foundation gave him a second grant, of $1 million, to keep going. His is just one of five research groups to receive a second grant as a follow up to the foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations grants.

The Gates Foundations’ primary interest in this research is its possible use for preventing malaria. Despite successful efforts to reduce the incidence of the disease in some countries, malaria still kills nearly 1 million people a year –mostly in sub Saharan Africa and mostly children under age 5. But the applications could be much wider. Imagine beams of light in your backyard patio keeping the bugs away — or a beam across your bedroom window, keeping the mosquitoes from entering your room.

Márka says it will be years before real practical tools emerge. Right now, his team is using the Gates Foundation grant to study the parameters of the effect they discovered. Does this apply to old mosquitoes as well as young ones? Does it work on mosquitoes that are well fed as well as those who are not? Is the best beam of light one by a window, or encircling a bed? They are also developing a mathematical model that will predict the broader effects of this tool. If you protect 50% of the people from mosquitoes, will it make the situation worse for the other 50%?

Just why the mosquitoes are repelled by the light barrier is a mystery Márka and his colleagues are still trying to unravel. “For practical purposes, it doesn’t really matter why. When I put on my scientist hat, this is the most interesting question,” says Márka. If scientists can understand how a mosquito identifies odors and gases and finds the right place to bite, Márka envisions one day creating robots with these qualities. “Imagine someone is down in a mine –we don’t want to go there. Or there’s a wounded soldier. Or there’s a person trapped close to a nuclear reactor,” he says, describing the opportunities for robots that can find humans the way mosquitoes and other arthropods do.

His insect research on the surface looks like quite a leap from previous projects in fundamental science. Márka, who is from Hungary but got his PhD at Vanderbilt University, was a nuclear physicist and spent time characterizing materials that could make nuclear reactors safer. Then he switched to particle physics and worked on building and using particle detectors destined to figure out aspects of how quarks behave. As the leader of the experimental gravity group at Columbia, he is looking into what happens when two black holes or neutron stars merge in the distant universe, is collaborating with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, a facility funded by the National Science Foundation and located in Louisiana and Hanford, Wash. that aims to detect cosmic gravitational waves Márka describes it as an instrument that “takes a light beam, splits it into two parts, brings them back together and measures whether one traveled longer than the other.” The purpose? “It’s opening a new window on the universe. You could see wonderful processes through gravitational waves—figuratively speaking, ‘the ripples of space-time itself’ –that you do not see otherwise.”

Prof. Márka’s work has earned him a spot as a finalist for the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, given out under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences and backed by Russian-American billionaire industrialist Len Blavatnik. The winner of the Blavatnik Award will be announced on Nov. 14.

OUM PhD Students Monthly Gathering - Oct 23, 2011

2011-10-12T11:43:00.002+08:00

Posted by Bee Ching:

Dear All,

We live in a multi-racial, multi cultural and multi-religious society. Last month,our Muslim friends celebrated Hari Raya Aidilfitri , this month we will have our Indian friends celebrate their Deepavali festival on the 26th of October. Hence the normal scheduled last Sunday meeting has been put forward a week early to 23rd as to allow members to enjoy the festival of light without interruption.

October meeting, we are glad to invite our ex-Doctoral Seminar facilitator and now Director of Student Management Center, Assoc Prof Dr Santhi Raghavan to give a Talk on Developing and Administrating of Survey Questionnaires.

We are looking forward to listen to Dr Santhi's timely expert guidance on how ,where, what and which survey questionnaires are to be selected, adapted and adopted for our research proposal.

Besides the Talk, we have invited our first batch of pioneer PhD(BA) graduates Richard Ng, Lum Heap Sum,Wong Siaw Ming and Patrick Wong to come and join us and share their(lonely) research journeys with us.

At the point of writing this message, Dr Richard Ng, has replied he would be working on the day . Dr Lum and Dr Wong Siaw Ming have just replied that they would be happy to join us. As suggested by Zulkifli, during our dialogue session, we hope to listen to some mentoring tips from Dr Lum and Dr Wong. They said they would be happy to answer questions raised from the floor. Please have your questions ready.

By the way, I have forwarded three files on PhD September briefings prepared by Dr Rosmah to members in the loop. I realized the file size is very large and many mails sent to members' company addresses have been returned and have to be resent again twice to limit the files size. Please download the 50 ppf slides, and keep the information for future reference. The one on Estimated to complete PhD time table is most useful .

Below please find the 23rd October Program Agenda

9.00-9.30 - Registration
9,30-10.30 - Developing and administrating survey questionnaire( Part 1)
10.30-11.00 - Morning tea break
11.00-12.00 - Developing and administrating survey questionnaire( Part 2)
12.00-1.00 - Sharing by Dr Lum and Dr Wong .
1.00-2.30 - Lunch

Venue : GA01 Beside Theatrette & Library, OUM

Cost : nil

For those intending to come, please confirm by email to cbeching@yahoo.com or
sms to 0173402968 so that Dr Santhi will know the number of notes to be prepared as well as the lunch to be ordered

Thank you and see you all there to listen, to learn, to meet and to network.

Happy studying and writing

Post-grad student boost - The Star

2011-10-11T19:38:00.001+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Students will have a chance to continue their studies at international institutions through the newly-launched Merdeka Award Grant for International Attachment, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.

The Prime Minister said the grant, open to Malaysian post-graduate students between 22 and 35 years old, would be introduced next year in disciplines like education, arts, sports, community and social work, environment, health, and science and technology.

“The youths are our future and it is important that we guide and provide them the opportunities and facilities to pursue their interest,” he said at the Merdeka Award ceremony at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas here last night.

The grant will allow students to engage in short-term collaborative projects at selected, internationally-recognised host institutions to develop their expertise.

“One grant will be offered in 2012 and two each in subsequent years,” he added.

At the function, Najib presented awards to Datuk Dr Kenneth Yeang, Prof Datuk Dr Goh Khean Lee and Prof Dr Mak Joon Wah for outstanding work in their respective fields.

Yeang received an award in the environment category for his contributions to developing ecology-related designs for buildings and in environmental conservation planning while Dr Goh and Dr Mak were joint recipients in the Outstanding Scholastic Achievement category.

Dr Goh was awarded for his contributions to developing research and practices in gastroenterology and hepatology in Malaysia to the global level.

Dr Mak is recognised as a global expert on filariasis and malaria by the World Health Organisation after being appointed consultant in at least 17 different cases.

Dr Goh said: “It is an honour to be chosen and I am extremely happy to share this prestigious award with a well-known scholar like Dr Mak.”

Each category offers a RM500,000 prize money, a trophy and a certificate.

The joint recipients of the Outstanding Scholastic Achievement category will share the award equally.

Also present at the ceremony were previous Merdeka Award recipients, the Prime Minister's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and Merdeka Award Board of Trustees chairman Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas

The Merdeka Award was established by Petronas, ExxonMobil and Shell on August 27, 2007 to recognise and reward individuals who had made outstanding and lasting contributions to the nation in their respective fields.

Khaled: Local unis missing THE 400 research criteria - The Malaysian Insider

2011-10-11T09:29:00.002+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 — Local universities did not feature in the recent Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings as they lacked the research expertise needed for a placing, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Khaled Nordin explained today.
“We know that if we participated, we will not even make it into the Times top 400 university rankings because we are new, we need to wait until our research really matured,” Khaled was quoted by Bernama Online today.

“It’s not that we have been assessed and disqualified... [but] our elements of research are just too young and immature [to make the list].”

Times’ World University Rankings is a grades the world’s top 400 universities.

The California Institute of Technology — or Caltech — secured top spot in this year’s rankings, followed by Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Princeton.

The World University Rankings first appeared as a supplement in The Times of London, are now published by the Times Higher Education magazine.

The weekly is regarded as the UK’s leading higher education publication.

ICDE 2011 Conference - 2 - 5, Oct 2011 in Bali

2011-10-06T09:08:00.006+08:00

The ICDE 2011 conference in Bali has just concluded yesterday with a free trip to several locations.

According to conference organizing chairman, Tian Belawati, the bi-anuual conference has attracted 602 participants from 49 countries with 230 presenters. The conference was officially open by HE President Bambang of Indonesia.

Several prominent speakers were invited to speak at the 24th ICDE Conference.

The following are some short video clips of some of the papers presented:

Video Clip of Richard Ng - Part 1:

Video Clip of Richard Ng - Part 2:

... more to come

24th ICDE World Conference media release: The power of education to transform lives - access, investment and development

The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) held its 24th biennial world conference in collaboration with The Open University (Universitas Terbuka), Indonesia from 2-5 October 2011. The conference, which looked at new approaches to learning, took place on the island of Bali and was attended by over 600 delegates representing 49 countries.

Background

The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) is a network of educational institutions and associations worldwide. The organization enjoys formal consultative relations with UNESCO and works to promote open and distance learning, and provide opportunities for exchange of educational best practice between countries and regions.

The importance of creative solutions for education

In opening the conference, the Minister of National Education of the Republic of Indonesia Muhammad Nuh praised Universitas Terbuka for its work in overcoming challenges in the provision of access to education: “We have to be creative – open and distance learning has to be used as widely as possible to narrow social gaps”.

A personal story about educational opportunity

Hal Plotkin, Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education drew on his own life story to highlight the opportunity that distance education can bring to underprivileged sections of society. On the verge of losing the family home, 17-year-old Plotkin left high school to work as a waiter until a newspaper article about school dropouts provoked him to write a reply, the beginning of a career as a writer and journalist. His formal education came through the US community college system which has no requirements for previous formal education: “Only 5% have real opportunities to enter higher education and among the other 95% could be geniuses capable of finding the cure for diabetes and solutions to the world’s economic challenges – open education is the only tool to unlock talent and capacity and to extend economic growth”.

Investments in access to education

Plotkin reported on massive investments in open education being made by the Obama administration in the United States through the federal Online Skills Laboratory, an initiative to build open resources for learning. The Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program (TAACCCT) will invest $2 billion over the next four years in initiatives including free to access materials.

Keynote speaker Duk Hoon Kwak of the Korea Educational Broadcasting System (EBS), a public television network dedicated to lifelong public education noted similar investments planned in Korea for 2012-2015. All Korean students will be provided with digital textbooks by the end of this period.

Access challenges in developing countries

Onno W Purbo an IT evangelist from Indonesia spoke of how 6 million children enter school annually, but only 600,000 graduate from higher education. While learning materials are ever more freely available, the predominance of English language creates barriers, though Google translate is widely used. Students and teachers use USB memory drives to overcome the problems of slow internet connection, while kitchen utensils are used to extend the range of Wi-Fi hotspots.

From a Brazilian perspective, Stavros Xanthopoylos spoke of the challenges to creating and distributing free educational content when quality education is only available through private universities and colleges: “the value chain is based on profit and this goes against what they are about”.

Academic perspectives

Lawrence Lessig, lawyer, activist and founder of Creative Commons, an initiative to provide certificates for the licensing of scientific and educational materials spoke passionately about the injustices of commercial scientific publishing which restricts access to knowledge to the most privileged: “copyright is 18th century rules in a 21st century world”.

Respected academics working with open educational resources including Gráinne Conole from the University of Leicester, UK, and Rory McGreal from Athabasca University, Canada spoke on the role of technology in learning. McGreal advised colleagues to create educational materials for mobile devices first: “a third of the world’s population can only access the Internet from mobile devices”.

3 out of 10 doctoral students drop out - NST

2011-09-28T10:34:00.002+08:00

PUTRAJAYA: Up to three out of 10 Malaysians who signed up to pursue
their doctorates on a part-time basis end up dropping out because of work and family commitments.

This has discouraged many others at a time the Higher Education Ministry is targeting 60,000 PhD holders by 2023, up from the present 14,000.

Professor Dr Zakaria Kasa, head of the National Council of Professors’ education and human capital development cluster, said many of those pursuing their PhDs locally often found that they did not have enough time to focus on their research because of work and family commitments.

“Others then become sceptical about taking up PhDs when they see people they know dropping out halfway,” he said.

This is the reason more people preferred to pursue their PhDs overseas, where they feel they will able to focus better on their research.

Another reason is a high dependency on scholarships or sponsorships.

“This isn’t a problem in public universities because there are allocations for staff and with the government’s MyBrains15 Scholarship programme, non-lecturers are also given an opportunity to pursue PhDs.

“Unfortunately, many want to go overseas and there are very few scholarships for this. Even atmy university, we have a quota for overseas scholar ships,” he said. Zakaria is deputy vice chancellor of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris.

He said the National Council of Professors was looking at means of motivating more people to pursue PhDs.

“If possible, the council will like to see every academic become a PhD holder,” he said, adding that there was a shortage of professors, which now stood at 1,700 nationwide.

“In developing countries, academics adhere to a pyramid structure where professors are at the top, followed by associate professors and then lecturers. In developed countries, it is a reverse pyramid.” In developed countries, the number of professors reflects a university’s excellence.

“It’s not easy to be promoted to professor level.

“There are criteria that need to be fulfilled like the number of published papers.” Local universities also do not have the kind of funding compared with established universities overseas, such as Harvard, which receives generous funds from its alumni.

Zakaria said it would be an investment for the country if it could provide funding to allow those pursuing their PhDs to go to some of the top 100 universities in the world.

Yesterday, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the government had, to date, received 2,802 applications for the MyMaster, 672 for the MyPhD and 51 for the PhD Industry components of the MyBrain15 Scholarship programme.

He said this after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of agreement for an engineering doctorate programme between Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) and several private engineering companies at the Marriott Putrajaya. Khaled had announced previously that the government was targeting to reach 650 successful applications for MyPhD, 8,000 for MyMaster and 100 for PhD Industry this year.

Under the programme, successful candidates for MyPhD, MyMaster and PhD Industry will receive RM22,000, RM10,000 and RM50,000 each respectively as long as they further their study in Malaysia.

The MyBrain15 programme aims to produce, among others, 5,000 PhD holders under the MyPhD project, 40,000 master’s degree holders under MyMaster programme and 500 PhD Industry holders, by 2015.

Read more: 3 out of 10 doctoral students drop out http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/3outof10doctoralstudentsdropout/Article/#ixzz1ZD7IVBeN

UM senior lecturer wins judicial review over PhD - The Star

2011-09-27T19:14:00.001+08:00

By M. MAGESWARI

KUALA LUMPUR: A senior Universiti Malaya (UM) lecturer, who was orally told he had passed his Phd but later informed he had failed, won his judicial review application at the High Court here Tuesday.

High Court judge Justice Rohana Yusuf, in allowing G. Sivapalan's application with costs, ordered UM to pay him RM7,000.

In his application, Sivapalan had asked the court to confirm that the oral decision by UM's examination committee announced to him on Sept 28, 2006 was valid and enforceable.

He also sought for all benefits, including salary increment from year 2006.

In his court paper, Sivapalan said he had registered to pursue his PhD on Oct 16, 1996 and had duly submitted his thesis on March 20, 2006.

He said he had duly attended a viva voce (oral examination) on Sept 28, 2006 and was informed that he had passed his PhD thesis examination.

His lawyer M. Eswary said his client later received letters from UM saying he had failed his PhD and would not be allowed to sit for a second viva voce.

She said her client asked why the university made such a decision three years after he was informed orally that he had passed his PhD.

On Tuesday, Justice Rohana held in chambers that the letter issued by UM that Sivapalan had failed his PhD and would not be allowed to continue his PhD programme again was invalid.

The judge held that the affidavit given by the UM's internal examiner Prof M. Rajantheran on what had transpired during Sivapalan's viva-voce on Sept 28, 2006 "stood unrebutted".

(In the affidavit, Prof Rajantheran stated that the viva-voce committee unanimously decided that Sivapalan had passed the PhD examination thesis without any need to do correction and could be conferred with PhD.)

Therefore, Justice Rohana ruled that Sivapalan had a legitimate expectation that he has passed his doctorate degree.

She said UM failed to explain the three-year delay to notify the lecturer over his status.

Work visa mulled for international post-grad students - The Star

2011-09-27T15:45:00.001+08:00

By PRIYA KULASAGARAN

PUTRAJAYA: Qualified international post-graduate students may be allowed to work in Malaysia.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said such students would help contribute to the country's aims of increasing its skilled workforce.

"Universities can recommend good students who can work here, and we in turn can suggest that the Immigration department issue them work visas," he said.

He was speaking to reporters after attending the Malaysia International Scholarship (MIS) presentation ceremony at his ministry here.

Nine students received scholarships at the event, and a total of 110 MIS awards have been handed out to international students from 27 countries this year.

Government aims to attract 200,000 international students by 2020 - The Malaysian Insider

2011-09-13T17:42:00.000+08:00

By Melissa Chi September 13, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 — Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced today that the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) aims to attract at least 200,000 international students to education institutions in Malaysia by 2020.

He said that the increased number of foreign students would be worth an estimated RM600 billion to the economy.

“Through co-operation with established and renowned institutions abroad, the government intends to make the education sector an economic endeavour by attracting more foreign students,” he said during his speech at the Education Nation Conference 2011 here at the Royale Chulan Hotel.

Malaysia has achieved a world ranking of 11th in terms of total international student population from around the world.

This was due to the burgeoning international student population in Malaysia, which has risen above 90,000, or the equivalent of around two per cent of the total international student population in the world as of June this year.

Based on the statistical breakdown provided by the MOHE website, the top five countries from which the majority of students were derived in 2009 were Iran, Indonesia, China, Nigeria and Yemen.

“Malaysia’s strategic regional position forms a melting pot of confluence that allows cross-fertilisation of ideas, cultures and civilisation dialogism,” Muhyiddin said.

The rise in the overseas student population in Malaysia is also attributed to the higher education liberalisation policy which aims to provide 100 per cent foreign equity by 2015.

Perdana University launched; Dr M named chancellor - The Star

2011-09-12T13:58:00.004+08:00

By MARTIN CARVALHO

Perdana University was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Monday.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was named the university's first chancellor.

The university, a collaboration with world-renowned Johns Hopkins and the Royal College of Surgeons, saw the first intake of 30 medical students.

In his speech, Najib said the presence of the university would help put Malaysia on the world map for excellence in education and research in medicine.

UM among top 200 varsities

2011-09-05T14:48:00.003+08:00

By KAREN CHAPMAN (educate@thestar.com.my)

PETALING JAYA: Universiti Malaya (UM) is the only Malaysian institution that has made it to the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings 2011/12.

It moved up 40 places to 167 this year compared to 207 in 2010.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) have all slid down the rankings (see table).

UKM is ranked 279 this year compared to 263 in 2010; USM at 335 (309), UPM 358 (319) and UTM at between 401 and 450 (365).

For the first time, the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) were included in the rankings at 451-500 and 601+ respectively.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin congratulated UM on its improvement, saying it was a reflection of the hard work put in by the university staff.

“I am also happy that two more of our institutions, IIUM and UiTM, have made it to the QS World University Rankings,” he said.

However, he said rankings were not the ministry's main objective as it was important to ensure universities contribute to the development process of the country.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) Ltd Intelligence Unit head Ben Sowter said QS conducts and compiles the annual World University Rankings, which is an annual league table of the top universities in the world.

The rankings are based on data gathered and measured in academic peer review, employer reputation review, international faculty ratio, international student ratio, student faculty ratio, and citations per faculty.

On UM's improvement, Sowter said it was the only Malaysian institution to have improved in its academic, employer scores and international aspects this year.

He said UKM lost ground in the employer reputation review and citations per faculty but improved in academic reputation.

“IIUM entered directly into the top 500, which is an excellent result for a new entry, while UiTM is lower down but deserves inclusion,” he said.

He said 2,919 institutions were considered for the rankings this year.

UM vice-chancellor Prof Tan Sri Dr Ghauth Jasmon said the policy to have academics and postgraduate students improved their quality of research and to have their output published in the Thomson Institute for Scientific Information indexed journals was paying off.

“This is a key policy that will continue under my administration so the promise of getting UM into the Top 100 in the QS World University Rankings will be achieved by 2015,” he said.

Cambridge University topped the QS World University Rankings this year followed by Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Oxford University and Imperial College London.

The highest ranked Asian universities are University of Hong Kong at 22, University of Tokyo (25) and the National University of Singapore (28).

Push for rankings stirs trouble

2011-08-28T19:12:00.004+08:00

By RICHARD LIM and PRIYA KULASAGARAN (educate@thestar.com.my)

Success often comes with a price. No one knows it better than Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor Prof Tan Sri Dr Ghauth Jasmon, who has ruffled feathers in his pursuit to place the varsity among the top 100 worldwide.

ONE OF the first things that newly-appointed Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor Prof Tan Sri Dr Ghauth Jasmon did was to check on the productivity of its academia in 2009.

The results served a rude awakening as it showed that only 250 people — about 10% of UM’s academic staff – published at least one research paper a year.

Prof Ghauth wants to bring UM back to its former glory.It was embarassing to have the oldest and premier university in the country lagging behind a few of its peers in this aspect. Based on the Malaysian Research Asessment Instrument (MyRA) scores, UM ranked behind Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia.

As MyRA focused on the fundamentals of a university — research and development (R&D), R&D commercialisiation and the number of PhD staff, among others — it was clear to Prof Ghauth that a shake up was imperative. Hence, the move to reward academics who actively published papers in high impact journals like the Thomson ISI (Institute for Scientific Information), which includes citation databases covering thousands of academic journals, such as the Science Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index.

With the new policy in place, the number of publications began to rise and so did UM’s stability in the rankings — constantly hovering around the 200 mark in the QS World University Rankings.

Prof Ghauth’s principal target is to break into the top 100 of the QS rankings by 2015 (currently at 207) and the top 50 by 2020.

Another sweetener for UM was breaking into the top 500 in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) for the first time.

The university has also been given the green light to proceed with its Health Metropolis – an Entry Point Project for Healthcare under the Economic Transformation Programme.

Joining the ranks

But these achievements come with a price. UM made headlines in a local daily recently, quoting UM’s academic staff association president Assoc Prof Dr Azmi Sharom that it was facing a staff crisis – reflected by an exodus of 146 academic staff since 2009 – as academics were dissatisfied with the vice-chancellor.

The unhappiness was attributed to Prof Ghauth’s policies which tightened promotion procedures and placed an emphasis on ISI publications.

Although Dr Azmi went public to stress that he said no such thing – his name had been misused by his fellow association members – the damage was done and Prof Ghauth called a hastily convened press conference where he outlined the true situation and the need for a transformation plan. He added that UM’s actual turnover of an average of 30 each year was normal for any varsity.

Refuting allegations that he was obsessed with rankings, Prof Ghauth said UM had a responsibility to be competitive and develop to a point where it could be compared with renowned varsities like Harvard, Princeton, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tsinghua, among others.

“The National University of Singapore (NUS) is always in the top 100 and Thailand has two varsities – Mahidol and Chulalongkorn – in the 100-200 band under QS,” he said at the press conference.

“There is no reason for us to be behind these varsities as UM and NUS started on equal footing at the same time. As vice-chancellor, I am saddened that we are lagging behind and it is my responsibility to bring UM up.”

Prof Ghauth has been credited with gumption as he is seen to be the only vice-chancellor who aspires to play the rankings game.

“He was brave enough to put his head on the chopping block and it’s an admirable trait as the risks are great,” shares a policy maker.

Prof Ghauth’s offer was timely as the Opposition are constantly nipping at the heels of the Government over the poor representation of Malaysian varsities in various university rankings.

“Although not everyone in the ministry reads too much into rankings, the Government is under pressure. Are we really that bad that we can’t have a university in the top 200?” says a source.

One size doesn’t fit all

Although QS and the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings parted ways in 2009, both continue to place heavy weightage on research and the peer review components. The ARWU also places a similar emphasis on these.

The number of publications in high impact journals like the ISI has a great bearing on a varsity’s rank.

This correlation is captured in UM’s new promotion mechanism – in effect from 2010 to June 2013 – where academic staff must produce a certain number of publications before they can move up the ladder (See Table 1).

And although this is a sore point for some, UM deputy vice-chancellor (Development) Prof Dr Kurunathan Ratnavelu (who carried out the analysis of UM’s staff productivity) says the new policies embrace meritocracy and it is the first time such a benchmarking style has been implemented.

Having served at UM for 22 years, Prof Kurunathan opines that the core issue is really about increasing productivity. However, rankings ultimately depend on research productivity so there is a correlation.

“The new policies eradicate notions of permanency but stress that performance determines one’s rise – or stagnation – in the hierarchy.”

However, a number of academics disagree with this rationale and most of those express concern over UM’s obsession with rankings.

“The union supports the promotion of meritocracy as we have ‘deadwood’ in UM,” says Dr Azmi.

Prof Kurunathan says the new policies embrace meritocracy. “However, we are concerned that UM seems particularly enamoured with rankings to the point where staff are pressured to produce ISI publications.”

He adds that high impact journal publication is a criterion used by rankers for the sole reason that it could be measured conveniently.

His deputy, Assoc Prof Dr Rosli Mahat, says many have no clear idea of a university’s essence apart from the prototype propagated through the rankings.

“Look at the QS and THE rankings and ask yourself who works out the criteria. Businessmen and newspapers!” he shares.

“In this light, we should base our criteria on the Unesco recommendations for higher education teaching staff which advocates institutional autonomy, accountability, collegiality and the security of employment, among others.”

The dissenters, including academics from UM’s medical faculty, hit out at the rigid one-size-fits-all policy, while at the same time concede that abuse did indeed occur in the absence of objective criteria.

A medical lecturer points out that academia is more than just publishing in journals.

“One’s ability in stimulating intellectual discussion and mentoring students should be taken into account, just as one’s expertise in the field as well as the quality of coaching,” he says..

Another medical lecturer shares the problems that arise when there is a blanket requirement for a professorship regardless of one’s field of study.

“A doctor’s main concern is patient care, so we focus on clinical research that will benefit professionals in the treatment of patients.

“The gestation period for such research can easily be six years; how is it then possible to produce multiple high impact papers every year?” she says.

She adds that locally relevant research will fall by the wayside if the focus is “to pursue the goal of ISI journal publication alone”.

“For example, something that doctors really need now is measuring cancer prevalence in Malaysia and it takes a lot of time to do so.

“But at the end of it, this is not going to be published in an ISI journal because the information is only relevant for Malaysia,” she says.

A former professor adds no one in their right mind goes into academia to make money.

“Most academics enter the university environment because they are excited about knowledge, are interested in peer collegiality and interaction with students, and want that pinnacle achievement of attaining a professorship,” he says.

Adopting a neutral stance, Dr Azmi thinks it might have been easier if the vice-chancellor had adopted a more inclusive approach from the start. Less insistence on various policies would have given Prof Ghauth an effective buy-in and much of the drama could have been avoided.

“In all fairness, the vice-chancellor has softened his stance on ISI publications, and academics — particularly those in non-scientific fields — can factor in books and other publications,” he says.

Despite the internal resistance, there is an air of resignation that the ironclad resolve for high impact publications will not bend.

And if that is indeed the case, Dr Azmi says appropriate remuneration adjustments should be in place.

“If UM academics work harder than their counterparts at other public varsities to meet publication targets, this must be reflected in their basic salary.

“Without such a distinction, what’s going to stop academics from moving to other varsities where they can retain their titles and ‘work less’ for the same pay?”

It must be noted, however, that the cash nexus is firmly entrenched in UM’s transformation plan and Prof Ghauth has highlighted the need for UM to secure diverse revenue streams.

This is to achieve financial autonomy – cutting dependence on Government funding – and obtaining the financial muscle to meet the needs – and wants – of its staff.

Parameters of success have been set and if all goes according to plan, UM will be able to sustain 50% of its operating expenses (Opex) by 2015 and 70% by 2020 – providing the varsity with the capacity to double staff salaries in about nine years.

The staff association shares Prof Ghauth’s concern on income generation.

“We understand the varsity doesn’t have much of a choice as we can’t afford to depend on the Government forever,” says Dr Azmi.

However, academics on both sides of the fence are split on Prof Ghauth’s leadership style.

UM IT department director Dr David Asirvatham says things had to be improved among academics.

“We have seen a boost in publications, research activity and teaching quality after Prof Ghauth took over. I believe the silent majority are behind him,” he adds.

Concurring, Prof Kurunathan says UM’s increasing research productivity is testament of Prof Ghauth’s qualities.

“Statistics show that 1,300 papers were published in 2009, followed by 1,800 last year.

“We’re hoping to pass the 2,000 mark – a psychological barrier – this year; but we should not be too proud of ourselves as NUS publishes around 5,000 papers each year,” he adds.

The road ahead

Interestingly, sources in UM opine that the erroneous front page report was part of a coordinated attempt to oust its vice-chancellor.

In an uncanny coincidence, the report’s publication coincided with the Umno Supreme Council meeting – guaranteeing maximum impact and publicity.

It is learnt that the pressure group is also knocking on the ministry’s door but while the die may be cast, it must be noted that some of the dissenters are actually concerned by the lack of leadership stability at UM.

Although critics point out that a three-year term is normal for any vice-chancellor, the fact remains that UM has had four different vice-chancellors since 2000 and this does not bode well in terms of continuity.

Interestingly, this is best summed up by a dissenter who empathises with Prof Ghauth. The lecturer who is near retirement acknowledges that “he has good intentions of improving UM’s standing”.

There have been too many vice-chancellors in a short period of time and with each new appointment, there is a shift of goalposts for the university, he adds.

And while the drama and debate may rage on, the vice-chancellor is taking it all on the chin, determined to accomplish as much as he can while navigating the minefield of dissent.

Ranking: Three Malaysian universities enter Top 500

2011-07-31T00:11:00.004+08:00

PETALING JAYA: Three Malaysian universities have made it to the top 500 out of 12,000 universities ranked in the Webometrics Ranking Web of World Universities released Saturday.

They are Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (419), Universiti Sains Malaysia (428) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (462).

This is the first time that Malaysian varsities have entered into the top 500 since the ranking's inception in 2004.

Meanwhile, American universities dominate the Webometrics ranking, with the top five universities being the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University, Cornell University, and the University of California, Berkeley respectively.

The ranking is an initiative by the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group part of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas (CSIC) in Spain.

According to the Webometrics website, the aim of the rankings is to encourage universities to have a better web presence and researchers to publish more scientific content on the internet.

Among the main indicators used to analyse university web presence are the size or number of web pages recovered from search engines; visibility; number of rich files available; and the number of citations found in Google Scholar.

The rankings are published every six months, and survey around 20,000 higher education institutions worldwide.

Details at: http://www.webometrics.info/top100_continent.asp?cont=asia

1,022 geran penyelidikan bernilai RM178.4 juta diluluskan - Berita Harian

2011-07-18T14:58:00.001+08:00

18 Julai 2011

PUTRAJAYA: Sejumlah RM178.4 juta dana penyelidikan untuk 1,022 geran penyelidikan membabitkan penyelidik daripada Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA), Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Swasta (IPTS), Institusi Penyelidikan dan Jabatan Pengajian Politeknik, sudah diluluskan bagi fasa pertama dalam Rancangan Malaysia Kesepuluh (RMKe-10).

Menteri Pengajian Tinggi, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, berkata jumlah itu adalah sebahagian daripada RM741 juta dana penyelidikan yang diperuntukkan kepada kementerian.

"Ia adalah peningkatan 260 peratus atau hampir tiga kali ganda daripada jumlah yang diterima kementerian dalam RMKe-9 bagi program pembangunan dan penyelidikan (R&D) untuk tempoh dua tahun pertama pelaksanaannya mulai tahun ini," katanya kepada pemberita selepas melancarkan Dana Penyelidikan Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi dengan tema "Bekerja untuk Malaysia" di sini hari ini.

Mohamed Khaled berkata, kementerian sudah menstruktur semula dana penyelidikan dengan mewujudkan empat lagi program geran penyelidikan baru iaitu Skim Geran Penyelidikan Eksploratori, Skim Geran Penyelidikan Jangka Panjang (LRGS), Skim Geran Penyelidikan Pembangunan Prototaip (PRGS) serta Dana Insentif Penyelidikan sebagai tambahan kepada Skim Geran Penyelidikan Fundamental (FRGS) yang sedia ada.

"Ini adalah satu ruang kepada IPTS untuk bersama-sama dalam soal ini, bagi universiti kita untuk turut sama terlibat dalam R&D. Mungkin sebelum ini, IPTS tidak ada peluang untuk mendapat dana, sekarang ini, kita dah buka, jadi ini bermakna potensi untuk mereka membangunkannya.

"Jika mereka benar-benar mahu terbabit dalam soal ini, untuk mendapatkan peluang diperuntukkan geran, sudah tentu mereka akan mengambil pensyarah terdiri daripada kalangan yang mempunyai PHd yang turut memberi kebaikan kepada IPTS tersebut," katanya. - BERNAMA

Ministry comes down hard on errant private colleges - The Star

2011-07-16T10:56:00.001+08:00

By Richard Lim

PETALING JAYA: The Higher Education Ministry is coming down hard on private colleges which offer unrecognised courses.

The ministry has issued 47 summonses to several colleges and university colleges to appear in court for offering unregistered or unapproved programmes, and has warned that students enrolled in unaccredited and unrecognised courses run the risk of missing out on job opportunities or avenues for further studies.

The colleges were also hauled up for various other offences, such as relocation to new premises without approval; and for employing lecturers without teaching permits.

The ministry's enforcement and inspectorate division director Dr Naimah Md Khalil said the most recent cases involved two private providers which contravened the guidelines under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 (Act 555) and this was a serious offence.

“Only the registrar-general can approve courses which have been given the stamp of quality from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency,” she said.

In the first case, a college in Petaling Jaya which specialised in fashion and jewellery design (which has since changed its branding) was fined RM120,000 for offering five unapproved courses.

Several factors were considered by the Sessions Court judge, such as the number of students enrolled and the course fee for each programme, among others.

As a result, the fine for offering a degree programme in fashion design was RM50,000 while the degree in jewellery design earned the college a RM10,000 penalty.

The second case, involving a university college in Kuala Lumpur, was more intricate as the private provider realised albeit too late that it had made an error.

Attempts to rectify the problem the offering of five unapproved undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to music were made and the judge took everything into account.

However, the college was still slapped with a RM65,000 compound fine.

On the verdicts, Dr Naimah said such action would serve as deterrents for errant education providers.

The court cases complement recently released ministry statistics, which reveal that 47 compound notices were slapped on errant private education providers from January to March this year, compared to 47 last year and nine in 2009.

The cumulative amount of compound notices issued up to March was around RM470,000.

In April, higher education deputy director-general (private higher education institutions) Prof Datin Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir said the ministry would also get tough with colleges that use gimmicks like “free laptops and accommodation” being offered to new students.

Happy people make better, faster decisions - Straits Times

2011-07-15T15:18:00.000+08:00

A study published on Thursday in the Journal of Consumer Research has found that it's better to go shopping when the going's not so tough, and we're in a good mood, because we make faster and more consistent decisions. -- ST PHOTO: JOSEPH NAIR

WASHINGTON - THERE used to be a saying written on some shopping bags that said, 'When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping'. But a study published on Thursday in the Journal of Consumer Research has found that it's better to go shopping when the going's not so tough, and we're in a good mood, because we make faster and more consistent decisions.

Researchers Paul Herr and Derrick Davis of Virginia Tech, Christine Page of Skidmore College and Bruce Pfeiffer of the University of New Hampshire conducted a study to determine how mood influences the 'very basic element of decision-making' - deciding whether or not we like or dislike an object.

The authors manipulated study participants' moods by showing them pictures of positive things, like cute puppies, or unpleasant things, like diseased feet, and then showed them pictures of common objects, one at a time. The objects were flashed on a screen and then replaced by a word - like, dislike; good, bad; favourable, unfavourable; appealing, repulsive.

The participants were asked to press a key labelled 'yes' if the word matched their feeling about the object they had just seen, or the key marked 'no' if it did not. The researchers found that people who were in a good mood - probably the ones who had seen the pictures of puppies, not diseased feet - responded more quickly and more consistently to the words.

In other words, if they responded that they liked an object, they were less likely to respond later, when the same object was shown again but with a negative word associated with it, that they disliked it. The study's findings are relevant not only to shoppers, who might want to hit the mall when they're in a good mood because it will mean they'll get home faster and are unlikely to regret their purchases, but also to retailers and manufacturers.

Because retailers want shoppers to spend more in their stores, they 'may want to be aware of factors that can induce negative moods, like abrasive salespeople and negative shopping environments,' the authors of the study say. And the study's findings may help manufacturers to understand why some new products fail where others succeed: it could have something to do with whether consumers like or dislike a new product at first glance, which in turn might be affected by the consumers' moods, something manufacturers could manipulate. -- AFP

Doctoral dreams - Tales 2 Tell - Star

2011-07-04T13:42:00.003+08:00

By Roslina Abdul Latiff

Pursuing a PhD is a long and arduous task, one that is best undertaken when you are absolutely ready.

OF ALL the questions my colleagues and friends ask regarding my doctoral studies, most of them are a variation of “How do you do it?” and “How do you cope?”

Pursuing a PhD would be a challenge for any other person, but with kids taking important exams, teaching final year students, handling final year projects and going for my doctoral classes at night, would be a pretty tall order for anyone.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make. When I tried to start my doctoral studies sometime last year, it was a bit hard to cope while holding two administrative positions as associate dean of the faculty and head of the Mass Communications Department at a private university in the Klang Valley, on top of teaching three final-year subjects every semester.

But I guess there is always that someone who “nags” you to start your doctoral studies. For me, it was my previous boss who gave me the nudge and support. It made sense — in the education field, a doctorate degree gives you an edge in the organisation you work, as well as leverage in the subjects you teach.

Roslina at the university library.

But most importantly, you need to do it for yourself. You need to be prepared mentally to start and finish as it is a huge commitment.

You also have to set your momentum because you are very much on your own.

For me, it started when I was “ordered” by the human resources group manager to go on leave, as my leave days had accumulated to more than a month. The truth was I really needed to rest, refresh and revitalise before diving into the New Year and the new semester. I felt so drained, deflated and depleted.

I took the leave as a good opportunity to get away from everyone and everything that constitutes work. It also gave me an opportunity to re-evaluate the important things in my life. The first priority was of course my children who were taking their SPM, PMR and UPSR exams in 2010.

So when I officially stepped down in December 2009, I started re-writing my PhD proposal. I researched, read and re-wrote my half-baked proposal with the hope that I would be accepted as a doctoral student.

When I was about to submit my application, I told my mother and she asked me again if I was sure. Mum was very worried if I was capable of taking in more stress and challenges given the difficult year I went through.

Although I wasn’t sure I could handle it, I knew it was something I had to do for myself.

The other unacademic reason for going back to school was also to find a neutral ground I could call “home” again — an unbiased place I could be like any other student, going through the rigors of night classes, searching the lonely aisles of the library to find books that are a prerequisite for any dissertation and treading the unfamiliar doctoral path with my trusted laptop.

So in between ferrying the kids for tuition classes on different nights of the week, preparing them for the upcoming exams and preparing for the classes that I teach, I go for my doctoral class on Thursday nights, find time to do my assignments and do lots and lots of reading for my doctoral, my classes and for pleasure.

How do I cope? The simple answer is “one day at a time”.

I don’t really think of it so thoroughly, neither do I dissect it in detail nor psycho-analyse it — I just do it.

But having said that, there are a few things that would actually help to ease anyone into a doctoral dissertation (or thesis, depending on where you study).

The first and most important is to have a productive supervisor-student relationship. There are great expectations on both sides.

Having gone through a Master’s thesis will give you a rough idea of what it’s like, but this time on a much bigger scale and with much more at stake.

Supervisor-student relationship

There needs to be shared expectations between your supervisor and yourself. The important question for you is: what qualities are you looking for in your supervisor?

For me, a supervisor who is supportive, accessible, professional, experienced in the research field, gives freedom to me to express my ideas, cooperatively listens and compassionate rigor is what I hope for.

I consider myself lucky as my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Faridah Ibrahim, or Dr Dah as she is affectionately called, has all these qualities. Since our industry background is journalism, hers being print and mine broadcast, we have hit the ground running as the platform for the discussion is solid.

We bounce ideas back and forth, and discuss what theories or models would work. She’s very frank and direct with her comments on my work. But best of all, she has treated me as an equal although I’m still a struggling doctoral student with a lot more to learn.

Your supervisor also needs to know what your expectations are, so take the time to chat about these fundamental things.

While you’re at it, ask your supervisor what they are expecting from you as a PhD student. When I asked Dr Dah, this was her reply: perseverance, critical questioning (which is required of any PhD candidate), organised, rigorous, willing to learn, a good communicator and open mindedness.

If by any chance your shared expectations are not the same, then you need to re-negotiate and come to a compromise on what is best. Resolving these issues and clarifying any misunderstandings should be done from the very beginning, before you take that giant bungee jump!

You also need to be proactive. Know your rights and responsibilities. Work out together, who is responsible for calling meetings.

For us, it’s simple — communication via email on simple and quick questions, text messaging for delivery of proposals or chapters and meeting for discussions after the reading process. This is where we identify problems and weaknesses plus find solutions and elucidate the research.

Set agendas for meetings if there is a need to; if not, just plunge into the discussion head first.

Keeping your supervisor informed about your progress is also an excellent idea as they will worry when you go AWOL on them. But most importantly, be assertive.

The other thing that I did when I embarked on my PhD was to have a peer support group. This group comprises colleagues in the same boat, who meet once a month over lunch or coffee and discuss ideas and progress.

Although all of us are from different fields and doing research in diverse areas, the intellectual discourse is great.

I believe in some universities, these peer support groups also include supervisors with all their supervisees. If everybody had a common time to meet, this kind of group would be good, but if not, something like what I have would be sufficient. Just a bunch of friends mulling over coffee, pouring out discontentment and suffering and sometimes, it’s not even about the PhD!

On some days, when you get back your chapters full of markings and corrections, you can feel disconnected from the rest of the world.

I’m not sure how smooth or rocky my journey will be in the next couple of years but since I started off with a 4.0 average, I’m hoping to continue fruitfully.

I have also pledged to my supervisor I would complete my thesis in the designated time and let her retire in peace without her going on contract because of me. And that is a promise I intend to keep to Dr Dah and to myself.

If I emerge from this experience still unscathed, intact and sane, I would be able to share those experiences with many who are still pondering on the question: “A doctoral study... to do or not to do?”

My answer is “just do”, but only when you are absolutely sure.

Roslina Abdul Latiff is a Broadcast and Journalism senior lecturer, mother of four and PhD scholar

Saifuddin: End dependence on foreign educators - Malaysiakini

2011-06-27T22:14:00.000+08:00

Higher education deputy minister Saifuddin Abdullah rapped the country's institutions of higher learning for continuing to "import and copy" ideas and methods from Western universities.

Despite having a national team of competent academics, Saifuddin asked why the country continues to invite consultants from other parts of the world to help run local universities.

"For how long will this dependence continue and what are its implications?" he asked, in his speech addressing an audience of 200 at "Decolonising Our Universities" in Penang today.

The three-day event aimed at academics from various Asian countries was organised by Universiti Sains Malaysia and Citizen International, a Penang-based NGO.

This "abject dependence on Western academics" for ideas, theories and methods fails to recognise the value of the country's academics and local scholars, Saifuddin said.

"Despite this, our scholars and academics will continue to be diffident, to feel inferior, timid about our own work and compare it unfavourably with the work of scholars from the West," he said.

If local academics still feel inferior and express helplessness, he said it would be better to close down these institutions rather than continue to maintain them.

"We are fooling nobody," Saifuddin quipped, adding that he hoped the conference could lead to significant changes in the current state of affairs.
Cultivating critical thinking

During a press conference, Saifuddin said the country has to develop its own knowledge and theories to deal with local issues instead of referring to Western ones, which have come about due to different circumstances.

On the international ranking of universities, he said it was merely a Western idea to preserve the hegemony and status quo of knowledge from the West.

He urged academics here to work in solidarity, to collaborate with one another to try and develop "our own worldview" of looking at things as "we are not short of intellectual competence".

Though the government raised these issues in the past, Saifuddin said "we are making progress", albeit slowly.

As for the Aku Janji pledge - which requires academics and students to sign an agreement to refrain from getting involved in politics or commenting on political issues - Saifuddin said "that is something else" because it hampers critical thinking and development.

"(Critical thinking) is about what the government wants in conducting research in new areas so that we can develop our own indigenous knowledge," he added.

Kongsi Idea Penyelidik Dalam & Luar Negara Di Myren Cloud - MStarOnline

2011-06-27T15:55:00.000+08:00

SERDANG: Institusi pengajian tinggi (IPT), institusi penyelidikan serta pihak industri yang terlibat dengan pembangunan dan penyelidikan (R&D) diminta menggunakan jaringan perkhidmatan ICT terbaru, Myren Cloud, untuk berkomunikasi dan menjalin kerjasama di alam maya bersama rakan penyelidik dalam dan luar negara.

Menteri Pengajian Tinggi Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin berkata melalui perkhidmatan itu mereka boleh bertukar-tukar pandangan dan pengetahuan mengenai bidang penyelidikan masing-masing, sekaligus memberi manfaat kepada negara-negara terlibat.

"Ini merupakan satu lagi kepesatan pertumbuhan infrastruktur kita yang kita hasilkan bagi meningkatkan kemampuan penyelidikan. Ini antara usaha-usaha yang sedang kita lakukan untuk memantapkan lagi R&D dalam negara selari dengan hasratuntuk membawa negara ini kepada ekonomi berasaskan inovasi," katanya kepada pemberita selepas melancarkan Myren Cloud di sini Isnin.

Beliau berkata R&D berkualiti yang dihasilkan para penyelidik hasil daripada perkongsian maklumat dari dalam dan luar negara, akan membawa impak besar kepada rakyat dan negara.

Myren adalah Rangkaian Penyelidikan dan Pengajaran Kebangsaan yang menyediakan jalur lebar khusus berkapasiti tinggi untuk universiti, politeknik, kolej komuniti, institut penyelidikan dan makmal saintifik menjalankan penyelidikan dan pendidikan. Rangkaian itu terhubung terus dengan komuniti penyelidik dan pendidik yang berada di Asia Pasifik, Australasia, Eropah dan Amerika Utara melalui Trans Eurasian Information Network 3 (TEIN 3).

Rangkaian MYREN serta projek MYRENCLOUD adalah projek negara dan Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi merupakan peneraju bagi menggerakkan perluasan penggunaan perkhidmatan tersebut di kalangan komuniti pendidik (termasuk fasilitator latihan) dan penyelidik dari pelbagai agensi dari semua kementerian.

Mohamed Khaled berkata kerajaan telah memperuntukkan sebanyak RM20 juta sebagai dana permulaan untuk Myren Cloud.

Sementara itu, Pengarah Bahagian Perancangan Kecemerlangan IPT, Profesor Ir Dr Mohd Jailani Mohd Nor berkata kira-kira 30,000 penyelidik daripada IPT, institusi penyelidikan serta pihak industri di negara ini akan mendapat manfaat daripada penggunaan Myren Cloud.

Sehubungan itu, beliau meminta semua penyelidik mendaftar untuk menggunakan perkhidmatan itu dengan yuran RM25,000 setahun dikenakan untuk setiap institusi.

"Perkomputeran cloud ini adalah pendekatan terkini di mana perkhidmatan ICT diperolehi secara dalam talian atau atas permintaan pada bila-bila masa, di mana juga dan menggunakan apa juga peranti," katanya.

Menurutnya sebagai permulaan, beberapa perkhidmatan menerusi aplikasi telah disediakan iaitu “On Demand Infrastructure for Research and Education Collaborative Technologies" (OnDIRECT) untuk kolaborasi video dan imej, pelayan maya untuk menghoskan pembangunan ICT dan simulasi, storan maya, dan makmal pengkomputeran maya (VCL)", kata beliau. - BERNAMA

Leong benefits from OUM's flexibility - NST

2011-06-21T13:04:00.002+08:00

"NO mountain is too high. If you have the passion to achieve your goals, nothing or no one can stop you," says Leong Mun Chak, who graduated with a PhD in Information Technology at Open University Malaysia's (OUM) 10th Convocation recently.

At 44, Leong is not only a seasoned professional but also an educationist who believes that learning, or higher learning to be exact, is important to one's growth and development.

"I make it a personal commitment to constantly upgrade my knowledge and skills," says the father of three daughters who has a Master's of Science in Information Technology for Manufacture from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. He also holds the globally recognised Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

Like many others, Leong had his own hurdles to overcome on his quest to attain a doctorate degree.

In fact, his enrolment in OUM marked his third attempt at pursuing a PhD.

Prior to this, he had enrolled in two other universities.

"I was unable to continue my studies at the time due to heavy work and family commitments," he says.

OUM gave him the flexibility he needed to balance his studies, work and family life.

"The risk of giving up midway this time around was near to zero. I was very much at ease with the pace provided by the part-time nature of the programme, as well as OUM's approach to open and distance learning," he says.

Another setback for him was when midway through the programme, he was left with no supervisor who was well-versed in his research area.

However, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Survey: 80% of M'sians want to work abroad - Malaysiakini

2011-06-20T23:25:00.001+08:00

An online recruitment company said results from a survey on local jobseekers confirm that money, career growth and children's education are the main factors behind the country's brain drain.

JobStreet.com today released the results of their survey of 700 over respondents - over 80 percent of whom are in middle to senior positions - on their interests in working abroad, and the reasons behind it.

The survey revealed just under a third (33 percent) of the respondents are already actively seeking overseas employment while 30 percent are passively looking. Another 30 percent are still weighing the pros and cons of working abroad.

42 percent cited better income as the key reason for their choice, while 24 percent cited career advancement, and 13 percent were thinking of their children's education.

Unfortunately for the government and the Talent Corp, only 2.4 of the respondents said they were staying in the country to “contribute to national interest”.

Over half said they were not working abroad mainly because of their families.

Top in destinations for job seeking was Australia (24 percent) followed by Singapore (16 percent), followed by UK (15 percent), US (10 percent), Far East (8 percent) and New Zealand (7 percent).

The survey, conducted in May, comprised 40 percent senior executives, 29 percent managers and 16 percent senior managers, with junior executives making up the rest.

Jobstreet said 60 percent were male and 40 percent female, while ethnic breakdown was not cited.

Dr. Leong Mun Chak emerged as the only PhD graduate at the OUM 10th Convocation

2011-06-20T19:03:00.012+08:00

YABhg Tun Jeanne Abdullah delivering her speech

OUM held its 10th convocation from 18 June to 20 June 2011. 4356 graduates received their scrolls from the Chancellor of the university, YABhg Tun Jeanne Abdullah and Pro-Chancellor, YBhg Tan Sri Azman Hashim.

Leong Mun Chak

Dr Leong Mun Chak receiving his scroll from Tun Chancellor

Only 1 PhD graduate was conferred during this time around. Dr. Leong Mun Chak graduated with the PhD in IT, the first in OUM. His research is about automatically recognizing a painting which has been photographed or scanned digitally to extract relevant textual information of the painting from the painting database.

The pioneer batch of PhD graduates. From left: Dr. Patrick Wong, Dr. Baljinder Singh, Dr. Lum, Dr. Sia, Dr. Richard Ng, Dr. Wong and Dr. Aminah

According to Dr. Leong he was motivated by his peers who had already obtained their PhD. During the 9th convocation, 7 students became OUM's first batch of graduates who received their PhD in BA and Education.

According to Dr. Leong, the recognition process uses a new mathematical wavelet technique which is able to digitally encode a painting into a very small size called an index. This allows very fast recognition of the painting.

Dr Leong delivering his speech

Video clip of part of Dr Leong's speech Part 1:

Video clip of part of Dr Leong's speech Part 2:

Dr. Leong was given the honor to deliver the valedictorian speech on behalf of the graduates. In his speech, he thanked OUM for the opportunity to earn his PhD. He urged fellow graduates to climb the mountain of OUM if they intent to climb another mountain after this.

KPT serah laporan skim gaji pensyarah kepada JPA - Berita Harian

2011-06-02T11:52:00.001+08:00

2011/06/02

KUALA LUMPUR: Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi (KPT) sudah melakukan kajian dan menyerahkan beberapa cadangan mengenai semakan semula skim gaji pensyarah di semua universiti awam termasuk Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) kepada Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) untuk tindakan lanjut.

Menterinya, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin berkata, sebarang pelaksanaan kenaikan pangkat atau gred pensyarah di semua universiti awam bergantung kepada pihak pengurusan pusat pengajian berkenaan.
Katanya, pada masa sama kementerian juga akan sentiasa melakukan kajian dan perbincangan dengan pihak pengurusan dan wakil tenaga akademik bagi membolehkan mereka menikmati skim gaji lebih baik berbanding agensi lain. “Sebenarnya kebanyakan pensyarah universiti awam sekarang menikmati skim gaji yang lebih tinggi berbanding kakitangan kerajaan lain termasuk guru Kementerian Pelajaran.

“Malah, sekiranya seseorang pensyarah itu mempunyai Ijazah Doktor Falsafah (PhD), mereka akan terus ditawarkan ke Gred DM51, manakala proses kenaikan pangkat dan gaji boleh ditentukan sendiri oleh universiti terbabit,” katanya ketika ditemui selepas menyaksikan majlis pelancaran Skim Latihan 1Malaysia (SL1M) oleh Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak di Putrajaya semalam.

Mohamed Khaled mengulas dakwaan dua kesatuan mewakili pendidik dan kakitangan akademik UiTM meminta universiti itu menyemak semula skim gaji mereka yang didakwa lebih 10 tahun tidak disemak.

Persatuan Akademik UiTM (UTiMAS) dan Kesatuan Kakitangan Akademik UiTM (MITASA), dilaporkan berkata kebajikan dan maruah kakitangan akademik universiti itu perlu dibela dan dimartabatkan kembali selaras dengan khidmat bakti mereka.

Employability now included as a KPI in public varsities - The Star

2011-06-02T08:32:00.000+08:00

PUTRAJAYA: Graduate employability has been included as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for all vice-chancellors of public universities.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the move was part of the long-term goal to raise the quality and marketability of local graduates.

“Others include introducing entrepreneurship curriculum, implementing soft skills programmes and student internship programmes in public and private corporations before the students graduate.

“Continuous dialogue between the universities and industry is being held to raise the quality of the graduates, an approach which is expected to reduce the mismatch between supply and demand for skilled manpower,” he said when launching the 1Malaysia Training Scheme (SL1M) here yesterday.

Also present was Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Najib said the Government was also implementing special programmes as a short-term measure to raise graduate employability and that included the training programmes carried out by the Higher Education Ministry, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Khazanah and the Skills Development Fund Corporation involving 12,000 graduates.

He said this meant that out of the 20,000 unemployed graduates, 8,000 did not have the opportunity to undergo additional training to improve their marketability.

“Some of them come from the rural and interior areas as well as from low-income families.

“This background influences their character and self-confidence and affects their ability to secure employment

“Thus, by carrying out a last mile intervention in the form of finishing schools, I believe they will become more confident, and they are the target group of the SL1M,” he said, adding that the initiative was also for those who failed to be employed six months after graduating.

Najib said the approach proved effective when Bank Negara, through the short training programme for 500 graduates, had enabled all of them to find suitable jobs.

In this context, he said the SL1M programme should be expanded and made part of the corporate social responsibility of government-linked corporations (GLCs) and major companies.

Malaysian universities improve ranking on Asian scale - The Malaysian Insider

2011-05-23T08:00:00.001+08:00

By Boo Su-Lyn May 23, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Six out of seven Malaysian universities improved their ranking on the QS Asian University Rankings this year, with Universiti Malaya (UM) climbing three spots to 39th.

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) also jumped 20 slots to 57th out of 200 Asian universities.

No Malaysian university entered the top 10 ranks while the National University of Singapore (NUS) retained its third place.

QS also said in a statement the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) knocked the University of Hong Kong down to the second spot.

The global higher education information specialist noted that Malaysia had seven universities in the top 200 Asian universities compared to Thailand’s nine and Indonesia’s eight.

Japan was the best-represented nation with five universities in the top 10 ranks and 57 in the top 200.

In contrast, China had 40, South Korea 35, Taiwan 16, India 11, and Hong Kong had seven universities in the top 200 Asian institutions.

The QS Asian University Rankings last year showed that the top Malaysian university was UM at the 42nd spot while Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) was the second best university here at 58th.

The ranking of public institutions in Malaysia has dived throughout the past years to the point of dropping out of the top 200 universities in the QS World University Rankings last year.

QS noted that the “dynamism” of the Asian region was bolstered by the fact that one out of five universities in the top 50 universities was less than 50 years old.

The rankings were based on the following factors: academic peer review (30 per cent), recruiter review (10 per cent), student/ faculty ratio (20 per cent), papers per faculty (15 per cent), citations per paper (15 per cent), and 2.5 per cent each for international faculty review, international student review, and inbound and outbound student exchanges.

UM vice-chancellor Dr Ghauth Jasmon had reportedly urged Malaysia’s oldest university last year to take world rankings seriously if it wanted to remain globally competitive.

Details: http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2011

Some Chinese don’t speak Bahasa at all - The Malaysian Insider

2011-05-14T12:37:00.001+08:00

By Sheridan Mahavera May 14, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — A The Malaysian Insider street poll of 107 Chinese adults has found that 28 of them, or 26.1 per cent of those surveyed, had almost no command or could not understand Bahasa Malaysia.

Of the 75 respondents who understood BM and took the survey, 16, or 21 per cent of them felt that knowing or using the national language was not as important in their lives as knowing Mandarin or other Chinese dialects.

About 37 per cent of those who took the survey (or 28 respondents) used BM less than five times a day. While 20 of them said they either did not have to use it all or only used it less than three times.

The results suggest that within the Chinese community, there is a significant class whose members only interact with those who speak Chinese.

Recently, a separate national study by a well-known teachers’ association showed that one in every three Chinese primary school pupil cannot understand BM or English when they prepare to enter national secondary school.

The school survey by the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) also found that one in every four Chinese child who enters national secondary school will drop out.

This has led to claims that the dropout rate and the low level of BM proficiency have created a group of Chinese adults who only interact with other Chinese, creating a barrier for greater inter-ethnic integration in plural Malaysia.

In another The Malaysian Insider article on the NUTP survey, educators, parents and former Chinese school students argued that it is not the vernacular education system that is at fault.

Family attitudes, the Chinese community and individual choice are bigger influences on how much BM Chinese children pick up, retain and use once they leave school and enter adulthood.
The street poll is a follow-up to both the NUTP survey and the contention that it’s not really the vernacular school system’s fault. The poll is to gauge how the Chinese community regards BM.

If the vernacular education is not at fault, are parents and the community creating an environment where Chinese kids feel that they can get by without knowing the national language?

Methodology

The entire survey was conducted in Bahasa Malaysia among 107 Chinese individuals. They were asked four questions.

1) Do you understand BM?

2) How important is BM in your life?

3) Which is more important in your life, BM or English?

4) On a typical day, how many times do you use BM?

— Less than three times.

— Less than five times.

— Five times and more.

— More than 10 times.

(This includes occasions such as talking multiple times to one person or talking to multiple people.)

Those who were judged as not being able to “understand BM” were individuals who could not reply to the interview questions. They rejected the survey by gesturing silently when asked “if they could speak BM”.

This group differs from another group of four who understood but declined the survey as they said in BM that “they were busy”.

The survey was conducted in Sepang district, an evenly diverse part of suburban southern Selangor, and in the Chinese enclave of Jinjang Utara in Kuala Lumpur.

Part 2 economic success = social fragmentation

The dominance of Chinese in certain areas of the private sector explains why some in the community feel that BM is not necessary to get by.

The majority 68 per cent in the poll who found BM important were either shopkeepers, salespeople or those working in large corporations where they interacted with non-Chinese individuals on a daily basis.

This group also represents the 62 per cent who used BM more than five times a day. Sixteen per cent used it more than 10 times a day.

Many of those who found BM less important and who used it less than five times a day worked in technical fields such as small engine repair or small-scale construction.

Michael Tay, who works in the property industry, says there is a belief that because you could still get a job just by speaking Chinese, there is no motivation to learn other languages.

“They feel comfortable mixing with people from a similar culture and language, and they don’t have to depend on non-Chinese to survive. But this is not good for integration,” says Tay, a Bandar Baru Tampoi MCA branch leader in Johor Baru.

A majority of the 28 who could not speak the national language were in their 50s and older. Some of the BM speakers said this was a trend with the Merdeka generation who did not enter the formal education system.

But of the 28, 10 of them were individuals aged 40 and below. About five of them were young adults who worked in mobile phone shops and who politely declined and deferred to their friends when asked in BM.

According to their friends, these individuals had trouble understanding BM because they “dropped out of school”.

Part 3 Malaysia: A bowl or pot?

Low BM usage does not translate into feeling it is less important. For instance, a handful of Chinese shopkeepers who catered to a mainly Chinese clientele felt that BM was important. This is even though they said their command and use of it was low.

“Ini Malaysia maa. Semua kena cakap Melayu. Kalau tak cakap Melayu macam mana Melayu, Cina, India mau satu,” said a shopkeeper who sells joss sticks and Chinese prayer items and who said there were days he didn’t use BM at all.

A stationery shop owner refused to believe the survey’s findings that some Chinese could not speak BM.

“Mana ada? Mesti boleh cakap punya. Ini Malaysia maa,” said the 46-year-old. These same sentiments were expressed by 10 of the respondents.

When asked whether BM or English was more important, 33 per cent of respondents said BM while 20 per cent said both languages were important. Twenty-nine per cent chose English over BM, while 17 per cent did not know.

The proportion of those who don’t speak BM versus those who do reveals how the community views integration with the larger non-Chinese environment. But this is not unique just to the Chinese.

Arguably, there are proportions of Malays and Indians who also go days without meeting someone from a different ethnicity.

Historian Prof Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim believes each ethnic community has evolved this way because they have been taught to think of the group first rather than the nation-state.

“We have always been a people who have lived apart from each other. Even the early Indonesian settlers, the Minangs, Banjars, Javanese lived in separate colonies first. They did not automatically become ‘Malays’.”

Malaysia’s model of integration then, which is more a “salad bowl” than a “melting pot”, makes it hard for individuals to adopt a common culture or language as the priority is always with what the group thinks.

“If you notice, Chinese and Indians are not comfortable at all speaking BM to one another. This is different from the Peranakan Chinese in the past who spoke BM to each other,” observes Khoo.

Though the bright side from survey shows a positive attitude among its Chinese respondents concerning BM, it is harder to gauge how deep their feelings of togetherness with Malaysia and other Malaysians as a whole.

And if the same trends are present in Malaysia’s other communities, it may well be that we are still a nation of separate peoples.

International Distance Education Conference 2011 - Penang

2011-05-11T15:19:00.004+08:00

International Distance Education Conference 2011
Open Distance learning: Achieving Sustainable Development for Bottom Billion
12 - 14 September 2011, Park Royal Hotel, Penang, Malaysia

Malaysia aspires to be a developed nation by 2020. One of the efforts to achieve that status is to have a knowledge-based human capital that will drive and sustain that journey. The paramount need to raise the education level of about 80% of the workforce in Malaysia will place a heavy burden on the country’s existing tertiary education system as places are limited and the competition is stiff. It is thus evident that to ameliorate the problem of transforming the workforce, an alternative education system will have to be provided as the main thrust for the human capital to acquire new and relevant knowledge and skills and at the same time ensuring that they remain in employment. Open and distance learning must be the viable alternative to provide tertiary education to people who either never had the chance or gave up their chance to pursue a university degree.

Universiti Sains Malaysia, through the school of Distance Education (SDE), has helmed distance education programs in Malaysia since 1971 and 2011 marks its 40th year as the main role player to meet the country’s need in providing quality open and distance education for Malaysians. In the last four decades, the distance education institution at USM has grown and matured from a unit attached to the School of Humanities and offering its programmes, to become a centre administrating programmes offered by other schools in USM, to finally taking its place as a full fledge school offering its own degree programmes. No doubt, within this period, the School of Distance Education (SDE) has contributed to the development of the human capital in Malaysia and has helped thousands of students to obtain their bachelors’ degree while opting to continue to remain in full time employment.

As part of its celebration to mark its 40th year, SDE is planning to organise an international conference which will serveas a platform for distance practitioners and educators world-wide to discuss issues related to the development, future and challenges of distance education. This will allow distance educators at SDE as well as counterparts engage in the same ODL business to chart the future course in transforming higher education to meet the challenges of sustainable development as well as to reach out towards the bottom billion.

This effort is also in tandem with the national APEX mission of raising the capacity for knowledge and innovation in order to move the economy up the value chain, to improve the standard and sustainability of the quality of life and to strengthen the institutional and implementation capacity. This is also in line with the vision of the USM Vice Chancellor, the Honourable Prof. Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, that the university’s drive is “to re-examine the core foundation of its being, and takes cognition of the need to amalgamate the vital elements of the economy, society and the environment”.

Important Dates

Please take note of the following dates:

May 31, 2011
Deadline of submission of full paper

June 30, 2011
Notification of Acceptance

July 30, 2011
Last day of Registration

September 12 - 14, 2011
Conference Proper

Details: https://sites.google.com/site/idecmy2011/Home

Study links lower education to faster ageing - The Star

2011-05-11T11:59:00.000+08:00

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - People who leave education with fewer qualifications are prone to age more quickly, scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers from Britain and the United States examined the length of sections of DNA known as telomeres from around 450 people taking part in a long-term health study and found that people who did less well at school had shorter telomeres, suggesting they may age faster.

Telomeres are sections of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes, protecting them from damage and the loss of cell functions associated with ageing. Shorter telomeres are thought to be an indicator of faster ageing.

"The key implication of this study backs up one of the main messages to have come out of long-term studies..that your experiences early in life can have important influences on your health," said Stephen Holgate, of Britain's Medical Research Council, which part-funded the research.

He said that as with all observational research, it was difficult to to establish the root causes of these findings, but said the study provided evidence "that being educated to a higher level can benefit you more than in the job market alone."

The study participants were separated into four education groups: those who had no qualifications at all, those who left formal education after exams at around 16 years of age, those who left after exams at around 18 years, and those who earned a degree from a university or other higher education institution.

The research was published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity on Wednesday.

The results showed that people with lower educational achievements had shorter telomeres, indicating that they may age faster, and the study also offered strong evidence that this is not affected by people's social and economic status later in life, as was previously thought, the researchers said.

"We already know from previous research that people with poor backgrounds are prone to age more quickly," said Andrew Steptoe, a professor of psychology at the British Heart Foundation which part-funded the study.

"Education is a marker of social class that people acquire early in life, and our research suggests that it is long term exposure to the conditions of lower status that promotes accelerated cellular ageing."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Paul Casciato)

Copyright © 2011 Reuters

KPT Lantik 200 Pasca Doktoral Setahun Hingga 2015 - The Star

2011-05-03T15:57:00.001+08:00

Oleh SUSAN ALBERT KASSIM

BANGI: Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi (KPT) merancang untuk melantik 200 pasca doktoral warga tempatan dan asing untuk membangunkan program penyelidikan dan inovasi di institusi pengajian tinggi awam (IPTA).

Menteri Pengajian Tinggi, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin berkata, perancangan itu bertujuan demi memenuhi keperluan negara yang dilakukan setiap tahun bagi sehingga 2015.

"IPTA diberi tanggungjawab sepenuhnya untuk melantik mereka. Selepas itu mereka akan ditempatkan di universiti terpilih untuk memulakan aktiviti penyelidikan dan inovasi bukan saja menghasilkan produk tapi suatu proses secara sepenuh masa," katanya pada sidang media selepas merasmikan Majlis Penutup Sambutan Ulang Tahun Ke-40 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) di sini, Selasa.

Jelas Mohamed Khaled, dalam usaha meningkatkan keupayaan mencipta dan menginovasi produk dan proses baru, pengwujudan inkubator yang dapat menjana industri dan corak perniagaan baru diperkenalkan melalui inisiatif Pelan Pembangunan Modal Insan Inovasi.

"Berdasarkan perancangan hasil segera pelan itu, setiap pasca doktoral yang dilantik akan ditempatkan secara berasingan di lapan inkubator yang diwujudkan iaitu setiap satu di universiti penyelidikan dan tiga lagi dikongsi bersama oleh universiti di zon utara, tengah dan selatan," ujarnya.

Selain berperanan untuk mentransformasikan penyelidikan, beliau berkata, bakat, idea dan kemahiran kumpulan cerdik pandai itu turut digunakan untuk menggerakkan ekonomi negara.

"Bagi membolehkan Malaysia bersaing dengan negara luar, kita memerlukan modal insan yang memiliki ilmu yang tinggi dalam pengkhususan sesuatu bidang. Jadi universiti memerlukan golongan pakar dalam bidang penyelidikan dan inovasi," katanya.

Sementara itu, beliau berkata, tiga universiti iaitu UKM, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) dan Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) dipilih untuk menjalani penilaian projek rintis audit autonomi bermula pertengahan tahun lalu.

Katanya, autonomi akan diberikan atas keyakinan kerajaan terhadap keupayaan dan tanggungjawab universiti terbabit dalam urusan pentadbiran selari dengan amalan universiti ternama untuk menggalakkan kecemerlangan akademik.

"Setakat ini, UKM antara kumpulan pertama yang dinilai dan laporan penilaian telah dihantar kepada KPT untuk pertimbangan selanjutnya.

"Kita akan tengok sama sistem yang kita bangunkan itu boleh diterima dan meninggalkan kesan kepada universiti terbabit. Selepas itu, barulah kita akan umumkan universiti yang terpilih untuk menerima anugerah itu," jelasnya.

Varsities urged to hire PhD holders as lecturers - The Star

2011-04-29T14:27:00.000+08:00

THE Higher Education Ministry has suggested that doctorate degrees (PhD) be made the basic requirement for the post of lecturers at all public institutions of higher learning. Its deputy minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said this was to achieve the target of having 75% lecturers with PhD in research universities and 40% in other universities.

“The increasing number of quality lecturers is one of the factors in the effort to empower institutions of higher learning (IPT),” he said in response to a question from Dr Syed Husin Ali.

Saifuddin said the ministry also encouraged IPTs to get qualified and experienced lecturers from overseas.

“The ministry has provided incentives to attract foreign experts to do their research at the IPT by providing attractive packages through the ‘contract for service’.

“The IPTs can also attract specialists from local industries to contribute fulltime or on a part-time basis in teaching and research activities to reduce the cost of getting the service of foreigners,” he added. — Bernama

Two Days more to file in your Tax Return

2011-04-25T17:45:00.001+08:00

If you have not submitted your tax return, you have until April 30 to do so. The following is the link to those who choose to do e-filing. Make sure you have password from the office of Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri.

https://e.hasil.gov.my/

Here is the guide book supplied by the Inland Revenue Dept for your reference:

http://www.hasil.gov.my/pdf/pdfam/BP_BE2010_1.pdf

The Star paper has provided some tips on what to file in:

TAXPAYERS have just one more week to go before the April 30 deadline for submitting income tax returns. In this last segment of Sunday Star's Income Tax series, a team from Inland Revenue Board's Corporate Communications Unit headed by director Mazlan Wan Chik answers your questions.

Books, computers and broadband

> My child is studying in a university overseas. Can the purchase of books needed for her degree be allowed for deductions?

Total deduction of up to RM1,000 is allowed for the purchase of books, journals, magazines and other similar publications (hardcopy or electronic), whether purchased locally or overseas. However, it excludes newspapers or banned reading materials such as morally offensive magazines. Please make sure that you keep the receipts.

Yearly exercise: People filing their income tax forms via the IRB’s e-Filing system at Menara Mustapha Kamal in Petaling Jaya.
> I bought a computer notebook for personal use through a friend working in a computer manufacturing company. The purchase was made under his name to be entitled for staff price. Can I claim relief through Pembelian Komputer Peribadi Untuk Individu?

Personal computer for non-business purposes is given as a deduction instead of a rebate. The amount of deduction is limited to a maximum of RM3,000 and is given on an individual basis once in every three years of assessment and you must have a receipt. You are not eligible to claim relief for purchase of that notebook because the receipt was not issued in your name.

> For broadband subscription, does it include the monthly subscription to TM Streamyx?

Yes, the monthly bill for Streamyx line is deductible for tax from 2010-2012.

> Is the relief Pembelian Buku/Majalah/Jurnal/Penerbitan usable for both myself and wife (RM1,000 each) at the same time if we file separately?

For separate assessments, each of you can claim deductions for purchase of books/magazines subject to a maximum of RM1,000. Please make sure that both of you keep the receipts.

> For broadband expenses, can I claim for payment for 3G services on smartphones?

Yes. But on broadband usage only.

> My smartphone bill is registered under my mother's name but I am paying the monthly bill. Can I claim for deductions for broadband?

No. An amount limited to a maximum of RM500 is deductible in respect of expenses expended by the individual for the payment of broadband subscription under the individual's name. This deduction is only allowed for Years of Assessment 2010, 2011 and 2012.

> I subscribe to TM's Streamyx Internet package at Rm60+10 per month package. My local tax office said this is not deductible for RM500 relief granted under the broadband scheme. However, I heard from one tax consultant that it is deductible. Please help.

An amount limited to a maximum of RM500 is deductible in respect of expenses expended by the individual for the payment of broadband subscription under the individual's name, including the Streamyx line. Broadband refers to telecommunication in which a wide band of frequencies is available to transmit information of at least 256 kbps.

> My cousin received a monthly mobile phone allowance of RM250 in 2010. His job requires him to call often and the allowance is hardly enough to cover the actual expenses. His EA form included the above allowance (under gross amount) but does not state exemption at the bottom of the form. Can he get the exemption of RM3,000?

Expenses allowable is only for monthly bills for broadband subscription, fixed line telephone, mobile phone, pager and PDA registered in the name of the employee or employer, including cost of registration and installation. Telephone allowance is not exempted.

Medical

> I understand that I can claim a deduction of up to RM5,000 for parents' medical expenses. Does it include the salary for domestic maid to care for my parents?

Deduction for domestic maids to care for parents is only applicable in year of assessment 2011.

> I am an expatriate. I had renal transplant a few years ago in my home country and I am on immuno-suppression medications currently. I usually buy the medicines from my home country as my medical consultant is over there. I would appreciate if you could inform me whether I can claim tax deductions for the medicines and if so, what supporting documents should I have with me.

Send your application to Jabatan Dasar Percukaian, Tingkat 12, Blok 9, Kompleks Bangunan Kerajaan, Jalan Duta, Peti Surat 11833, 50758 Kuala Lumpur.

> According to the IRB's website, the list of allowable deductions for medical expenses incurred for parents includes expenses in a nursing home. If my parents are both pensioners and I am footing the cost of my grandparents' stay in a nursing home, would I be able to claim the monthly expenses incurred for deductions?

No. Deduction is only for parents.

Travel

> Upon browsing http://www.hasil.gov.my/ for Tax Exemptions for Individuals, I noticed a provision for Tax Exemption that states: “Leave passage within Malaysia not exceeding three times in a year and one leave passage outside Malaysia not exceeding RM3,000.

i) How do I go about applying for this tax exemption?

ii) Where do I fill in my claims?

iii) How do I show proof of travels within Malaysia if I use my own means of transport?

iv) What is the limit for travel within Malaysia?

i) This exemption is only applicable to staff whose employment agreement states that he/she is given leave passage. For details, refer to public Ruling 1/2003 in the IRB's website.

ii) Your employer will declare it under column G of your Annual Income Statement (EA) form.

iii) It is not applicable.

iv) Your are limited to three times a year for travel within Malaysia.

> My company car is eight years old. My company over-calculated on the allowance for the past three years. How can I claim back the overpaid portion for the past three years?

Send an appeal letter together with the supporting documents to the branch where your file is registered.

Joint or separate claims

> I am a married woman who stopped working in the year 2009 and do not have any income in 2010. Do I need to submit a Borang BE for AY 2010? If yes, what category of assessment should I select? When my husband submits his Borang BE, what type of assessment should he select in order to obtain the wife relief of RM3,000?

You have to submit the BE form if you receive it. Select “5” . For husband's form, fill no. 4 Self for spouse without source of income/tax exempted income.

> Since I am not working, my husband pays for my insurance policy. Can he claim this against the education and medical insurance relief?

Your husband is not allowed to claim deduction for the premium payment on education or medical insurance if the receipts are issued under your name.

> My wife and I file our income tax assessments separately. I have an SSPN account for my son under my name. For the year 2010, I deposited RM3,000 into my son's SSPN account. My wife also deposited RM3,000 into my son's SSPN account even though it is under my name. I claim child relief for my son but my wife does not. Can she claim tax rebate for the RM3,000 she contributed although the account is not under her name and she is not claiming child relief for my son? Can she claim tax rebate for the same if she were to claim child relief for my son?

The beneficiary can have a maximum of three accounts under his name. So, in this case, your wife must have an account as a depositor for your child to claim for SSPN deduction.

Others

> I have two children aged four and six years old. They are studying in a private kindergarten. I file my tax under “Taksiran Berasingan”. How should I fill out Section D16 and Section D16a? Who is eligible for 100% and who's for 50%?

You have to put “2” in No. of children eligible for deduction (D16) and “2” at 100% D16A. Where two or more individuals (not husband and wife living together) are each entitled to claim a deduction for payment made in respect of the same child, each of those individuals is entitled to claim 50% of the whole deduction.

> My son left Malaysia in October 2010. He was cleared by the IRB and even got a refund for overpayment. Does my son have to fill up the BE form for the year of assessment 2011? If so, does he have to fill up his income from his present overseas employer from October to December 2010 or only income derived in Malaysia that has not been declared for the above period? If there is no other Malaysian income from October to December 2010, is he still required to submit his return?

No, he does not need to file the tax form again for year 2010. Clearance has been issued and the tax for year 2010 has been calculated. Income from overseas need not be reported to the IRB as it is not subject to Malaysian Tax.

> I would like to seek your help in filling up the mutual fund declaration. It is mentioned that mutual fund declarations should be declared under HK-6. However, from the mutual fund distribution statement, I am having difficulty determining which columns refer to gross income and tax deducted columns.

Fill in the amount in column D for taxable income and E for tax deduction.

> What is Anuiti Tertunda and how much is it? How can I make use of this relief and which company sells this?

Anuiti Tertunda or the annuity scheme is under section 49 (1A) ACP 1967.

It refers to a contract between an individual and a life insurance company in which the individual pays a lump sum or a series of premiums and the insurance company pays it back in instalments spread over a long period of time in the future as agreed upon. You can buy from any insurance company that offers the scheme.

A further deduction is given in respect of any payment of premium for deferred annuity contracted on or after Jan 1, 2010. The total deduction for D17 and D18 is limited to a maximum of RM7,000. However, the total deduction in respect of life insurance premium and EPF contribution (item D17) is limited to RM6,000. Subsection 49(1A).

> Does the list of sports equipment include weight-training equipment such as barbells and exercise benches?

Under the Sports Equipment (Fitness) relief, any sports equipment related to sports activities is entitled to a deduction, including exercise equipment like the treadmill, exercise bike and air-walker.

RM21mil fund to help writers publish own books - The Star

2011-04-23T21:25:00.001+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Starting this year, local writers can apply for an allocation under the RM2mil fund to publish their own books.

National Library director-general Datuk Raslin Abu Bakar said the money would be given to those who completely write their own books.

"Writers can submit their works to the committee which will evaluate them based on the terms set," he told reporters at KL International Book Fair 2011 here on Saturday.

Raslin said qualified writers would be given RM25,000 each and the national library would buy and distribute the books to libraries nationwide.

However, the books published must be suitable for the rural community.

Some 16,044 books were published in 2008, 15,767 in 2009 and 15,756 in 2010.

The book fair, which began at Putra World Trade Centre on Friday, ends May 1. - Bernama

Syed Husin Dedah SB ‘Lantik’ Pensyarah Universiti - Keadilan Daily

2011-04-19T13:33:00.000+08:00

Senator Dewan Negara, Profesor Dr Syed Husin Ali mendedahkan bahawa Polis Cawangan Khas bukan sahaja mempengaruhi keputusan yang dibuat kerajaan, malah turut campurtangan dalam pelantikan pensyarah universiti, yang disifatkan lebih bahaya dan teruk dari campurtangan politik.

Beliau mendedahkan perkara ini semasa membahaskan titah Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin di Dewan Negara, semalam.

“Sekarang ini diketahui bahawa seseorang pemohon untuk menjadi pensyarah akan ditapis. Sebelum ia boleh diterima, namanya dirujuk kepada pihak keselamatan (biasanya SB) untuk dikaji dan dihalusi latar belakangnya.

“Hanya selepas dibersih atau diluluskan oleh pihak SB barulah tawaran jawatan dihantar kepadanya. Biasanya hubungan dan pendirian politik calon itupun boleh menjadi alasan menyekat perlantikan,” ujarnya.

Menurut Syed Husin, SB bukan sahaja campurtangan dalam pelantikan pensyarah, malah turut mempengaruhi keputusan dalam pelantikan seseorang profesor Emeritus, yang dilihat tidak sehaluan dengan kerajaan.

“Bahkan lebih buruk lagi diketahui bahawa SB campur tangan dalam hal perlantikan Profesor Emeritus. Gelaran ini diberi kepada seseorang yang telah berkhidmat selama tempoh tertentu di sesebuah universiti selepas ia bersara, atas dasar sumbangan dan kecemerlangannya dalam bidang akademik.

Menurut Syed Husin lagi, terdapat kes di mana seorang bekas profesor yang terkenal dibatalkan gelaran Profesor Emeritus oleh sebuah universiti ulung di Malaysia kerana disekat SB.

“Badan-badan akademik dalam Universiti itu bersetuju mengaugerahkan gelaran ini kepada bekas Profesor berkenaan. Akan tetapi, apabila sampai ke peringkat Lembaga Universiti, campur tangan SB berlaku. Maka tidak jadilah gelaran itu dianugerah,” katanya.

Mutual recognition on degrees between Malaysia and China

2011-04-18T15:46:00.001+08:00

BEIJING: Malaysia and China are to sign a Mutual Recognition Agreement on higher education that will become a catalyst in increasing student exchange between the two countries, said Malaysian Ambassador to China Datuk Iskandar Sarudin.

He added that ministry officers of both countries had recently discussed the proposal, which was expected to be finalised soon.

"Both countries had agreed to the proposed matter during Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's visit to China in 2009 and the Chinese premier Hu Jintao's visit to Malaysia later," he told reporters here Sunday night.

He added that issues related the proposal had been ironed out and the agreement was just waiting to be signed.

According to Iskandar, there are currently 2,252 self-sponsored Malaysian students pursuing their higher education in China, including 152 in Beijing, Shanghai (346), Guangdong (402) and Yunnan (7).

He added that there were also 119 students learning the Chinese language at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), comprising 84 students under the Education Ministry and 35 under MARA scholarship.

As at 2010, 10,214 students from China are pursuing their studies in various fields of studies at higher learning institutions in Malaysia, including business, hospitality, computer science, information technology, design and architecture.

Iskandar Sarudin said the exchange of Notes of Agreement between Malaysia and China on the partial abolition of visa requirement for holders of diplomatic and official or service passports would be effective one month after this was signed. - Bernama

International LifeLong Learning Conference 2011

2011-04-05T12:59:00.005+08:00

The ILLLC2011 conference will be held at the Seri Pacific Hotel in KL on 14th and 15th November 2011.

The theme of the conference is: "Transforming Nations Through Enculturation of LifeLong Learning." The sub-themes are as follows:

Laying the Foundation:

* Nurturing the culture of lifelong learning
* Learning communities for sustainable development
* Empowering marginalised communities
* Overcoming barriers and challenges

Lifelong Learning for National Development:

* Driving human capital and human resource development
* The role of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)
* Making lifelong learning relevant for the workplace
* Current practices and future options

Policies and Implementation:

* The roles of the government and private sector
* Bridging the gap between formal and non-formal education
* Measuring lifelong learning: Qualification framework, regulation and quality assurance
* Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)
* Funding and managing lifelong learning programmes

Realising Lifelong Learning for All:

* Democratising lifelong learning: Ensuring access, opportunity and equity
* Leveraging on technology for lifelong learning
* Creating a conducive environment for lifelong learning

The conference is co-organized by Open University Malaysia, Ministry of Higher Education and University Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Important Dates:

Call for Papers: 1 April 2011
Abstract Submission: 30 May 2011
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 15 June 2011
Submission of Full Paper: 15 August 2011
Notification of Full Paper Acceptance: 15 September 2011
Submission of Camera-Ready Paper: 30 September 2011
Registration (Early Bird): 30 September 2011
Registration: 15 October 2011
Conference: 14 - 15 November 2011

For details: http://iclll2011.oum.edu.my/

General Guidelines for Submitting an Abstract

• Abstracts should not be more than 200 words. Abstracts of more than 200 words will be rejected by the system.

• Abstracts should be sent via the Abstract/Paper Submission System not later than 30 May 2011.

• Abstracts should incorporate the objectives, methodology, results, implications and possible future studies.

• The paper title should not exceed two lines or 30 words.

General Guidelines for Submitting Full Papers

• Authors are encouraged to submit full papers describing original, unpublished research that is addressing any of the sub-themes but not currently under review by another conference or journal. The full paper should include a title, author’s name, affiliations, e-mail address, figures/tables and references. All authors are requested to adhere to the guidelines for preparing the full paper. The total number of words should be between 3,000 and 4,000.

• Paper submission is via the Abstract/Paper Submission System

• Papers should be in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx). Do NOT zip/compress the file! Any embedded OLE object should be in one of the default formats that come with Microsoft Office such as MSExcel or Powerpoint. Please ensure that all personal information is removed from the paper and the file properties, and that the first line is the title line.

• Once the paper has been uploaded, you will receive an acknowledgement confirming that your paper has been received. If you fail to receive this confirmation, please e-mail the secretariat at iclll2011@oum.edu.my

42 private varsities, colleges struck off in 2010 - The Malaysian Insider

2011-04-04T16:38:00.000+08:00

By Yow Hong Chieh April 04, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — The government revoked approvals for 27 private higher learning institutes and deregistered 15 private universities last year for failing to meet standards, the deputy higher education minister has said.

Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the institutes and universities in question had been guilty of offering poor quality premises, teaching staff, management and governance to students.

“In 2009, 32 private institutions were disbanded and 13 more were deregistered as they were non-viable,” he said during Question Time in Parliament today.

Saifuddin was replying to Padang Terap MP Mohd Nasir Zakaria, who asked the ministry to state the number of private universities and university colleges in the country.

Mohd Nasir also asked about the grants given to private universities and university colleges as well as their enrolment numbers.

Saifuddin said as of January this year, there were 24 private universities, 20 university colleges and five overseas universities with local campuses.

“The total number of private institutions, including private universities, university colleges and foreign universities with local campuses, is 485,” he said.

“The total number of students enrolled in all private institutions is 541,629.”

The Temerloh MP said the fundamental research grant scheme (FRGS) was reopened in 2009 by the Education Ministry and was initially offered to Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten), Malaysia Multimedia University (MMU) and Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP).

“That year, 30 research projects were sponsored for the three universities involving grants of RM1.4 million,” he said.

He added that in 2010, the FRGS was opened to all private universities, university colleges and universities from overseas with local campuses.

Report on the Gathering of PhD students at OUM Main Campus on Feb 27, 2011

2011-03-07T11:05:00.004+08:00

Posted by Richard Ng and Bee Ching. Photos by Meng Tze

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Azahari presenting his talk

The gathering held on Feb 27, 2011 at OUM Main Campus was the second gathering for the year 2011. 40 Phd Students turned up to listen to the lecture presented by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Azahari Ismail from UPM. The title of his presentation was "Philosophy of Research”.

Participants were highly engaged in this talk as Dr. Azahari gave a good account on what constitute a research and the philosophy in carrying a research. Dr. Azahari shares his 30 years of experience in conducting research. He has published more than 100 papers. Participants have definitely benefited from his talk which lasted about 2 hours.

The slides for his presentation can be obtained from FaceBook/Richard Ng.

Dr. Rosmah giving her comments on the QE mock presentation

Earlier, there was a Mock QE presentation by Ms. Meenashi. Participants are encouraged to share their work before going for the actual QE or Viva.

In the afternoon, there was a Postgraduate Lab session with Dr. Rosmah Mohamad (PhD Coordinator) where participants can meet her on a face-to-face basis to discuss on various academic and administrative issues.

Group photo for remembrance

Generally, participants were very happy with the gathering and talk by Dr. Azhari. Thanks to Bee Ching and Dr. Rosmah for making this session a success. Looking forward to next meeting in March to be held on 27 March 2011. The next session will touch on the Developing a Research Framework, Problem Statement & Research Questions.

Workshops and Gathering for OUM Postgraduate Students 2011

2011-02-23T12:10:00.005+08:00

The following are the series of workshops and gatherings which have been planned by the Centre of Graduate Studies of OUM for the benefits of all its postgraduate students.

Please click on the image to enlarge it

The next meeting has been scheduled on 27 February 2011 as follows:

9.30-10.00am

Mock QE Presentation by Meenashi (She has recently submitted her research proposal)

10.00-10.30

Q&A

10.30-11.00

Tea break refreshment will be served

11.00-1.00pm

“Philosophy of Research” by Associate Professor Dr. Azahari Ismail

1.00-1.30

Q&A

1.30-2.30

Lunch

2.30 - 4.00

Postgraduate Lab (pre-arranged or impromptu session for academic & administrative issues)

Please take note that the cost per participant is RM20.00.

For those who are interested to attend, please email or SMS Bee Ching at 017-3403968 latest by Friday 25 Feb 2011.

AP Dr. Azhari Ismail of UPM

Details of workshop speaker:

Name of Speaker: Azahari bin Ismail
Position: Assoc. Professor
Qualifications: Dip. Agric. (KPM), B.S. Plant & Protection (Louisiana), M.S. Agric. Ext. (Florida), Ph.D. Policy Studies (Florida State)
Department: Professional Development and Continuing Education
Area of Specialization: Policy Development
Email: azismail@putra.upm.edu.my
Phone: (603) 89468228

A brief introduction about the speaker as provided by Dr Rosmah :

* Associate Professor Dr Azahari Ismail graduated with Diploma in Agriculture from Kolej Pertanian Malaya; B.Sc. in Plant and Protection from Louisiana University; M.Sc. in Agriculture Extension from Florida University; and Ph.D in Policy Studies from Florida State University.

* He has served UPM more than 30 years.

* He has published over 100 papers in journals and proceedings.

* He has facilitated various postgraduate programmes including: Graduate Research Seminar, INTAN PhD Preparatory Course, and Universiti Perlis PhD Preparatory Course.

* He was the Executive Director of Multimedia Technology Enhancement Operations Sdn Bhd (METEOR) which is a consortium of 11 public universities in the country.

The Postgraduate Lab (PG Lab) session is scheduled at 2.30pm to 4.00pm. The session is a pre-arranged session and aims to discuss any issues related to student's research work individually. Dr Abdul Rahman Abdullah and Dr. Rosmah will facilitate the session.

Please confirm your attendance with Dr. Rosmah via email: rosmah_mohamed@oum.edu.my latest by Saturday 26/2/11 if you are keen to join this PG Lab session.

Prof Rujhan is new D-G - Star

2011-02-13T08:08:00.002+08:00

By PRIYA KULASAGARAN

THE HIGHER Education Ministry’s deputy director-general Prof Rujhan Mustafa as been appointed the new director-general effective Jan 1 this year.

He takes over from Prof Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi who has been appointed Universiti Putra Malaysia vice-chancellor.

Prof Rujhan, who has been acting director-general since Jan 1, had previously served as the ministry’s academic affairs director and as an international economics professor at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).

Prof Rujhan is also on the board of directors for several universities, namely Open University Malaysia, Universiti Tenaga Nasional and Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (formerly known as Universiti Darul Iman Malaysia).

He previously served on the board of directors of Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris.

Prof Rujhan was recently appointed by the Malaysian Government as its country representative for the 2010-2013 term, under the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation Regional Open Learning Centre based in Jakarta.

He obtained his master’s and PhD degrees in international economics from Ritsumeikan University, Japan, as well as a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Universiti Malaya.

Aside from having his academic and research work recognised in international bodies such as the Association of International Education, Japan, Prof Rujhan has also been involved in many government-to-government meetings held by organisations such as the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, the Asian University Network and the World Bank.

He is currently the country’s focal person on higher education for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference Ranking Universities initiative and an executive committee member for the Islamic World Science Citation Centre.

The scramble for skills - Star

2011-02-12T17:46:00.002+08:00

Who doesn't have a relative or friend who has packed up and left Malaysia for “greener” pastures? And who doesn't know of someone who has plans or aspirations to do exactly that? Chances are, most of us do.

It would seem that over the years, the compulsion to leave the country in search of opportunities has grown beyond pure economics. Dissatisfaction over the quality of education, personal safety and for some, the political future of the country where sabre-rattling seems to have become common place have served as push factors for many Malaysians to pack their bags and leave the country.

While it could have been relatively easier to shrug off the consequences of that in the past, it is a “luxury” the country can ill-afford today, in this era of heightened competition where economies are scrambling to woo the best to stay ahead of the game and for many, to survive and prosper.

Malaysia has to retain and attract top talent to climb the global per capita income ladder.

»It is no longer a question of salary but the whole environment «TAN SRI RAMON NAVARATNAM

“We have the right ideas. Unless we implement those fast, we will create a credibility gap,'' says ASLI Centre of Public Policy Studies chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, adding that “it is no longer a question of salary but the whole environment from social to the way of life that must be looked at holistically.”

The unique Malaysian worker

There is a commonly held belief that the Malaysian employee is able to assimilate and adapt well to any environment. In this context, environment would mean country. Indeed, that's a valuable trait to possess. That may partly stem from the multi-cultural nature of the Malaysian society which has carved a solid bed for the mingling among different races, religions and cultures.

Another oft-described trait of Malaysians, as highlighted by foreign employers, is that they are smart and hard working and this goes beyond the fact that the country has a large pool of straight-A scorers in public examinations. It has a great deal more to do with the employability of Malaysians.

Hence, every time a Malaysian goes abroad to study, the country faces the threat of them not returning to their country.

“The existing pool of 700,000 Malaysians working overseas is an indication of the capabilities of Malaysians overseas,” says Kelly Services (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd managing director Melissa Norman.

But what makes the Malaysian worker unique is also their linguistic capability.

“Malaysian talent is on par with regional and even global talent, especially those who have a good command of English as well as an additional language such as Mandarin or Bahasa Malaysia. Going forward, there is a need to improve the standard of the English Language and the technical competencies of the Malaysian labour force in order to remain competitive,'' says Randstad regional director of Singapore & Malaysia Karin Clarke.

But the country that has benefited the most from migrating Malaysians is Singapore. As Singapore is a high income economy Malaysia aspires to become, the island republic has attracted 300,000 Malaysians, a large number of whom comprise skilled talent.

»700,000 Malaysians are working overseas« MELISSA NORMAN

A mammoth task

An agency has now been set up to closely scrutinise this dilemma and fill the gap. Indeed, the newly-set up Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd appears to have a Herculean task ahead.

The agency is headed by Johan Mahmood Merican and his mandate is to overcome the talent shortage situation in Malaysia. Naturally, sceptics abound as this is not the first time the administration has talked about the need to woo Malaysians from abroad and reverse the brain drain. Instead, over that period, the drain could have become more pronounced.

“We definitely see a wider pool of candidates being more open to looking at what is on offer, particularly in the educated professional fields and the sectors that are most highly in demand (abroad),'' says Clarke.

Sadly for Talent Corp, there is no single magic bullet to stem the tide and grow the talent pool in the country. The weak links are aplenty but fortunately, there is the appeal of promise - that the Government, this time around, has the political will to make the necessary changes, armed with a massive handbook called the Economic Transformation Programme.

According to Johan, Talent Corp has a three-pronged approach - analyse the Malaysian diaspora and see how best they can contribute to nation building, either by coming home or from where they are.

The other is to woo foreign talent and sort out the hurdles of them settling here while the third is to put a lid on the outflow of human capital.

In the process, Talent Corp will need to engage companies and businesses to ascertain what is needed to widen the talent pool and how government policies and procedures can be streamlined towards this end.

“We aspire to be a bridge between industry's requirement and the Government,'' says Johan.

Talent Corp started with a launch grant of RM30mil from the Government and Johan feels that its maximum staff strength should be no more than 50. Of course, he has been given a set of key performance indicators to match up to.

“I need to address the talent need and address the gap,” says Johan, who started on this journey on the first day of the new year.

“The bulk of my time has been spent engaging with stakeholders...there are a lot of people in the country who are passionate and knowledgeable. Having a practical knowledge of what's happening in the country and a sense of what needs to be done is important,'' he says.

Up the value chain

At heart of what Talent Corp wants to achieve is fulfilling the labour requirements of the ETP. The ETP is envisaged to create 3.3 million new jobs but many of those jobs are higher skills in nature.

»Malaysian talent is on par with regional and even global talent«KARIN CLARKE

The announcement in January where 35,000 new jobs would be generated from new investments totalling RM67bil shows that labour intensive jobs are on the wane and higher skills are in vogue.

As a country moves up the value chain towards a high income nation, which is what the ETP is meant to do, the type of skills required will be different but the freedom of labour movement, and the lack of soft skills, is causing a lot of problems for employers of high skilled labour.

“Malaysia has a high graduate population. However, many lack the soft skills deemed necessary for many high skilled job placements.

“We hope that the initiation of the Talent Corporation will assist in addressing some of these issues. Human capital is an asset to our economic growth and an importance has to be placed on proactively developing our workforce,” says Norman.

According to Kelly Services, the top five skills in demand are communication skills, problem solving, ability to participate in decision making, people management and strategic thinking.

“Overcoming these skills shortage will include investing in existing talent to ensure that they are well-versed in not only the theoretical knowledge but also the soft skills,'' says Norman.

She says meeting labour demands will depend on the collaboration of different factions.

“High salaries and attractive benefits are not the only factors that will assist in attracting the right talent. As Malaysia has a significant ageing workforce and a growing young population, a multi-generational strategy is crucial,” she adds.

To ensure Malaysian human capital is capable of meeting the standards and demands of the workforce, Norman says educational institutions need to be equipped with the tools and capabilities to teach students relevant in-demand skills while fresh graduates need to be nurtured to ensure they meet the demand of future employers through work placements and internships.

The Talent crunch

Malaysia is a country that's just a nudge away from full employment.

But possessing a university degree is no longer a guarantee for employment as the scrolls are not always relevant to the skills needed.

Kelly Services notes that every year, 250,000 Malaysians complete their studies at higher education institutions locally and overseas.

“There are now about 25 private universities and 20 university colleges in Malaysia, and student enrolment in private higher education institutions has increased by over 54% within a short span of time from 2005 to 2008,'' says Norman.

“As globalisation of work and workers continues, so will the need for higher education institutions to re-examine required skills in the new knowledge-based economy and how they can produce more thinking' students, who are competitive, have the relevant technical and behavioral competencies.”

With competition for skilled IT talent in Malaysia at an all time high, especially in IT outsourcing and shared ervices, there is a shortage in that sector; Malaysia's shared services and outsourcing SSO sector created 32,500 jobs in 2007 and is growing at about 30% per annum and has the potential to hit RM6.4bil by 2012.

The rollout of high speed broadband has provided strong demand for talent in both the cellular and broadband segments in the telecommunications industry. In engineering, new development projects and industrial parks such as the Tanjung Agas Industrial Park, the Northern and Southern corridors have created job opportunities across the country.

“Within the commercial and business sectors, candidates with strength in market research, product and brand knowledge are also in demand,'' says Norman. “These are sectors that face a constant demand for talent with specialised skill-sets and experience.”

Even though more than quarter of a million people graduate from institutions of higher learning annually, Clarke says there is still a huge number of jobs that are not filled.

»At such levels, Singapore is 21% cheaper than Malaysia« SHAMSUDDIN BARDAN

“Latest statistics reveal that there are 100,000 jobs available but no graduate takers,'' she says.

The skill crunch is particularly acute in major hubs.

Three most notable markets where skill shortage persists, according to Randstad 2010's World of Work report, are KL, for white collar professionals, Penang for specialists in the semiconductor and manufacturing sectors and Johor Baru, particularly for infrastructure roles, such as healthcare and education.

The low down

Wages are often a strong cause for labour migration. Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Shamsuddin Bardan however, disagrees that wages in Malaysia are too low citing that even a foreign worker, based on MEF estimates, should be earning a take home pay of RM1,500 a month based on the amount of remittances from Malaysia.

Another factor is productivity. Shamsuddin points out that a worker in Singapore is paid 2.5 to three times that of an equivalent skill in Malaysia but their productivity is 3.8 times higher than a Malaysian worker.

“At such levels, Singapore is 21% cheaper than Malaysia,'' he notes.

But the relative static pace of wage inflation has been a source of frustration for many, and is high up in the reasons for departure.

Malaysia has yet to experience a significant change in wages and there are numbers to prove it. The country's average annual salary increase has been relatively small at 2% to 6% over the past decade.

The Kelly Employment Outlook and Salary Guide 2010/11 indicated a 4% to 5% increase in salaries across all sectors.

“There are calls to implement a minimum wage system as the Human Resource Ministry revealed that 34% of our workforce earns below the national poverty line of RM720,” she adds.

Clarke points out that wages in Malaysia are reasonably consistent based on individual currencies with other countries in the region but the challenge for Malaysia is that there are countries in the region that have stronger currencies.

“For example, a Malaysia-based Priority banker earns the same in ringgit as a Singapore priority banker earns in Singapore dollars. However the currency conversion would see the Singapore banker earn over double that which they would in Malaysia,'' she says.

That is yet, another factor that could keep Malaysian talents rooted abroad.

Private varsity 'loses' RM100mil gov't grant - Malaysiakini

2011-02-10T11:33:00.001+08:00

After having received a RM100 million grant from the government, a 'premier' private university has not met its enrolment targets and is left with barely enough money to last another year.

In fact, said its chief executive Leong Choon Heng, the university is now down to “less than RM10 million” and is forced to take aggressive cost-cutting measures to keep afloat.

He was responding to queries after Malaysiakini received a tip-off on the situation.

Founded in 2001 by senator and former cabinet minister Effendi Norwawi, the Malaysian University of Science and Technology (MUST) was supposed to be a premier postgraduate university in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The university had received the money in instalments between January 2001 and 2006, via the MUST Ehsan Foundation. Effendi has been a trustee of the Foundation since 2001.

But 10 years on, the university is far from even meeting its 2007 target of 500 students, with only 207 enrolled.

Furthermore, most of these students are undergraduates who were enrolled to boost the numbers after an all-time low of 10 students in 2007.

During the tenure of former chief executive Omar Abdul Rahman, who resigned in March and was once advisor of science and technology to then premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the university did not acquire much physical assets.

The university has always been located in office lots in Kelana Square, as initial plans to build a campus through MUST Ehsan Development was shelved.

MUST Ehsan Development - a subsidiary of the public-listed Encorp Group founded by Effendi - was supposed to develop the land surrounding the designated site of the campus in Shah Alam.

The revenue from this was to be used to fund the construction of the campus and other university activities.

MUST Ehsan Development has a portfolio of projects worth RM800 million, including the mixed-development project dubbed the Strand in Kota Damansara. However, it has nothing to do with the Foundation or MUST.

Malaysiakini contacted Effendi about two weeks ago as a key representative of the previous management, but he has yet to respond to the issues raised.

Where the money went

Leong, who took over management about three months ago, said most of the grant was spent to finance the students and to recruit faculty members from leading universities abroad.

“From 2002-2006, a sizeable amount of the grant was spent on scholarships and stipend for the pioneer batch of students. The majority needed more than three semesters to graduate, as the MIT curriculum was very demanding,” he said.

To date 107 students have graduated under the MUST-MIT programme, which expired in 2004.

This number, said Leong who is also a faculty member, is “a normal figure for post-graduate programmes, as with public universities of similar size over a similar time period”.

The university has lab equipment, books and office equipment and three Proton Perdana cars - all of which once cost millions of ringgit but have now depreciated severely in value.

Malaysiakini understands that MUST has been paying rental for about 30 rooms which it had never used since opening its doors. It is understood that millions of ringgit have been spent on renovations to the premises.

To cut costs and revive the university, the new management team is letting go of several of the four floors it has been renting.

“We've let go of floors and rooms which we have never used and are in the midst of gradually moving to the Strand, which we feel will give us a better profile as there are other colleges located there,” said Leong.

Letting go of these rooms is expected to return some RM60,000 to the university's bank account.

The management will channel this to “aggressive marketing”, in the hope of attracting more students.

Leong added that the rental for the new premises, owned by MUST Ehsan Development, is expected to be “the same or better” than the sum currently being paid.

For now at least, the Higher Education Ministry is giving MUST another chance to turn things around, even though the university does not meet the minimum of RM20 million paid-up capital that is required of private universities.

“MUST is undergoing a rebranding exercise under new management (and) is now also offering undergraduate degree and diploma courses,” explained Mohd Najib Masrom, the ministry's senior assistant director of the private higher education management sector, by email.

The licence for MUST to run its foundation programme is pending renewal.

The university licence will expire in 2012. It is understood that such permits are worth several million ringgit.

Happy Chinese New Year Gong Xi Fa Cai

2011-02-02T16:12:00.002+08:00

Wishing all readers and students a very "Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year". Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Local private colleges to be rated on MyQuest this year - The Star

2011-01-17T21:38:00.001+08:00

By RICHARD LIM

PUTRAJAYA: Local private colleges will be rated this year through the Malaysia Quality Evaluation System (MyQuest), said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

The move, he said, was necessary as universities and university colleges were already evaluated through the Rating System for Malaysian Higher Education (Setara) and it would be “incomplete” if Malaysia’s 402 private colleges were not rated.

“It is important to know where our many colleges stand and we cannot compromise on quality,” he said at a press conference.

“We hope to come out with the results at the end of the year as the rating will assist students when it comes to choosing a college.”

Mohamed Khaled launched MyQuest after delivering his New Year’s message to the ministry at the Putrajaya International Convetion Centre on Monday. Under MyQuest, private colleges will be classified into six tiers.

They are Tier 6 (Excellent), Tier 5 (Very good), Tier 4 (Good), Tier 3 (Satisfactory), Tier 2 (Poor) and Tier 1 (Very poor).

My Quest employs a 40-30-30 breakdown: 40% of a college's score comes from its Input (students and facilities); 30% from Output (Recognition of a college's courses and graduates); and 30% from a college's quality management system.

Developed since the end of 2009, MyQuest is able to generate three different evaluation reports - college-based, cluster-based and international student-focused.

To qualify for MyQuest, colleges must have at least one matured programme running, with at least one batch of graduates.

Mohamed Khaled said that polytechnics would also be rated under a system known as PolyRate and the results would also be announced at the end of the year.

He added that this year’s Setara exercise would include universities that offered open and distance learning programmes as they widened access to higher education and promoted lifelong learning.

Three new research grant schemes were also announced to complement the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS).

They are the Long Term RGS, the Exploratory RGS and the Prototype RGS.

Mohamed Khaled said that over RM700mil would be disbursed through the schemes over two years.

Explaining the move, Mohamed Khaled said that research was multi-faceted and the nation could lose out if everything was spent on fundamental research.

“Some forms of research may take a long time and if we lack this specific type of grant, few would be motivated to undertake such efforts,” he said

OUM PhD pioneer graduates invited to the first Staff Assembly

2011-01-06T22:47:00.004+08:00

The OUM's pioneer PhD graduates were specially invited to attend the first staff assembly for the year 2011. The letter of invitation were specially prepared and signed by its President and Vice Chancellor, Emeritus Prof. YBhg Tan Sri Dr Anuwar Ali.

Photo with President of OUM. From left: Dr Baljinder, Dr Wong, Dr Lum, Tan Sri and Dr Aminah

It was a very special occasion both for OUM and the graduates. The guest of honor was Dato' Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar, our Malaysian first astronaut. It was special because this was the first time OUM has invited graduates to attend its Staff Assembly, which happened to be the first assembly for the year 2011. Among the graduates present include Dr. Baljinder Singh, Dr. Sia Mal Kong, Dr. Wong Siaw Ming, Dr. Lum Heap Sum, Dr. Aminah and Dr Richard Ng.

Tan Sri Anuwar presenting the meritorius award to Dato' Dr Sheikh Muszaphar

For the graduates, it was an opportunity to meet in person our very first astronaut and to hear him sharing his personal experience through his talk entitled "Having the Right Attitude towards Excellence". According to Dato' Dr. Sheikh, his achievement culminated from his years of hard work, passion, dare to take risk and fear of nothing except God. He explained how he was selected from among 11,425 applicants and later shortlisted to 4 and finally became the first astronaut.

Dr Richard and Dr Aminah with astronaut, Dr Sheikh

It was his passion and his dreams. To him dreams are possible if you can overcome fear. It was a very interesting talk with video clips shown on his 12-day stay at the International Space Station.

The book autographed by Dato' Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar

Dr Lum receiving a souvenir from Tan Sri President

To the graduates, this occasion is considered a home coming event and get together session after their convocation held in November 2010. They met the faculty members and also the top management of OUM. They were also treated to a brunch attended by all staff and our astronaut. The President of OUM then presented each and every one of the graduates an OUM Jacket, a CD and a book written by our astronaut.

Dato' Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar then signed the autograph of his book of each of the graduate.

The pioneer PhD graduates having discussion on future plans before their departure

To the management of OUM especially to the President of OUM, Tan Sri Dr. Anuwar Ali, we are grateful for the invitation and appreciation shown.

Ex-Higher Education DG Dr Radin made UPM vice-chancellor - The Star

2010-12-31T14:46:00.001+08:00

PETALING JAYA: Former higher education director-general Prof Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi has recently been appointed as vice-chancellor of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) beginning Jan 1, 2011 until Dec 31, 2013.

His experience in the academic field for the past 24 years replaces Prof Tan Sri Datuk Dr Nik Mustapha R. Abdullah, who will end his period of appointment as vice-chancellor on Dec 31, 2010.

Widely experienced in the higher education field, Prof Radin has been the university’s deputy vice-chancellor (Academic and International Relations) from 2005 to 2006.

He was also the institution’s Engineering faculty dean from 1999 to 2004, and has expertise in the Road Safety Engineering field.

Prof Radin was awarded a PhD in Road Trafic Engineering from Birmingham University in 1996, a Masters degree in Engineering in the field of Transport and Trafic Engineering from the University of Sheffield in 1985 and a Bachelors Degree in Engineering (Hons) in the field of Civil and Structural Engineering in 1984.

In the area of research, Prof Radin has headed 14 research projects and over 100 journal publications of high impact, apart from receiving 22 awards and recognitions both locally and overseas.

Having been the director-general of the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros), he received the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award from the UK in 2005, which acknowledges the contributions and innovations of the recipient in the advancement of road safety.

Meanwhile, Prof Dr Mohd Saleh Jaafar, 47, has been appointed as UPM’s deputy vice-chancellor (Research and Innovation) for the next three years, beginning Jan 1, 2011 until Dec 31, 2013.

Prof Mohd Saleh replaces Prof Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Salleh, who ends his period of appointment on Dec 31, 2010.

Prof Mohd Saleh holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree from the Michigan State University, US, a Masters degree in Science from Michigan Ann Arbor, US, and a PhD from the University of Sheffield, UK.

Prof Mohd Saleh joined UPM in 1988, beginning his career as a lecturer at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and was appointed as Assoc Prof in 2001 leading up to his appointment as Prof at the faculty in 2009.

He was the Head of the Civil Engineering Faculty in 1996 until 2006 before his appointment as the deputy dean (Academic), and later as the Engineering Faculty dean in Oct 2007.

Happy New Year 2011

2010-12-31T09:32:00.001+08:00

Wishing you all a very Happy and a Prosperous New Year. May 2011 brings more joy and success to all of us

Program MyBrain15 di bawah RMK10

2010-12-28T09:24:00.004+08:00

Program MyBrain15:

Program MyBrain15 adalah salah satu program agenda kritikal di bawah Pelan Strategik Pengajian Tinggi Negara (PSPTN). Matlamat program adalah untuk mewujudkan kelompok sumber manusia yang berpengetahuan tinggi sebagai pemangkin kepada penyelidikan dan inovasi. Ini adalah penting bagi memastikan usaha Kerajaan untuk menjadikan pembangunan ekonomi berteraskan inovasi dapat dicapai dengan jayanya. Di bawah program ini, Kerajaan mensasarkan untuk mencapai sebanyak 60,000 pemegang PhD di kalangan rakyat Malaysia. Program yang ditawarkan oleh Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi adalah seperti berikut:

MyPhD:

MyPhD terbuka kepada semua graduan yang layak dan kakitangan sektor swasta. Objektif program ini adalah untuk meningkatkan jumlah kumpulan tenaga kerja profesional tempatan yang berpengetahuan dan berkemahiran tinggi berteraskan inovasi dan kreativiti yang mampu menjana pertumbuhan sektor ekonomi dan industri tempatan.

Kriteria MyPhD:

Calon-calon

* Pelajar Awam
* Kakitangan Swasta
* Pensyarah IPTS

Tempat Pengajian

* IPTA
* IPTS bertaraf GLC (UTP,MMU & UNITEN)

Bidang Tajaan

* 60% - Sains dan Teknologi
* 40% - Sains Sosial/Sastera Ikhtisas

Kontrak

* Berkhidmat di Malaysia atau mana-mana organisasi yang mempunyai kepentingan kepada Malaysia selama lima (5) tahun.

Syarat Permohonan MyPhD:

i. Warganegara Malaysia;

ii. Umur tidak melebihi 45 tahun semasa memohon;

iii. Telah mendapat tawaran/memulakan pengajian di IPT;

iv. Memiliki Ijazah Sarjana atau setaraf yang diiktiraf oleh IPTA dengan CGPA minima 3.00. Bagi mereka yang tiada kelayakan sarjana, perlu mempunyai pencapaian CGPA minima 3.50 di peringkat sarjana muda atau pengalaman berkerja berkaitan mengikut tempoh yang diluluskan oleh Agensi Kelayakan Malaysia (MQA);

v. Pengajian secara sepenuh masa;

vi. Tidak menerima sebarang bentuk penajaan dari lain-lain penaja (kecuali menerima elaun sebagai Pembantu Penyelidik Siswazah);

vii. Pelajar akan dikenakan perjanjian bersama seorang penjamin dan ikatan kontrak untuk berkhidmat kepada negara.

Syarat Kontrak:

i. Lima (5) tahun kontrak berkhidmat dalam negara atau dengan mana-mana organisasi yang berkepentingan untuk negara dengan gantirugi penuh pembiayaan sekiranya terlibat dalam pelanggaran kontrak;

ii. Penerima biaya yang melanggar syarat-syarat kontrak seperti berhenti atau ditamatkan pengajian oleh pihak IPT atau gagal atau berhijrah ke negara lain sebelum tamat kontrak akan dikenakan tindakan bayar balik atau gantirugi.

Permohonan dan Penawaran:

i. Permohonan akan dibuka secara online sepanjang tahun mulai 01 Disember 2010.

ii. Tawaran juga secara online akan dibuat dalam empat (4) fasa iaitu Januari, April, Julai dan Oktober pada setiap tahun.

iii. Pemilihan calon akan dibuat berdasarkan penilaian oleh Jawatankuasa Pemilih yang akan dilantik Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi.

iv. Sebelum memohon, calon hendaklah terlebih dahulu:-

* Memperolehi surat tawaran pengajian;
* Menyediakan Kertas Rancangan Penyelidikan (proposal)

Keterangan lanjut: https://www.mohe.gov.my/MyBrain15/index_myphd.php

MyMaster:

MyMaster merupakan feeder kepada program pembiayaan pengajian di peringkat PhD iaitu MyPhD. Objektif program ini adalah untuk merangsang dan menggalakkan graduan yang berkaliber meneruskan pengajian di peringkat yang lebih tinggi dalam bidang-bidang yang penting selaras dengan agenda pembangunan negara.

PhD Industri:

PhD Industri memberi tumpuan kepada para profesional dan pengamal industri dalam menghasilkan inovasi dan meningkatkan daya saing melalui penyelidikan berasaskan industri. Program ini juga adalah insentif Kerajaan untuk menggalakkan perkongsian pengetahuan antara pengamal industri dan ahli akademik dalam melahirkan profesional yang berpengetahuan tinggi.

Kumpulan Sasar:

* Eksekutif di industri yang terlibat secara langsung dengan penyelidikan, pembangunan, inovasi dan peningkatan daya saing industri berkenaan.
* Tidak termasuk kakitangan agensi Kerajaan, institut penyelidikan Kerajaan (research institutes) dan syarikat-syarikat bertaraf GLC.

Pembiayaan PhD Industri:

Pembiayaan maksimum sebanyak RM50,000 seorang sepanjang pengajian.

Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi:

-> Kos Penyeliaan
-> Kos Pengajian
-> Kos Latihan Penyeliaan
-> Kos Pemeriksaan Panel
-> Penganugerahan Ijazah

Industri:

-> Kos Penyelidikan Projek

Syarat Permohonan:

i. Pemilihan calon dari industri melalui perbincangan antara IPT & Industri

* Permohonan terbuka kepada semua warganegara Malaysia yang sedang berkerja di industri;
* Pemohon perlu mempunyai Ijazah Sarjana atau setaraf yang diiktiraf oleh universiti; ATAU
* Pemohon memiliki Ijazah Sarjana Muda DAN pengalaman industri dalam bidang berkaitan. (tertakluk kepada terma Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) yang ditetapkan oleh Agensi Kelayakan Malaysia (MQA), dan syarat-syarat yang ditetapkan oleh IPT).

ii. Perjanjian persefahaman antara IPT & Industri (MOU);

* meliputi kepentingan bersama, iaitu antara IPT dan industri

iii. Perjanjian persefahaman antara IPT & Industri DAN maklumat calon dikemukakan ke Bahagian Biasiswa, Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi bagi proses pembiayaan

Untuk keterangan lanjut:

- Sekolah Pengajian Siswazah di IPT yang terlibat; atau

- Bahagian Biasiswa

Bahagian Biasiswa

Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia,

Aras 4, Blok 1, Menara PJH, Presint 2,

62100, PUTRAJAYA

(u.p. Unit IPTA : Program PhD Industri)

No. Tel: 03-8888 1616 Fax: 03-8884 4701

Email : phdindustri@mohe.gov.my

URL: http://www.portal.mohe.gov.my/biasiswa

Skim Latihan Akademik IPTA (SLAI):

SLAI bertujuan meningkatkan kualiti tenaga pengajar di IPTA selaras dengan objektif PSPTN iaitu "Memperkasa Institusi Pengajian Tinggi". Dalam RMKe-10, Kerajaan mensasarkan 75% pensyarah berkelayakan PhD atau setaraf di IPTA bertaraf Universiti Penyelidikan manakala sebanyak 60% di IPTA lain. Pengajian ini terbuka kepada pensyarah/ tutor/ fellow yang berkhidmat di IPTA sahaja

Prof. Karl Wagner visits Toong Wah Cave Temple in Ipoh

2010-12-26T13:16:00.006+08:00

During his visit to Malaysia again in December, my PhD supervisor Prof. Karl Wagner took the opportunity to come to Ipoh and spent a night here. It was to celebrate my success in obtaining my PhD degree recently during the 9th OUM Convocation, which he was unable to attend due to work commitment.

We had good Bean Sprout Chicken and Yong Tau Fu. This has been one of the main attractions for him to come to Ipoh. Before he left, he visited the Toong Wah Cave Temple which was located near the Lost World of Tambun. This was his second visit to this temple as it was located 100 m above.

During his visit, w have good discussion on the joint research that we plan to do. We are also planning to write a book to share our discovery.

Global Learn Asia Pacific 2011

2010-12-22T14:44:00.005+08:00

Global Conference on Learning and Technology

March 28 - April 1, 2011

Melbourne, Australia

The mission of the Global Learn Asia Pacific Conference, organized by the AACE, is to further the advancement and innovation in learning and technology. As the educational world becomes increasingly global, new ways to explore, learn, and share knowledge are needed.

Global Learn serves as a means to connect and engage creative educators, researchers, consultants, training managers, policy makers, curriculum developers, entrepreneurs, and others in the topics and fields in which they are passionate. Many individuals are transforming learning environments in local as well as more global ways. Global Learn offers an opportunity to meet and discuss their ideas, findings, and next steps.

Important Dates:

Final Call for Submissions: Jan 21, 2011

Final Call for Virtual Submissions: Jan 21, 2011

Early Registration: Feb 8, 2011

Author Confirmation: Feb 8, 2011

Proceedings File: Feb 8, 2011

Hotel Reservations: Feb 26, 2011

Major Topics:

* Advanced Technologies for Learning and Teaching
* Innovative Approaches to Learning and Learning Environments
* Educational Reform, Policy, and InnovationYarra Valley, Melbourne
* Evaluation and Quality Improvement Advances
* Assessment and Research
* Global Networks, Partnerships, and Exchanges
Open Education
* Technologies for Socially Responsive Learning
* Virtual and Distance Education

Conference Venue:

The Sebel Albert Park, Melbourne
65 Queens Road
Melbourne VIC 3004
Australia
Phone: 61 3 9529 4300
Fax: 61 3 9521 3111

For further information: http://aace.org/conf/glearn/

Whither rankings - The Star

2010-12-22T14:16:00.003+08:00

By KAREN CHAPMAN
educate@thestar.com.my

It is up to all academic staff to produce world-class research in order to improve their institution’s standing.

RANKINGS seem to be an inevitable aspect of today’s higher education scene in most parts of the world. Love or hate them, they cannot be ignored as rankings provide a useful basis for comparison of institutions and an insight into their strengths and weaknesses.

National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) senior executive vice president Prof Feng Da Hsuan said a flagship university like Universiti Malaya (UM) cannot afford to ignore rankings.

“UM has to take on the responsibility of changing the Malaysian mindset – because if it can’t do it, then no one can.

Prof Feng says it is important for a flagship university like UM to take rankings seriously.

“It should not be on the shoulders of the vice-chancellor alone but on every staff member and students too,” he said in an interview.

Prof Feng believes that it is only by carrying out research that UM can become an economic engine for the country.

“Although there might be pockets of resentment among university staff who do not want to take them (rankings) seriously and want things to remain the same, at the same time we cannot ignore this group of people.

“A sense of urgency or ‘uncomfortabilty’ must be injected as it is hard for people to change,” he said.

Prof Feng was at the university this week at the invitation of UM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Ghauth Jasmon to speak on how universities in Taiwan have taken on the rankings challenge.

Giving an example, Prof Feng explained how the country’s universities had a meeting with the education ministry and the national science council to decide that the research conducted should be published in high-impact journals.

Prof Ghauth says UM must move to the next level so it can be counted among the world league.

“An electrical engineer could be in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or UM doing research into LED and this would be published in similar sorts of publications. But areas like social science would include some form of local atmosphere in it.

“For subjects like Science or Engineering in Taiwanese universities, the research must be published either in ISI (Institute for Scientific Information)-indexed journals or Scopus (database of academic publishing),” he added.

Changing mindsets

Prof Feng said all university staff must accept the need for research as they could not remain static and stick to just teaching students.

“Research is a fundamental and ‘inalienable’ part of a university and someone who says his research cannot be measured is no longer acceptable.

“It is important for each faculty to decide how it wants to measure and define research output,” he explained.

On changing the mindsets of those who refused to carry out research and wanted to remain strictly as teachers, Prof Feng said there was no quick fix to the problem.

“One can’t ignore this group as every staff member is an asset and must be given the dignity they deserve, but the onus is on them to prove they can do it.

“But I have to applaud the vice-chancellor for having the guts to want to do something about rankings and research, as very few university presidents would do so,” he shared.

Prof Ghauth said he invited Prof Feng to share his experiences with UM staff as based on statistics, NCKU’s performance in the rankings has improved.

“UM must move to the next level so that it could be among the world class league,” he shared.

UM has introduced initiatives such as the Bright Sparks Programme where only the “best and brightest brains’’ would be invited, and the Academic Icon Unit to bring in top researchers from all over the world to be based at UM either for the short or long term.

There were already 400 bright sparks and 30 academic icons at the university, he added.

Prof Ghauth said earlier that UM would continue to participate in world ranking exercises as it needed to benchmark itself against the best.

“But now that we’ve been pushing, the research output has clearly improved and our ISI publications and citations have shot up, which is an indicator of how we’re doing.

“We have to change in order to go forward as we can’t compete if we stick to the old way of doing things,” he shared.

This, he added, could be seen in UM obtaining more projects such as being named as the anchor for the development of a health metropolis.

Announced in October, a health metropolis would be developed to create a healthcare ecosystem under one roof in Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley.

It is one of the six entry point projects identified for healthcare to generate RM35.5bil incremental gross national income contribution to reach RM50bil by 2020, and would help spur big results for healthcare, one of the 12 National Key Economic Areas identified in the 10th Malaysia Plan.

On where Asian institutions place compared to their Western counterparts on the various ranking systems in existence such as the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, Times Higher Education World University Rankings or QS World University Rankings, Prof Feng believes this was due to “structural stability”.

“As an example, Cambridge University and Harvard University are stable and are usually at the top irrespective of which ranking system.

“I believe this is due to structural stability as they know they are the best.

“UM has a real opportunity to reach this structural stability within the next 10 to 20 years,” he explained.

As Prof Feng put it, UM is the flagship university of the country and if it were to fall behind, higher education in the country would follow suit.

Related News from OUM Today Dec 2010 Edition

2010-12-22T10:23:00.006+08:00

Here are some of the excerpts taken from the December 2010 edition of OUM Today:

1. How to prepare your Research Proposal: (Please click on picture to enlarge it)

2. OUM Celebrates First Batch of PhD Graduates: (Please click on picture to enlarge it)

3. Miss Malaysia with a PhD on her mind: (Please click on picture to enlarge it)

4. AAOU 2010 Conference in Hanoi: (Please click on picture to enlarge it)

11th Annual SEAAIR Conference 2 - 4 November 2011, Chiangmai, Thailand

2010-12-17T18:09:00.003+08:00

11th Annual SEAAIR Conference
2 - 4 November, Chiangmai, Thailand

Theme: University Social Responsibility: Pathways to Excellence

Subtheme:

1. Academic endeavors and excellences
2. IR responses and responsibilities
3. Educational and technological advances and applications
4. Institutional capacities and capabilities
5. Quality tenacity and tenets
6. New, creative, innovative and esoteric initiatives

All accepted papers will be published in peer reviewed proceedings

Important Dates

July 15 Deadline of submission of abstract
July 22 Notification of accepted abstract
August 1 Deadline of submission of full papers
August 31 Confirmation of accepted full papers
September 15 Deadline of submission of revised full papers
October 1-20 Registration period

For details: http://www.seaair2011.org/index.php

Big boost for four PhD students - The Star

2010-12-17T15:20:00.002+08:00

Brilliance recognised: (from left) Quah, Lim, Chang, and Lam showing one another their awards during 'Malam Persada Kencana' at USM.

FOUR doctoral (PhD) students from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) now have more zest to complete their research after becoming recipients of the university’s Vice-Chancellor Award 2011.

The prestigious award has been given to only seven other PhD students since 2007.

The recipients will each get a RM3,000 monthly allowance while their tuition and examination fees for three years will be borne by the university.

Lim Way Foong, 26, a second year PhD candidate from the School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, said the award now allowed her to purchase vital materials and chemicals for her research.

Her research seeks to reduce energy loss during its conversion from sustainable energy sources like solar power to high powered electrical appliances.

“I chose this environmentally-friendly topic as the more efficient sustainable energy gets, the less we need to rely on fossil fuel,” she said.

Chang Kah Haw, 25, from the School of Health Sciences, will use the allowance to purchase important resource materials for his research on gunshot residue.

The other two recipients are Quah Hock Jin from the School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering working on kalium nitrate as high powered devices and Lam Man Kee from the School of Chemical Engineering.

Lam’s research is on using micro-algae to produce bioethanol, a substitute fuel for fossil fuels.

The award was given during the Malam Persada Kencana on Saturday.

Scientific breakthrough: Oh showing a product from her research on a cardiovascular drug precursor and a newspaper article on her work. She received an Outstanding Research Award.

USM Board of Directors chairman Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr M. Zawawi Ismail was also present to give the Outstanding Research Award to Oh Pei Ching from the School of Engineering.

Call for papers - the Cambridge International Conference

2010-12-17T12:55:00.002+08:00

Internationalisation and Social Justice: the role of Open, Distance and e-Learning
Sunday 25 to Wednesday 28 September 2011

Madingley Hall, Cambridge

Call for papers - the Cambridge International Conference

A call for papers has been released for the Fourteenth Cambridge International Conference on Open, Distance and E-learning 2011, to take place on 25-28 September in Cambridge, UK.

Presented by The Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund's College, Cambridge in association with The Open University and The Commonwealth of Learning, the conference will explore the role of open, distance and e-learning within the context of internationalization and social justice. Contributions are invited on the following key areas of interest:

*
What is the unique contribution of open, distance and e-learning (ODEL) to social justice?
* How far does ODEL promote international social justice or simply further the digital divide?
* What is the role of cross-border education in supporting social justice? Is it more likely to promote cultural imperialism?
* How can one align market pressures and institutional values in international ODEL? Are business and development agendas compatible?
* What are the Quality Assurance issues in cross-border delivery?
* How can different teaching and learning styles be supported internationally?
* How can we promote intercultural understanding through open, distance and e-learning?

Full papers should be submitted by 4 May 2011. Please click here for guidelines.

Keynote speakers

Professor Narend Baijnath, Vice-Principal at ICDE member institution, the University of South Africa (Unisa)

Dr Alan Davis, President of ICDE member institution and host of SCOP 2011, Empire State College, New York's Open University, State University of New York, USA

Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic, Chief of Section for Reform, Innovation and Quality Assurance of Higher Education at UNESCO

Dr Helen Yanacopulos, Director for Environment, Development and International Studies programmes at ICDE member institution, The Open University, UK

For details: http://www2.open.ac.uk/r06/conference/

24th ICDE World Conference on Open and Distance Learning 2nd - 5th Oct 2011 Bali, Indonesia

2010-12-17T12:45:00.003+08:00

24th ICDE World Conference on Open and Distance Learning
2-5 October 2011, Nusa Dua, Bali-Indonesia

Welcome Message

On behalf of the Organizing Committee of the Conference, I am pleased and honored to announce that the 24th ICDE World Conference will be hosted by Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia, supported by the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Indonesia from 2 – 5 October, 2011 in Bali, Indonesia.

This conference will be a forum for participants to share and learn from each other on how to plan, develop and better manage Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programs. Since there is a wide range of content in ODL programs in participating institutions/ countries which cover all of those three components, directly or indirectly it will help promote the new way of thinking about a future in which environmental, societal, and economic considerations are balanced in the pursuit of development and improved quality of life.

Eradicating poverty and reducing disparities in living standards in different parts of the world are essential to achieve sustainable development and meet the needs of the majority of people. The full participation of women is also essential to achieve sustainable development. There is a close relationship between level of education and socio-economic status of the people/community. ODL expands learning opportunity to more adults and children regardless their genders, socio-economic backgrounds, ages, and geographical location so that they can receive more education, more income and later on improve their quality of life.

Considering the background, current conditions and future trends of ODL, the conference takes the theme of “Expanding Horizons – New Approaches to Open and Distance Learning (ODL)”. The conference will focus on issues related to the role of ODL in leading edge online learning paradigm from organizing distance education to building the knowledge-based society. This theme includes promoting education for all as part of widening education opportunities, managing ODL for global network information and communication, and public ownership of ODL.

The venue for the World Conference will be the Westin Resort Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia. Located in the central part of Indonesia, Bali is connected by air with major international cities in Asia, Europe and the Pacific region. Bali is a well-known international and multicultural island. It is a land that seems to have a magnet at its very heart. It is a feeling that is difficult to understand unless experienced but once visited you are surely compelled to come back and you may even want to stay forever. Maybe it is Bali’s beauty, maybe the friendly people, or maybe even the influence from spirits that certainly abide in this place.

As Rector of the host institution, Universitas Terbuka, I would like to invite and extend my warmest welcome to all scholars, researchers, administrators, and policy-makers working in the ODL field and interested in this theme to participate in the conference. I believe that the 24th ICDE World Conference will be a great event for all participants to exchange ideas and experience of ODL.

Tian Belawati

Rector of Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia

Important Dates:

* Abstract submission opens:
1 September 2010

* Abstract submission closes:
31 March 2011

* Announcement of accepted abstract:
30 April 2011

* Full paper or poster submission closes:
15 July 2011

* Early bird registration deadline:
30 May 2011

* Registration deadline:
2 October 2011

For details: http://www.ut.ac.id/icde2011/

PhD (BA) from OUM is fully accredited by MQA

2010-12-14T12:55:00.005+08:00

The PhD in Business Administration degree offered by Open University Malaysia has received full accreditation status from the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) effective 17 May 2010. The programme has undergone a thorough audit on its syllabus and implementation by the panel appointed by MQA.

With the programme fully accredited, learners are assured of its quality and acceptance by the general public and industry.

The accreditation certificate is as shown below:

The MQA Certificate in Malay Language. Please click on image to enlarge it

The MQA Certificate in English Language. Please click on image to enlarge it

The link to the MQA's website which contain the accreditation information can be found here: http://www.mqa.gov.my/mqr/english/epapar.cfm?NoRujA=A5905

OUM has recently witnessed a group of 7 pioneer PhD graduates receiving their respective scrolls from Tun Jeanne Abdullah, the Chancellor of Open University Malaysia during its 9th Convocation on 20th November 2010.

From left: Dr Patrick, Dr Wong, Dr Richard Ng and Dr Lum

Four students; Dr Lum Heap Sum, Dr Richard Ng, Dr Patrick Wong and Dr. Wong Siaw Ming graduated with the PhD in BA during the convocation.

How PhD Grad School is just like Kindergarten

2010-12-13T10:31:00.002+08:00

The comic was meant as a joke, which I took from Prof. Zoraini's Facebook. Enjoy reading.

Source: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1286

AAOU 2010 Conference in Hanoi

2010-12-10T12:08:00.004+08:00

The following video clips show the slide presentation by Richard Ng at the AAOU 2010 Conference in Hanoi held from 26th Oct to 28th Oct 2010.

Video Clip Part 1:

Video Clip Part 2:

Video Clip Part 3:

Video Clip Part 4:

Dr. Winifred Kisitu's PhD Viva Preparation

2010-12-04T12:27:00.001+08:00

The word Viva is very scary for everyone, and there is no one formula of how best to prepare for it. But here are a few tips that helped me to go through it successfully.

A. SUMMARIZE THE THESIS IN SMALLER BLOCKS COVERING THE FOLLOWING:

· What you have done;

· Why you have done it;

· How you did it;

· What you have found;

· What the implications are.

B. SUMMARISE THE THESIS CHAPTER BY CHAPTER

· Make sure that each chapter covers only one page, this will make it easy for you should you require to have a quick look at a chapter during the viva. This will also make it easy for you to revise your thesis in the shortest time possible prior to your viva.

C. POSSIBLE VIVA QUESTIONS:WRITE THE ANSWERS DOWN FOR EACH QUESTION

1. Can you tell us how you came to choose this topic for your doctorate? Or How did your topic emerge?

2. What made you interested in doing it? Why do you think it’s important?

3. Why have you defined the topic in the way you did?

4. What were some of the difficulties you encountered and did they influence how the topic was framed?

5. What did you enjoy most about your work?

6. What would you do differently if you were starting out all over again?

7. How did your Personal Development Planning or skills training influence your work?

8. Describe the rationale of your research project?

9. What are the key findings/major contributions of your thesis?

10. What is its position in relation to the current state of knowledge in your area?

11. Why have you chosen to organize your research into these stages/chapters?

12. Is it possible to draw a general rule from your single observations?

13. How have you evaluated your work?

14. How do you know that your findings are correct?

15. How do your findings relate to the critical literature in this field of studies?

16. What is original in your thesis?

17. Did you have choices to make, for example, in choosing the data collection methods, or in analysing the data? Can you justify what you did? Or Why did you choose this method to analyze your topic?

18. Describe your methodological approach/ or What are the core methods used in this thesis? Why did you choose this approach? In an ideal world, are there different techniques you’d have liked to use?

19. What have you learned by carrying out your PhD?

20. What do you know about the history of this particular aspect of your research?

21. What are the recent major developments in this topic?

22. Which are the most important papers concerning this aspect of your research?

23. How do you expect the research in your field to progress over the next few years?

24. Which propositions would you say are distinctively your own?

25. Can you take your research further?

26. Which aspects of your thesis are worth publishing?

27. What are the main sources or kinds of evidence? Are they strong enough to sustain the conclusions you draw?

28. How do your findings fit with or contradict the rest of the literature in this field?

29. What did you find out that surprised you?

30. Who are the main people who influenced your thinking? Why?

31. How did you select the literature? Is there anything missing from your literature review?

32. What conflicts are there in the field?

33. What are the key strengths of your thesis?

34. What are the limitations of the thesis?

35. Why are your research questions interesting or important?

36. How did you know when you were finished?

37. Is there anything original in the way you went about the work?

38. Do recent developments in the field have implications for your research questions?

AFTER KNOWING WHO YOUR EXTERNAL EXAMINER IS, LOOK FOR INFORMATION ABOUT HIM/HER

· This includes any of his publications and photograph if possible. Read some of his publications although they might not be in line with your area of research. This will help you to be familiar with him and his area of interest.

All the above helped me to prepare for the viva in the shortest time possible. I was lucky that out of the 38 possible viva questions that I had researched and answered during my viva preparations, five questions were asked. The day before my viva, I received an email from one of my supervisors saying, 'when you rise to the occasion, do it with style - do it with a knowing smile... astound them. Make it look easy and it will become so’. I say the same to whoever is preparing for a viva. Remember, you are the EXPERT in this particular area.

Source: http://hubpages.com/hub/drwinifredkisitusphdvivapreparationtips

Defying all odds to become the first batch of OUM PhD graduates

2010-12-01T16:52:00.004+08:00

OUM’s 9th convocation on 20th November 2010 witnessed the first batch PhD graduates receiving their scrolls from the Chancellor, Tun Jeanne Abdullah. Four graduates received the PhD in Business Administration. Two graduates received the PhD in Education and one graduate received the PhD in Engineering.

The first batch of PhD graduates from left: Dr. Patrick Wong, Dr. Baljinder Singh, Dr. Lum Heap Sum, Dr. Sia Malcolm, Dr. Richard Ng, Dr. Wong Siaw Ming and Dr. Aminah

Dr. Richard Ng, a senior lecturer and Dr. Patrick Wong, a banker, were the pioneers of the PhD programme, which was offered by OUM in Sept 2005. Together they defied all odds and spent five years before they finally achieved their goals. Being the pioneer students they faced so many challenges, which include getting advice in preparing their qualifying exams and looking for good supervisors to guide them. Both of them have been keeping in touch together and motivate each other until they graduate. It was definitely a lonely journey into the uncertainty. Only those with strong determination and perseverance will be able to see their dream come true.

Waiting to receive their scrolls from left: Dr. Patrick Wong, Dr. Wong Siaw Ming, Dr. Richard Ng and Dr. Lum Heap Sum all from the faculty of business

“If not because of the colloquium organized by OUM during the final year of our studies, we both may not graduate by now.” said Richard. He thanked OUM especially the dean of the Centre for Graduate Studies, Prof. Dr. Ghazali Mohayidin for bringing in changes into the system. He credited his success to the professionals and experts brought in during the colloquium to motivate and guide them on how to prepare for their dissertation and viva.

Richard Ng receiving his scroll from the Chancellor, Tun Jeanne Abdullah during the 9th OUM Convocation

Other PhD graduates during the convocation are Dr. Lum Heap Sum and Dr. Wong Siaw Ming (Business Administration), Dr. Sia Malcolm (Engineering), Dr. Baljinder Singh and Dr. Aminah (Education).

These graduates have definitely done OUM proud by being the first batch to obtain the prestigious qualification. They were among the 5931 graduates during the 9th convocation, which was held at the PWTC from 20th November to 23rd November.

133 percent increase of PhD holders - NST

2010-11-28T09:17:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: The number of PhD holders among academic staff in public universities had increased by 133 per cent since 2005, said Higher Education Department director-general Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi.

He said now there were 14,000 PhD holders compared to 6,000 in 2005.

Of the 14,000, 60 per cent were PhD holders in science fields covering pure science, applied science, engineering, biology, physics, medical and technology and the rest in social and human sciences, he told reporters on the sidelines of the 4th Graduate Studies Conference here today.

The two-day conference organised by the Malaysian Deans of Graduate Studies (MyDegs) in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education and several local universities was opened by MyDegs chairman Prof Dr Rose Alinda Alias.

Radin Umar said this (producing more PhD holders) was among the biggest achievements of the ministry in its effort to have researchers, scientists and engineers who were on par with their counterparts in advanced nations.

He said the ministry had also planned several strategies including considering exemption or reducing study fees for those who intend to further their studies up to the Masters and PhD's levels to further increase the number of highly qualified academic staff.

Apart from increasing the number of researchers, scientists and engineers, the ministry would also strengthen its research and innovation work as well as implement a programme called MyBrain 15 to produce 100,000 researchers in a period of 15 years, he added. -- BERNAMA

OUM grads thrive on PhD challenges - NST

2010-11-25T21:44:00.001+08:00

Nov 21, 2010

Dr Baljinder (second from left) with 6 other PhD graduates from left: Dr Patrick Wong, Dr Lum, Dr Sia, Dr Richard Ng, Dr Wong and Dr Aminah

PURSUING a PhD qualification is not a spur-of-the-moment decision as it entails rigorous study and great persistence. Baljinder Singh, however, sees the endeavour as a normal progression in his career as an academic.

The senior lecturer with a public university in Sarawak says pursuing a doctorate degree was his way of proving a point to his students.

"In the life of an academic, there should never be a full stop when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge. To be an effective educator, keeping abreast with the latest development in one's field is essential and, there is no better way of doing so than to embark on a PhD journey."
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He acknowledges that it requires patience and fortitude to reach the finishing line. "I had my fair share of 'turbulence' in my PhD journey but I was lucky as it occurred mainly during the initial stage of my research," says Baljinder, who graduated with a PhD in Education at Open University Malaysia's (OUM) ninth convocation recently.

He was among the first batch of seven PhD graduates who received their scrolls from chancellor Tun Jeanne Abdullah. The convocation saw 5,931 graduates receiving their scrolls.

Baljinder says he was fortunate to have a capable supervisor who provided him with much-needed guidance and push whenever he lagged. "With his guidance, feedback and critical comments, I was able to complete my study in slightly less than four years."

Despite receiving offers from various universities for him to do his PhD, Baljinder opted to do his at OUM.

Majlis Kovokesyen OUM ke 9: 20 - 23 Nov 2010

2010-11-22T09:52:00.000+08:00

YABhg Canselor OUM, Tun Jeanne Abdullah dan YBhg Pro-Canselor OUM, Tan Sri Azman Hashim

Majlis Konvokesyen OUM ke 9 dari 20 hingga 23 November 2010 menyaksikan seramai 5931 orang pelajar menerima ijazah mereka masing-masing. Pada konvokesyen ini juga OUM berjaya melahirkan 7 orang graduan pada julung kalinya dalam program Ijazah Doktor Falsafah di mana 4 orang akan menerima Ijazah Doktor Falsafah dalam bidang Pentadbiran Perniagaan, 2 orang menerima Ijazah Doktor Falsafah dalam bidang Pendidikan dan seorang lagi menerima Ijazah Doktor Falsafah dalam bidang Kejuruteraan.

Presiden OUM, YBhg Tan Sri Dr Anuwar Ali, sedang menyampaikan ucapannya.

Klip video ucapan YBhg Tan Sri Presiden:

Klip video ucapan YABhg Tun Canselor:

Kumpulan pertama penerima Ijazah Doktor Falsafah OUM dari kiri: Dr. Patrick Wong, Dr. Baljinder Singh, Dr. Lum Heap Sum, Dr. Malcolm Sia, Dr. Richard Ng, Dr. Wong Siaw Ming and Dr. Aminah Hashim

Klip video penganugerahan Ijazah Doktor Falsafah:

Pengarah OUM Perak, Richard Ng, menerima Ijazah Doktor Falsafah dari YABhg Tun Jeanne Abdullah, Canselor OUM

Sdra Yunus sedang menerima Ijazah Sarjana Muda Perakaunan dari Tun Canselor

Dalam majlis yang sama seramai 254 orang graduan akan dianugerahkan dengan Ijazah Sarjana, 5517 orang graduan menerima Ijazah Sarjana Muda dan 153 orang akan menerima diploma.

Gambar kenangan dari kiri: Sharizal, Richard Ng, Puan Murni dan Puan Zura

Seperti pada kebiasaannya, majlis konvokesyen dimulakan dengan perarakan graduan, diikuti oleh perarakan akademik dan perarakan besar. Ia kemudian disusuli oleh nyanyian lagu Negaraku dan lagu OUM. Bacaan doa kemudian menusul diikuti oleh ucapan YBhg Tan Sri Presiden merangkap Naib Canselor. Selepas itu Canselor akan mengishtiharkan pembukaan majlis konvokesyen.

Puan Zura dan Puan Murni bergambar bersama Peter Yacob dan Miss Tan

Bergambar bersama pelajar OUM Perak iaitu Cik Vasanthi

Majlis konvokesyen kali ini diadakan dalam 7 sidang mulai 20 November hingga 23 November. Pada hari pertama majlis ini seramai kira-kira 800 orang menerima ijazah masing di sebelah pagi iaitu sidang pertama dan seramai 800 lagi menerima ijazah mereka di sebelah petang dalam sidang kedua.

Puan Zura dan Puan Murni antara tetamu Majlis Konvokesyen ke 9

Graduan OUM Perak program MBA, Chow Kin Wai, bergambar dengan adik saudaranya

Graduan Ijazah Doktor Falsafah menerima ijazah mereka dahulu diikuti dengan graduan Ijazah Sarjana. Ia kemudian diikuti oleh graduan Ijazah Sarjana Muda dan diploma mengikut Fakulti masing-masing.

Salah seorang graduan BNS OUM Perak

Majlis konvokesyen ini merupakan konvokesyen ketiga yang diadakan pada tahun 2010 sahaja. Seramai 320 orang graduan telah berjaya dilahirkan oleh OUM Perak. Antara penerima ijazah pada konvokesyen ini ialah Pengarah OUM Perak, Dr Richard Ng yang menerima Ijazah Doktor Falsafah dalam bidang Pentadbiran Perniagaan.

Sebahagian dari graduan yang hadir

Beberapa orang pelajar dari OUM Perak yang menerima Ijazah Sarjana termasuk Peter Yacob, Chow Kin Wai dan Sdri Tan. Seorang pelajar dari Perak iaitu Hew Teck Soon berjaya menerima Ijazah Sarjana Teknologi Maklumat.

Bergambar bersama graduan BNS sebelum perarakan bermula

OUM Perak juga pada kali pertamanya melahirkan graduan dalam program Ijazah Sarjana Muda Perakaunan dan Ijazah Sarjana Muda Sains Kejururawatan. Sdra Yunus dan Puan Siti Zaleha berjaya muncul sebagai pelajar cemerlang dalam program Ijazah Sarjana Muda Perakaunan.

Perarakan bermula

Turut hadir pada majlis konvokesyen kali ini adalah 3 orang staf OUM Perak iaitu Puan Zura, Puan Murni dan Sdra Sharizal. Selain daripada menyaksikan majlis konvokesyen ini dengan lebih dekat lagi, kehadiran mereka sebenarnya adalah untuk memberi sokongan kepada graduan dari OUM Perak.

OUM awards posthumous doctorate to founder - NST

2010-11-21T10:55:00.001+08:00

Allahyarham Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Haji Abdullah Sanusi Ahmad

KUALA LUMPUR: Open University Malaysia (OUM) today presented an honorary doctorate posthumously to its founder, Tan Sri Abdullah Sanusi Ahmad.

The Doctor of Management degree, awarded at the university's ninth convocation beginning today, is for Abdullah Sanusi's excellence in his career in the public and private sectors and in the field of higher education.

OUM Chancellor Tun Jeanne Abdullah presented the award to Abdullah Sanusi's widow, Puan Sri Hashimah Ismail, at the convocation held at the Putra World Trade Centre here.

Abdullah Sanusi died on Nov 29, 2003 at the age of 67, leaving Hashimah and four sons.

After his appointment as the OUM vice-chancellor in April 2001, Abdullah Sanusi was instrumental in guiding the university into establishing itself as the pioneer open and distance-education institution in Malaysia.

His efforts towards the democratisation of higher education had enabled all levels of society to pursue courses at the university regardless of age, gender, geographical location and previous qualification.

Abdullah Sanusi, who was vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya from 1994 to 2000, had earned recognition as the founder and pioneer in the establishment of the National Institute of Public Administration (Intan) and the Malaysia Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu).

Also at today's convocation, teacher Low Suan Hua received the Chancellor's Award for excellence in attaining the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary Education) degree with honours.

The convocation, over four days until Tuesday, will see 5,931 graduands receiving their degrees in various disciplines. Seven of them will receive doctorate degrees, the first from the university. - BERNAMA

Details of Allahyarham Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Haji Abdullah Sanusi Ahmad can be viewed here: http://www.oum.edu.my/oum/index.php?c=oum&v=art_view&domid=1&parent_id=25&cat_id=40&art_id=55&lang=eng

OUM's First Batch Of PhD Graduates - Bernama

2010-11-20T22:05:00.006+08:00

The first batch of seven PhD graduates from left: Dr. Patrick Wong, Dr. Baljinder Singh, Dr. Lum Heap Sum, Dr. Malcolm Sia, Dr. Richard Ng, Dr. Wong Siaw Ming and Dr. Aminah Hashim

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 (Bernama)

For the first time since it establishment in 2000, the first batch of seven Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) graduates from the Open University Malaysia (OUM) will receive their scrolls at the university's four-day ninth convocation, beginning Nov 20.

OUM president and vice-chancellor Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Anuwar Ali said four graduates would receive their PhD in Business Administration, two (Education) and another in Engineering.

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, he said a total of 5,931 would receive scrolls, with 254 graduating with a masters, bachelor's honours degree (5,517) and 153, diplomas.

"The highest are from the education and languages faculties which contribute 3,679 graduates, business and management (893), science and technology (865), information technology and multimedia communication (284) and 210 graduates from the School of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences," he said.

The Chancellor's Award will be presented to Low Suan Hua who obtained the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary Education) with honours, while Allahyarham Tan Sri Dr Abdullah Sanusi Ahmad will obtain a posthumous honorary degree of Doctor of Management for his contribution as OUM founder and president before his demise in November 2003.

OUM, which held its first convocation in December 2004, has since produced 32,601 graduates.

Meanwhile, eight new courses which will be offered by OUM for the January intake are post-graduate Diploma in Teaching, Bachelor (honours) in Early Childhood Education, Economics and Computer Science, Master of Public Administration, Master of Islamic Studies, Master of Information Technology in Network Computing and Master of English Studies.

-- BERNAMA

Research focus in the industry - NST

2010-11-15T16:15:00.002+08:00

The following is the news write up in NST on 15 Nov 2010 based on the interview with Prof. Dr. Mohd Ghazali Mohayidin. Please click on image to enlarge it.

Explanation from Prof. Ghazali, Dean of the Center for Graduate Studies, Open University Malaysia:

Dear All,

The grant is from MOHE. There is no age limit, though the target is those in the middle management, those who can contribute to their own organization. The research project must be organization-based. To apply, your organization and OUM need to sign an MOU. We will use the MOU to apply for the grant. Those interested, please call me.

Prof Ghazali

Giving careers a booth - NST

2010-11-15T16:11:00.002+08:00

News write up in NST on the pioneer batch of OUM's doctoral degree graduates (15 Nov 2010). Please click on image to enlarge it.

OUM's Doctoral programme a hit - NST

2010-11-15T16:09:00.002+08:00

News write up on Dr. Lum Heap Sum (NST 7 Nov 2010). Please click on image to enlarge it.

OUM student lauds research backed doctoral programme - NST

2010-11-15T16:04:00.003+08:00

News write up on Dr. Wong Siaw Ming (NST 31 Oct 2010). Please click on image to enlarge it.

25th AAOU Annual Conference - Penang, Malaysia 28th to 30th Sept 2011

2010-11-08T14:18:00.004+08:00

Transforming Asia through Open Distance Learning (ODL)

TRANSFORMING ASIA THROUGH OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING (ODL) has been selected as the main theme for the 25th Annual Conference of Asian Association of Open Universities to focus on the role open and distance learning played in bringing about a major transformation in the education landscape in almost all countries in Asia over the past three and half decades.

Key features of ODL in Asia include huge student population often exceeding 100,000 students (mega universities), the establishment of dedicated single-mode ODL institutions by many governments, the rapid adoption of advances in ICT use and globalization. All these features have shaped the development of ODL and infl uenced the type of ODL systems adopted by various Asian countries.

Abstract & Paper

SUB-THEMES

1. Culture and Social Change

Given that Asian ODL communities are diasporas in evolution, culture and social change are deemed critical for progressive mindsets, knowledge creation and ownership, for learning to benefit everyone. The challenges confronting the transformation that need addressing are complex and would require consideration in context. This sub-theme will address the following areas:

• Empowering marginalized communities in Asia
• Nurturing the culture of lifelong learning
• Overcoming challenges and barriers to culture and social change
• Social networking for development
• Celebrating diversity and multicultural perspectives in ODL
• Culture and learning communities for sustainable development

2. Quality

Distance education is entrenched within a dynamic global marketplace involving a wide range of players. A culture of quality which transcends control mechanisms and managerial dictates has to be inculcated to ensure adequate purview on the activities related to programme development and the processes of teaching and learning. This sub-theme will address the following areas:

• Programme planning and development
• Course design, development, production and delivery
• Learner support services
• Evaluation and assessment
• Effective staff training and development
• Accreditation of programmes and institutions

3. Business Model and the Role of Partnership in ODL

The future of ODL business is heavily dependent on the effective leveraging of ICT infrastructure and on becoming a virtual higher education institution. It relates to the efficacy and sustainability of business models adopted by ODL institutions to create, deliver and capture economic value while delivering education in the contemporary world. This sub-theme will address the following areas:

• Customer segmentation
• Product offering and delivery
• Financial viability
• Value propositions
• Sustainable partnerships

4. Technology

Technology is rapidly transforming the delivery of education and training. The innovative use of
modern multimedia and web-based technologies has enabled the creation of interactive educational and training tools and activities aimed not only at enriching the learning experience of a diverse community of learners but at increasing opportunities for learning as well. This sub-theme will address the following areas:

• Application of mobile technology in open and distance learning
• Development of open education resources (OERs)
• Asynchronous and synchronous delivery of educational content
• Use of web technology in e-learning
• Application of virtual and augmented reality in education
• Bridging the digital divide

5. Future Trends

The transformation of Asia through ODL will hinge on advancements which look ahead and might even anticipate paradigm shifts in this mode of education. This sub-theme will address the following areas:

• Knowledge and innovation
• Management of ODL
• ODL and life long learning
• New technologies for transforming ODL
• Addressing challenges in new learning environments
• Research and development

CONFERENCE LANGUAGE

English shall be the language of the Conference. No translation services will be provided.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Only full papers that are submitted by the specified deadline will be included in the Conference CD proceedings. The submitted papers will not be subjected to editorial changes, thus leaving the responsibility for the quality of language to the author(s).

Important dates

30th May, 2011
Deadline for abstracts

15th June, 2011
Notification of acceptance of abstracts

1st July, 2011
Early-bird registration

15th July, 2011
Deadline for submission of full papers for publication

1st September, 2011
Deadline for registration

Details at: http://www.wou.edu.my/aaou25/index.htm

Nursing must keep up with technology (The Star)

2010-11-07T11:12:00.004+08:00

The nursing profession should be on par with the development of technology to ensure its relevance in the current era, said Open University Malaysia (OUM) chancellor Tun Jeanne Abdullah.

The wife of former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said it was critical to utilise technology to transform the manner nursing care was conceptualised and delivered.

In keeping up with the times, she said, technology should be integrated with nursing as it could contribute enormously to a patient’s health and well-being.

“Thus, integrating technology and caring behaviour in this profession can improve the service provided and maximise the desired patient outcome,” Jeanne said in her keynote address before officiating the International Conference on Nursing (Icon 2010) on Tuesday.

The two-day conference, titled “Technology and Innovation in Nursing”, was organised by OUM and aimed at providing opportunities for participants to deliberate on issues pertaining to clinical practices, education and management in nursing.

On the use of technology, Jeanne said it would bode well for the nursing field as it helped nurses provide a higher quality of care and reduced human error.

She added that the forum was significant for participants to share and discuss how to implement the new concept to the caring profession.

“This conference will be focusing on how technology can contribute to health care efficiency, quality, safety, and would also enhance nurses’ decision-making and patient care while easing overall workloads,” she said.

The inaugural international conference was attended by 222 participants from 22 countries, including Malaysia. A total of 30 papers were presented at the event. — Bernama

2011 Budget: Learning just gets better (NST)

2010-11-07T11:10:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Union of the Teaching Profession welcomed the abolishment of the Competency Level Assessment or PTK exam for civil servants.

Its secretary-general, Loke Yim Phang, was also happy with the rewards allocated for excellent schools and teachers.

On the employment of native English speakers to teach English, she said the 375 teachers should be in Malaysia for five years.

National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations president, associate professor Datuk Mohd Ali Hassan, gave the thumbs up to the development of religious and vernacular schools and hoped the allocations would be fair.

Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim welcomed the budget and hoped that the government would stick to its plans.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the budget had set high targets for the Education and Higher Education Ministries to create world-class students with good thinking skills, creativity and innovation.

The Education Ministry will receive RM29.3 billion while RM10.2 billion will go to the Higher Education Ministry.

Najib said the most important asset of a nation was its human capital.

To improve learning institutions, RM6.4 billion will be set aside to build and upgrade schools, hostels and its facilities, and uphold the status of the teaching profession.

A further RM213 million will be given as a reward to high-performance schools, including its principals, head teachers and excellent teachers.

Religious, vernacular, missionary and government-assisted schools will receive RM250 million.

The government will also spend RM213 million to hire 375 native-speaking teachers from the United Kingdom and Australia to improve the standard of English locally, and streamline the standard curriculum of primary schools.

As for preschools, the government will hire 800 preschool graduate teachers and start around 1,700 new classes by the end of next year.

In higher education, the number of academics with PhD will be increased to 75 per cent in research universities and 60 per cent in other public universities with an allocation of RM20 million.

Other measures include creating promotion opportunities for lecturers in public universities and intensifying vocational training.

A corporation called Talent Corp will be set up under the Prime Minister's Department early next year to increase the number of talented and quality workforce in the domestic market, Najib said.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin said the budget focused on research and development which would encourage academics to compete globally.

Postgraduate Studies: Communication without borders (NST)

2010-11-07T11:05:00.003+08:00

Alina Abdullah explaining her thesis on “Terrorism and Architecture”. With the International Doctoral Education Research Network, postgraduate students are no longer researching a thesis in isolation

Both students and supervisors can now access the International Doctoral Education Research Network for best practices and improvements in methods and technology, writes MICHAEL SUN

INFORMATION and Communications Technology has raised postgraduate research standards throughout the world including Malaysia.

Postgraduate students can no longer blame technology — or the lack of it — for not performing.

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) deputy vice chancellor for academic and international affairs Professor Datin Paduka Dr Aini Ideris says: “Master’s and doctoral students can no longer forward the excuse (for their inability to complete their theses) that their research had been hampered by limited resources and the unavailability of equipment.

“If (the facility) is not available in Malaysia, we can send the student out or bring in the required professors. Communication is now without borders.” There are new software and websites that enable postgraduates to check whether a particular research has already been conducted.

Similarly, there are tools for research supervisors to verify whether students have committed plagiarism.

But some students and supervisors may not be aware of such cross-checking tools.

The second International Doctoral Education Research Network (IDERN) conference 2010 held recently in Serdang, Selangor, was aimed at raising students’ and supervisors’ awareness of recent advances in doctoral education.

“New technology and networking give students the chance to meet and discuss with their peers abroad who may also be pursuing other areas of study,” says Aini, who is adviser to the IDERN 2010 Organising Committee in Malaysia.

“Essentially, IDERN 2010 tells them that they are no longer researching a thesis in isolation,” she adds.

Born out of the Research Pedagogies Conference held at Canada’s McGill University in Montreal three years ago, IDERN was set up to bring together experts in doctoral education and those who share the vision of broadening the field of research through transnational perspectives.

The network of researchers embarks on studies to improve not only the performances of doctoral students but also the quality of guidance of supervisors, among others.

Building the capacity to influence the future of doctoral education policy and practice globally is central to its agenda.

Although there has been an increase in research into doctoral education over the past decade, much of it has been fragmented and localised.

The network aims to create opportunities for developing and expanding investigations into doctoral education during a period of increased mobility and change.

Aini says that IDERN 2010 was to build on the Montreal meeting.

“The aim of this conference is to share views on research into postgraduate education and promote best practices among members from 30 countries including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and some European countries,” says Aini.

Some 20 local public universities and 30 private universities took part in IDERN 2010.

The conference ran separate activities for postgraduate students and supervisors.

Students had the chance to attend sessions on how to produce quality research proposals and received guidelines on how supervisors should monitor them.

“(The role of supervisors is) to assist students to become rounded graduates who are communicative and who possess the desired soft skills, allowing them to easily fit into the job market both locally and internationally.

“We want Malaysian doctoral students to be able to work anywhere in the world with a system and standard that would be on a par with those of other parts of the world,” adds Aini.

“IDERN 2010 is important because supervisors must know how to guide students on how to plan their time and push them to finish on time. If students are not well monitored, they may go astray, dissipate their energies and not complete their doctorate (within the targeted four-year span).” The training provided through conference presentations and seminars is to support the national agenda — MyBrain15.

The acronym is for Malaysia’s targeted plan to produce 60,000 PhD graduates over a span of 15 years starting from 2008.

But would IDERN 2010 address the issue of technological acquisition and export competitiveness of human resources in Malaysia as highlighted by foreign economists? “Definitely, with the research networking now available. Certain universities may be lacking in specific fields but we are also quite advanced in a number of areas,” adds Aini.

“It is important to let the students and supervisors know that new technologies, if not available in Malaysia, may be obtained through networking with foreign universities.

Public universities to have more PhD holders (NST)

2010-11-07T11:00:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will increase the number of academic staff with Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) qualifications in public institutions of higher learning to enable easier recognition abroad.

Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Hou Kok Chung said the initiative would be a key agenda of the government in view of the education sector's contribution to the socio-economic development of the country.

"Our target is to increase qualified academic staff with doctorates to 75 per cent in research universities, and up to 60 per cent in public institutions by 2015."

Currently, PhD holders make up about 73 per cent of academic staff in research universities, he added.

Hou said implementation would take place gradually in the form of prerequisites requir-ing those applying for lecturers positions to be PhD holders.

He said lecturers would also be provided scholarships and training grants to pursue post-graduate studies.

"We need more PhD holders as lecturers as currently, we have noticed that some fields of study in certain institutions do not have a high teaching capacity," he said after presenting the Tanjong Scholarship Awards to 24 students here.

Hou, who is also MCA deputy secretary-general, said the ministry would also be increasing promotion opportunities for lecturers in public institutions of higher learning.

"This would also include the conferment of 'premier professor' titles to deserving lecturers based on their research studies."

Hou said the distinguished title was currently only conferred on credited lecturers in administrative positions

Discount fee plan for elderly to do PhD courses Read more: Discount fee plan for elderly to do PhD courses (NST)

2010-11-07T10:58:00.000+08:00

PUTRAJAYA: The Higher Education Ministry is ready to consider an exemption or a reduction in study fees for citizens over 50 pursuing postgraduate degrees at government universities.

The ministry said the proposal, with terms and conditions attached, would be subject to the cabinet's approval. The decision was in line with the country's aim of producing 60,000 PhD holders by 2023.

Under the 2011 Budget, the ministry will spend RM483.9 million to develop the MyBrain15 programme, which will cover the fees of 7,610 current students and an additional 11,170 postgraduate students in the future.

A sum of RM741 million will be allocated for research and development under the 10th Malaysia Plan for the next two years.

The figure is more than two-fold compared with the allocation under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, which was RM315 million.

An additional RM400 million was allocated for five research universities.

They are Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

League tables: The case against rankings (NST)

2010-11-07T10:53:00.002+08:00

By SUZIEANA UDA NAGU
suzie@nst.com.my

UNIVERSITI Sains Malaysia vice chancellor Tan Sri Professor Dzulkifli Abdul Razak

Results of recent league tables have sparked up another round of discussions on the relative merits of global university rankings exercises, writes SUZIEANA UDA NAGU

UNIVERSITI Sains Malaysia vice chancellor Tan Sri Professor Dzulkifli Abdul Razak did not wait with bated breath for the outcomes of the QS World University Rankings 2010 and Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2010-11 which were announced recently.

The QS and THE lists were released a week apart from one another and Malaysian institutions were nowhere on the Top 200 spots of both.

Dzulkifli does not know what the fuss is all about. As far as he is concerned, the results of both league tables were, at best, predictable.

“It is a new ranking system but that is old hat,” he adds, referring to the revised THE league tables.

THE severed ties with rankings data supplier QS last year and announced its plans to work with research-metrics company Thomson Reuters on revamping its league tables in response to criticisms.

It was slammed in the past for “being based on questionable data and flawed methodology”. The most criticised component of the rankings was “peer review”, which accounted for 40 per cent of the overall score, because only 3,500 researchers had responded.

With a new partner, THE promises that its seventh league table will be different — with clearer and more transparent performance indicators and data.

“Changing partners does not guarantee any significant transformation. Bear in mind that THE-QS had parted ways before (the final separation). I see the change as a business decision based on profitability and commercial interest.

As it turns out the ‘new’ ways are apparently no better than the old ones, given the criticisms levelled at them,” says Dzulkifli.

As educator Koh Soo Ling puts it in her article Why bother?: “Now that the euphoria or the disappointment has somewhat settled, questions remain about the relevance of global rankings” (see H5).

Judging by USM’s non-participation in world rankings exercises as from this year, THE’s recent list is of no consequence.

Dzulkifli says that the university did not receive any invitation from THE to participate in the exercise.

“Even if they were to approach us, we would not be keen — that is our official stand. QS had insisted on ranking us even though we have repeatedly stated our lack of interest in the exercise. That alone makes it suspect,” he says.

Although University College London is placed 22nd on THE’s list, vice chancellor Malcolm Grant describes the activity as “nonsensical” because the application of new metrics and weightings still falls “miles short of capturing the variety, dynamism and diversity of the modern university”, writes Grant in a recent article University world rankings are pointless, UCL president says in The Guardian (http://bit.ly/bxWQQ2).

But THE World University Rankings editor Phil Baty is certain that when universities which have declined to take part see the results and examine the methodology in detail, “they’ll opt in next year”.

Dzulkifli remains sceptical of such schemes.

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating! Until we see the results we cannot be convinced,” he says.

University of Malaya (UM), which also opted out of the exercise this year, will continue to do so until THE responds to its questions.

UM vice chancellor Professor Datuk Ghauth Jasmon says: “We declined because THE did not respond to our questions.”

Although UM concedes that THE’s individual performance indicators combined under five categories — Teaching, Research, Citations and International Mix — “are better”, it disagrees with the “Industry income” component.

Industry income uses data on university earnings from research and knowledge transfer activities.

“This would put universities from poorer countries at an immediate disadvantage,” adds Ghauth.

UM sees the merits of rankings exercises.

“QS World University Rankings have pointed out some (of our) weaknesses and motivated us to review our work culture and aim for better Key Performance Indicators (KPI),” he says.

The formation of the Secretariat for Ranking and Improving Performance at the university two years ago reflects its commitment to “competing globally and to doing well in (rankings exercises)”.

“The unit is responsible for advising me on areas that I need to focus on and address. It also monitors all academic staff performance in terms of ISI journal publications, Citations received and the H-index. This will allow us to benchmark against top universities globally,” he adds.

Ghauth is understandably disappointed that UM was not on the QS top 200 list — it slipped to the 207th spot from 180th last year — despite rigorous efforts to improve its performance.

“We are still studying the cause. However, the university’s management is much happier now in terms of Quality Research and Impact journal publications because there have been marked improvements in this regard in the last two years,” he adds.

Professor A Murad Merican, a strong critic of rankings exercises, cautions local tertiary institutions against missing the big picture and succumbing to being captive minds.

“Mental captivity is characterised by a way of thinking that is imitative and uncritical. The captive mind assumes that the THE list is the ultimate measure of what universities do,” says Murad, who is from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS’ Management and Humanities Department (see H3).
Dzulkifli agrees.

“We have different aspirations and must find appropriate ways to express these.

It is a mistake to have a one-size-fits-all rankings system as far as universities are concerned. It is, at best, pseudo-science.”

Against this backdrop of discussions on the relevance of league tables, USM is working on an Alternative University Appraisal (AUA) approach that will be embedded into its current evaluation method “as part of a developmental process to meet quality standards predicated on equality, availability, affordability, accessibility and sustainability”.

“The AUA calls for a different approach which is more engaging and meaningful,” says Dzulkifli.

24th AAOU Annual Conference Hanoi Vietnam - Part 2

2010-10-31T16:08:00.003+08:00

Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam delivers his opening address. Picture courtesy of Zulhairi

The 24th Association of Asian Open Universities (AAOU) annual conference held in Hanoi from 26th to 28th October 2010 has brought many fond memories to 12 participants of Open University Malaysia. It was made more memorable with the warm greetings and kind hospitality provided by the host, Hanoi Open University.

The dragon dance performance during the opening ceremony. Picture courtesy of Zulhairi

Before coming to Vietnam, we generally have different perceptions towards Vietnam. But the moment we landed at the Noi Bai Hanoi International Airport, our perceptions were proven wrong. We were greeted by students volunteer, who could speak some good English, which all of us could understand. These students were holding placards with the AAOU 2010 words on it. They made us feel very much at home showing us the direction we required.

Yhung (in red), one of students volunteer meeting us on arrival at the Noi Bai Airport, Hanoi, Vietnam

Our group from OUM was taken care by 4 students, Yhung, Oanh, An, and Ken taking us from the airport to Melia Hanoi hotel where we stay. The hotel was also the venue of the conference.

At the ceramic factory. From left: Rina, Dr. Janet Woo, Richard Ng, Zulhairi, Iryanty and Umi

The Cho Dong Xuan bazar in Hanoi. Picture courtesy of Zulhairi

As our bosses (Tan Sri Anuwar Ali and Prof. Mansor) were busy at the AAOU Exco meeting, we took the opportunity to do a city tour of Hanoi where we visited the Ceramic and Silk Factory in the morning.

Group photo at the Melia Hanoi Hotel before our city tour

We stopped for lunch at the Nisa Restaurant, a Malaysian owned restaurant. Of course our meal is the local Pho (pronounced as fur) beef noodle soup. In the afternoon, we went shopping at the Cho Dong Xuan bazar where you can find all the things that you want from locally made biscuits, Nike and Adidas shoes, souvenirs, to products made of silks, leather belts and furniture. One of the unique things about Hanoi was that the people generally like to have tea and local liquor along the walk-way sitting on stools and small tables.

A typical scene on the streets of Hanoi City

Tan Sri Anuwar Ali (left), talking to Dr. Olubiyi Adeniyi Adewale of Nigeria Open University

Group photo after the dinner on the first night

We were hosted to a dinner for three consecutive nights. On the first night, we were hosted to a dinner by the Hanoi Open University, the conference organizer. We were treated to a 8-course meal with free flow drinks. We were also treated to a cultural performance during the second night hosted by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam. On the final day of the conference, we were treated to a farewell dinner at the Sen Restaurant, located at the West Lake of Hanoi, approximately 45 minutes away from Melia Hanoi Hotel. It was hosted by the Deputy Minister of Vietnam. We were served with mostly local Vietnamese dishes.

Deputy PM of Vietnam, Prof. Nguyen, shaking hand with Tan Sri Anuwar Ali

Prof. Mansor (left) and Tan Sri Anuwar Ali among the participants at the conference

The signing ceremony of MOUs between Open University Malaysia, Hanoi Open University, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia. Picture courtesy of Zulhairi

The proper conference started on the second day on 27th October 2010 at 8.30am. The conference was officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, Prof. Nguyen Thien Nham. It was followed by a cultural performance and dragon dance. Five keynote addresses were delivered. Several keynote addresses were also delivered. The highlight of the morning session was the signing of MOUs between Open University Malaysia and Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University of Thailand, Hanoi Open University, Philippines Open University and Universitas Terbuka Indonesia to collaborate on areas of developing programmes.

Posing in front of AAOU 2010 backdrop. From left: Prof. Latifah, Prof. Mansor. Tan Sri Anuwar Ali and Richard Ng

In the afternoon the parallel session began where participants presented their papers. Among the presenters from OUM include Prof. Mansor and Dr. Janet Woo.

Prof. Mansor gave a powerful presentation of his paper. Picture courtesy of Zulhairi

Prof. Mansor presented two papers entitled: "Widening Access and Improving Retention in Open and Distance Learning: The Strategies of Open University Malaysia" and "Helping distance learners stay connected: The effectiveness of mobile learning via SMS at Open University Malaysia".

Dr. Janet Woo presenting her shortlisted for Best Paper award paper

Dr. Janet's paper entitled, "Developing Quality Learning Materials for Effective Teaching and Learning in an ODL environment: Making the jump from print modules to online modules", was shortlisted for the best paper award.

Prof. Tan Sri Anuwar Ali delivers his keynote address

On the third day of the conference, on 28th October, 2010, Emeritus Prof. Tan Sri Dr. Anuwar Ali, President and Vice Chancellor of OUM, delivered his keynote address entitled "Going Global: Ensuring Sustainability, Access, Equity and Quality in Open and Distance Learning".

Richard Ng presenting his paper during the conference

In the afternoon, Richard Ng, Director of OUM Perak Learning Centre, presented his paper entitled: "Improving Graduation Rates of Open and Distance Learners via Online Community".

Umi Hanim asking for clarification during the parallel session

The 2-day conference witnessed the participation of over 500 participants from 22 countries. 173 papers were presented under 5 sub-themes. The main theme of the conference was: "OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING TOWARDS BUILDING SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES".

During the closing ceremony, the outgoing President of AAOU 2010, Prof. Tian Belawati of Indonesia, announced the incoming newly elected AAOU 2011-2013 President, Prof. Wong Tat Meng of Malaysia. Also announced was the winner of the best paper awards and Young Innovators award. The Gold Medal went to Korea, and the two Silver Medals went to the Philippines and Malaysia.

Participants of the AAOU 2010 conference from OUM took the opportunity to visit Ha Long Bay on the final day before departing for Malaysia. The group chartered a boat to take them to visit the mystical mountains which numbered about 2,000. The journey took us almost 3.5 hours to arrive from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay. We spent almost 3 hours at the Ha Long Bay enjoying the scenic beauty and the Heaven Cave located at Ha Long Bay. The weather was good with temperature about 13 degrees Celcius.

24th AAOU Annual Conference Hanoi Vietnam - Part 1

2010-10-28T12:38:00.007+08:00

Prof. Tian Belawati, President of AAOU 2010 delivering her speech

The 24th Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) Annual Conference began in Hanoi on 26th Oct 2010. As usual the AAOU board members will hold their annual meeting to discuss any matters arising.

The dragon dance performance during the Opening Ceremony

Honoring the exco members of AAOU

Emeritus Prof. Dr. Anuwar Ali delivering his keynote address

Among the participants from OUM (from left), Prof. Dr. Latifah, Prof. Dr. Mansor Fadzil, Tan Sri Dr. Anuwar Ali and Richard Ng

The AAOU 2010 conference which was held at the Melia Hanoi hotel in Vietnam was officiated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, Prof. Nguyen Thien Minh. Earlier, Prof. Dr. Pham Minh Viet, Organizing Chairman of the conference delivered his welcoming address. The opening session was followed by a dragon dance performance. In his speech, Prof. Nguyen hoped that the conference will be able to assist Vietnam in developing its Open and Distance Learning.

Richard Ng with Prof. Pham of Hanoi Open University, the Organizing Chairman of AAOU 2010

Signing of MOU between Open University Malaysia and Open Universities of Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam

Among the keynote speakers invited to speak during the conference include Emeritus Prof. Dr. Anuwar Ali, the President of Open University Malaysia. Others include Prof. Asha Kanwar of Commonwealth of Learning, Emeritus Prof. Gajaraj Dhanarajan of Wawasan Open University, Prof. Jon Baggaley of Athabasca University, Prof. Insung Jung of International Christian University, Prof. Hiromitsu of The Open University of Japan, Prof. Lam of Thang Long University, and Dr. Gatot Hari of SEAMOLEC.

Prof. Mansor presenting his first paper

More than 500 participants from over 20 countries attended the 3-day conference. A total of 173 papers were presented under 5 different sub-themes; Ideology and philosophy; Partnership and Communication; Methodology and Technology; Sustainability, Accessibility,Equity and Quality; and Opportunities and Challenges. The most popular sub-theme is Methodology and Technology with 73 papers.

Recipients of the best paper award: (from left) Gold Medalist - Korea, Silver Medalist - Philippines, Prof. Tian Belawati, President of AAOU, Silver Medalist - Malaysia

Presenters from OUM include Prof. Mansor Fadzil (Senior VP), Prof. Latifah, Dr. Janet Woo Tai Kwan, Richard Ng, and Umi Hanim. Dr. Janet's paper was one of the shortlisted papers for best paper award.

For three consecutive nights, participants were hosted for dinners by Conference Organizer, The Ministry of Education and the Government of Vietnam. The 3-day conference ended on 28 October 2010. During the closing, it was announced that a new president for AAOU has been elected for the period 2011 till 2013.

Prof. Tian Belawati, the outgoing AAOU President from Indonesia (right) passing the AAOU flag to the newly elected AAOU President, Prof. Wong Tat Meng of Malaysia

The handover ceremony was held briefly with the passing of the AAOU flag from the current President Prof. Tian Belawati of Indonesia to Prof. Wong Tat Meng of Malaysia. It was also announced that the next AAOU Conference will be held in Penang in Sept 2011.

AMOS Workshop on 23rd Oct 2010 at OUM Main Campus KL

2010-10-13T07:23:00.004+08:00

The AMOS workshop has been arranged to assist OUM PhD students understand and use it in their Structural Equation Modeling. Details of the workshop are as follows:

Date: 23 Oct 2010
Time: 9am to 4pm
Venue: OUM Main Campus, KL (Room GA01).
Fee: RM75 per person
Facilitator: Dr Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi from UM.

Dr. Sharifah's CV can be viewed here.

Fee includes lunch and 2 tea breaks.

As places are very limited, interested participants must register and pay up their fee prior to the start of the workshop. Kindly deposit the registration fee via Chia Bee Ching's Public Bank Account Number: 4706877819 and inform her of your confirmation. Bee Ching can be contacted through 017-3402968.

SPSS Workshop on 24th Oct 2010 at OUM Main Campus KL

2010-10-12T22:05:00.005+08:00

Attention All PhD Students:

The SPSS class has been arranged for all OUM PhD students. Details are as follows:

Date: 24 Oct 2010
Time: 9am - 4pm
Venue: Room GA01, OUM Main Campus
Facilitator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bahaman Abu Samah from UPM
Fee: RM75 per person.

The workshop will be conducted using hands-on approach.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bahaman's details can be found here. He has been teaching Statistics & Advanced Statistics for Social Science since 1997.

As places are very limited, interested participants must register and pay up their fee prior to the start of the workshop. Kindly deposit the registration fee via Chia Bee Ching's Public Bank Account Number: 4706877819 and inform her of your confirmation. Bee Ching can be contacted through 017-3402968.

PhD Viva for First Batch of OUM Students

2010-10-11T22:55:00.005+08:00

PhD Candidate, Richard Ng, with his supervisor, Prof. Karl Wagner during the viva-voce held on Sept 2 at OUM Main Campus

The first batch of PhD (Business Administration) students had their Viva-Voce set beginning September 2 to September 29 2010. Among the first candidate to attend the Viva was Richard Ng, who started his PhD journey in September 2005. It was then followed by Lum Heap Sum, Wong Siaw Ming and Patrick Wong.

The Viva-Voce process is the final stage of a PhD candidates' journey before they can be called "Doctor". It was conducted within 3 months after candidates have submitted their final thesis.

Richard Ng presenting his research in front of the panel of examiners

At OUM, three examiners (2 external and 1 internal) will examine the theses of a candidate. The viva was then fixed where the candidate will give a short presentation of approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Candidates will then be asked on why they choose their research topic, what is the objective of the research and how he is going about with it. Candidates will also be asked on their literature reviews and theories supporting their research. They will also need to explain their conceptual model and how they derive at it.

Richard Ng answering questions posted by the panel

Examiners are keen to find out the methodology used and how the research findings are analysed, aspect of validity and reliability of data and what is the outcome of their research and how it can contribute to the body of knowledge.

The viva-voce normally takes about 2 hours in all. At the end of the session, candidates will be informed about the decisions of the panel. Decisions could range from minor correction (usually within 1 month), major correction (within 6 months), to redo (within 12 months) or outright failure.

All the four candidates mentioned above who have had their viva-voce in September 2010, have passed their viva with minor or major correction. Candidates will then need to respond to the panel's proposal for correction and submit within the time frame given.

Once the corrections have been submitted, a reviewer (not necessary the same examiner) will review the amendment submitted. Once all the suggestions have been fulfilled the Chairperson of the panel will approve it and submit for confirmation to the academic board of OUM before it is endorsed by the senate. Upon endorsement of senate, the candidate can use the "doctor" title in front of their names.