We shocking as our YB Mustapah, “the Higher EDucation Minister, is a graduate with a first-class honours degree in Economics from one Australian university”.

We would like to seek advise from YB when he was studying in Australia, did he require by Australia government to have Australian studies, Australian Moral Studies, Australian Civilisation studies, Christinity studies?????

Or if you are an overseas graduate, please tell us you are “force” (Compulsory) to study subjects by the local education governing authority other than subject specific areas!

If not why our higher education authority imposing all these (LAN Compulsory subjects) extra studies on our tertiary students???

All these studies like ethics, corporate govenance etc etc, were incorporated in the subject specific areas, so is there a need of time and money be wasted by our tertiary students on those compulsory subjects!!!!

Is this another “Malaysia Boleh” situation!!!

March 30th, 2007 at 12:40 am

Oh, Grumpy – Mustapah, the Higher EDucation Minister, is a graduate with a first-class honours degree in Economics from one Australian university. I’m just saying he is intellectually bright enough for a first-class honours but not independent enough to write and speak honestly and stand up for the Truth. And do something more drastic to pull up the horrendous standards of our universities. (By the way, I was walking past the library of one of our so-called premier universities and I was shocked to overhear two girls, one Chinese and one Malay speaking audibly to each other. And the Malay girl said: “I is…..”. My mind almost collapsed but it did go into a tailspin!

Undergrad 2: I think it is quite possible in the examination-style of the 6o’s and 70′s to get first-class honours degrees largely through rote-learning. I’m tempted to think (and, hopefully) that today’s first-class honours would emphasise more on independent thinking. I think there isn’t that much research at undergraduate levels, that’s more like at Masters and Ph.D levels.

“March 29, 2007, 9.49 pm (Singapore time)
M’sian-trained docs to practise in Singapore

MALAYSIA-TRAINED doctors can now practise here more easily, with the country’s two premier universities getting the nod from the Health Ministry (MOH).
The first Asean universities to make the grade, they are among 20 newly accredited institutes which will help alleviate the shortage of doctors here.

The Universiti Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia are among the most prestigious institutions in the country. Aside from these two, the other 18 are from Canada, China, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and the United States.

With these latest additions, doctors with degrees from 140 universities throughout Europe, Asia and North America are approved to work here.

In a statement, the MOH said recognising the additional universities would help hospitals recruit good doctors to meet rising demand.

As at end-2006, there were 250 positions for doctors waiting to be filled in public hospitals.

Singapore currently has 7,611 registered doctors, including 2,286 who were trained in foreign institutions. The Singapore Medical Council currently has 86 Malaysian doctors on its register.

Universiti Malaya sees between 150 and 160 medical graduates each year. Since 1969, there have been 5,000 doctors graduating from its medical faculty.

The other Malysian university could not be reached for comment.

Non-specialist doctors from the newly-recognised schools will be able to practise as fully-registered doctors after four years of supervision. Previously, they had to work under supervision in an approved institution for six years.

Foreign specialists have to work under supervision for three years.

Since 2003, when there were 20 recognised foreign schools, the Health Ministry has gradually opened the door to an increasing number of them.

Hiring foreign doctors moves the country closer to its goal of having one doctor for each hospitalised patient in public hospitals, as the local universities cannot meet demand fast enough.

Currently, the ratio is one doctor for every two hospitalised patients.

“

The difference between the ‘general degree’ holders and the ‘honors degree’ holders (never mind the ‘first class honors’ degree holders since they are in a class of their own – unless, of course, they come from local universities after the mid 70s and you may want to take a closer look at them) in most cases, is not the lack of knowledge but in the ability to use the knowledge they have and how they express themselves. It is a skill which can be acquired – but admittedly only up to a point. I have among my friends three first class degree holders from foreign universities. It is true first class degree holders are in a category of their own like the cigarette advertisement some time ago of DuMaurier, ‘the one that stands above all others’. They have a bit of that something that most of us don’t.

Ph. D holders are bad communicators (poor communication skills) and do not work well as a team. I should know since my superior has Ph.D. He is better off doing research and development. The same argument could be made against ‘first class’ degree holders. Generally, they do not make good workers but are excellent researchers.

This is not to disparage the ‘general degree’ holders but they are actually graduates with conditional passes. But among them are people who would make good employees. Exams do not tell us everything since there are some among us who just do not do well in exams but are reasonably intelligent, hardworking and exhibit good people skills. If you apply for a middle manager position in my organization – and if I happen to be the interviewer – given the choice between a first class and a general degree holder, I would take another look at the general degree holder.

So far, no leader/minister had come forward to accept responsibility for decades of failed policies.

Now, Kerismuddin has added another 2 sen of hot air to his ten sens’ worth so far:

Hishammuddin Wants Religious Schools To Be On Par With Best In The World

KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 (Bernama) — Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein Wednesday said that he wanted to see religious schools in the country to be among the best in the world.
“There is no reason why they (religious schools) cannot be at par with the best in the world, including schools in the United Kingdom. It can be done,” he said.
To another question on the involvement of teachers in politics, he said that they should not have a place in the nation’s education system.

“Teachers must place importance in educating their charges above their personal interests, because with only 15 years to go before Vision 2020 (Malaysia’s goal to attain developed nation status by 2020), we do not have much time to produce the human capital needed to face the intense competition that will be prevalent in the world by then,” he added.

Seems like Kerismuddin does not know that it’s no more 2020 but 2057, so he has another 50 years to screw the goals, if he doesn’t move the goal posts by then!

We can’t hold anybody in power responsible for any failure, so just close down and be done with it rather than continuing to pump good money into the drain.

The IELTS/TOEFL requirement could be another factor (albeit annoying to those who are already proficient in English), but it’s one that I recommend be kept, for the sake of both the institution and the graduate.

They are politicians. If they don’t lie, we are already ahead of the game.

The issue is does MUST failure have anything to do with where the rest of education is going. Sdr. Lim argument is that they lie about MUST, they will lie about the rest of higher education and then the result is the same.

Maybe. OK. Big Maybe.

Its not necessary because MUST is small. The rest is bigger and the statistical probability that everything will fail is must smaller. BUT its a Big Maybe that very few will actually not be mess. Which means the benefit of our education system will be disporportionately elitist. This itself is a natural tendency but what it will mean is that, given our size and resources poured, the elitism will actually be highly unfairly worst.

Its actually about UMNOputraism more than anything else.

The greatest untold caveat about the NEP is that the only way that it will lessen the divide between bumiputras and non-bumis is for the elitist bumis to be so far ahead of the elite non-bumis. This is because the differences between the UMNOputras and the rest is only going to get worst precisely because they can’t tell the truth about this kinds of issues.

I’m no bloody racist. I hate racism and racists regardless from which country or colour. Personally, I like many of the Malays and have many Malays for my friends. They are nice people on an individual basis. It’s their politicians who are bloody corrupt. These hypocritical politikus have hijacked, plundered and squandered the country’s resources under the guise of NEP etc… That’s why they are ‘politikus’ because they gnaw away at the fabric of society and create gaping holes in the harmonious structures that bind our country so that they can ‘divide and rule’ through their policies of fear much like what they accused the Britiish of doing pre-Independence.

Back to the Universities fiasco, Mustapha should just walk across the causeway & see some examples of the way those guys manage their collaboration with foreign universities. Bukannya susah. And it’s not even rocket science. And the beauty is you don’t even need a first class honours Economics degree to see the true picture unless you want to be an ostrich or a ‘katak dibawah tempurong’. I mean all those hot air about uplifting the quality of universities year in and year out…..your Professors at Melbourne (or was it Monash?) would be thoroughly ashamed of your report card!

Hionestly, I can train someone with a good general degree to perform better. Nothing magical….just use your head, mate.

Now the private tertiary education is worse becuase it messed up by the politicians who set up funny policy (such as if you are malaysian you must pass bahasa and studying LAN subjects) together with the greedy businessmen who wanted their bottom line and ignored the welfare of the academic staff.