Malaysia's Education: Can it get worse ? - Part 2

Private higher education institution view "Education" as a profit center and they take advantage from your misery when you are not getting an offer from government funded public universities to study the degree of your choice.

And in any profit oriented market, the fundamentally strong and good quality schools can withstand onslaught challenges and competition. The weak and rotten one especially those heavily dependent on government support for student enrollment will set to disappear from market place. 

So choose your study destination wisely to avoid misery. Do more research to find a good quality, high education standard university that also offer wholesome campus life with affordable tuition fees. 

Study in university is simply another memorable life in our journey of life and do not do not let the rotten one to ruin you and your parent life.    

Story 1

AUCMS students badly hit by school’s financial woes

PETALING JAYA: Hundreds of Penang-based private medical school Allianze University Medical Sciences (AUCMS) students have suffered from the school's financial crisis, which has allegedly dragged on for a year.

An employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Star Online that the students were no longer allowed to serve their practical years in some government hospitals due to the college’s poor track record.

“There are many occasions where the students are not allowed to enter the wards as the hospital’s departments refused to accept students from AUCMS.

“They complained that the quality of teaching in AUCMS has been below the standard of medical school,” he claimed.

The plight of AUCMS employees was highlighted in The Star Online on Apr 22, with some turning to loan sharks in desperation as their salaries have allegedly not been paid in four months.

Despite repeated reminders to the college’s management including a signed petition, the employee said their concerns have been ignored.

“Our patience is running thin. It’s been five months now and we haven’t received a sen yet,” he said, adding that the employees are planning to take legal action against the college.

“More than 65 employees have signed a petition letter demanding their salaries, Employees Provident Funds contributions and scheduler tax reduction are paid according to their contracts.

“However, the management still has not responded to the petition,” he said.

He also said the employees are threatening to boycott the classes due to the ongoing problems.

“Our medical faculty is also badly hit as many high-ranked and clinical lecturers have left to other institutions,” he said.

He added that the employees have decided to take legal action against the college for the unpaid salaries.

AUCMS president Datuk Dr Zainuddin Md Wazir had previously said that they were going through some “financial hiccups” and vowed to make the outstanding payments as early as this month.

When reached for comments, Zainuddin said the management is "sorting it out the issue immediately.

"We acknowledge their problems and we are in the midst of settling it," he said, briefly.

AUCMS is a private learning institution located at Kepala Batas, Penang that runs specialised courses of study in medicine, hospitality, tourism, sports science and allied health sciences.

Source : www.thestar.com.my

Story 2

DAP urge Putrajaya to justify RM108 million spent on 80 medical students

The Malaysian Insider – Tue, Aug 19, 2014


Putrajaya must come clean on how Malaysia gained from spending RM1.35 million per student in the now "failed medical romance" with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said DAP.

Secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today that the federal government must explain since the collaboration with the prestigious American medical school cost RM107.91 million for only 80 students.

"The public will also be interested if the 80 students are all Malaysians and the critiria applied for their selection.

This full accountability is especially important when the federal government has made limited offers to only 418 brilliant students to take up medicine at local public universites," he said in a statement.

Lim was referring to deputy education minister P. Kamalanathan saying yesterday that the limited number of offers is due to an oversupply of new doctors, where only 418 out of 1,163 students, who obtained top marks were selected for medicine.

Lim, who is also Penang chief minister and Bagan MP, said this was not the first time an alliance with a world-renowned university have failed.

He cited a case involving the prestigious Massachusettes Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Malaysian University of Science and Technology some 10 years ago.

He said a grant of RM100 million was set up in 1999 for the Malaysian university to mirror MIT but the partnership failed when MIT pulled out in 2004.

Lim said this latest case had reinforced the culture of mediocrity in Malaysian educational standards and the sad reality that there was no room for excellent institutions or brilliant students.

"This is symptomatic of the failure of the Barisan Nasional federal government’s transformation programme to pursue excellence and the creative city concept due in part to reluctance to embrace the critical success factors of talent, technology and tolerance," he said.

Lim said the 3Ts of talent, technology and tolerance must co-exist in an eco-system that can engender creativity.

Malaysia might have the talent and readiness to invest in technology but the general reluctance to permit tolerance of different ideas and lifestyles had proven to be too big a hindrance for the country, he said.

He also blamed such weaknesses as the reasons why Malaysian universities have become mediocre and local talents have migrated to greener pastures overseas.

"What is equally worrying is not just that the elite excellent foreign universities are abandoning Malaysia, but that the federal government is also abandoning our top students," he said.

Lim said as a first step, the Putrajaya must win back the confidence of top local students by giving them university places for their preferred courses before trying to attract top foreign universities to Malaysia.

"Why go on with the Sijil Tinggi Peperiksaan Malaysia (STPM) when our top students are denied places and their choice of courses?"

He cited the case of straight A's STPM student from Klang Ng Li Ying, who was denied courses in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy despite applying to nine local universities and was offered nursing instead.

There were also two straight-As students from Ipoh, who opted for dentistry and medicine in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, but got nursing in Sarawak and veterinary studies in Kelantan respectively.

"Another top student in (MCA president and Transport minister Datuk Seri) Liow Tiong Lai's own Bentong (parliamentary) constituency was offered nursing in Sarawak as well."

Another STPM student from Perak with four As failed to get into a pharmacy programme in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) despite being offered the same course by Monash University, Australia, which is ranked 8th in the world by the 2014 QS World University Ranking for pharmacy and pharmacology, he said.

"Someone must have forgotten to tell the whole world that USM is better than Monash University," Lim added. – August 19, 2014.

Source - my.news.yahoo.com