barnacles

I live in london and am planning to move away. I am keen on moving to malaysia but only if the universities are reputable. Does anyone know what the standard of education is like there?

Looks as though its going to be a hard to find a uni there that does marketing.

Thanks

Englishmum

The main reason is that most Malays strongly prefer if they can afford it, to go to universities in Australia, the UK and the USA!

Unfortunately there is a system called 'bumiputra' where all the elite positions in society are reserved for the ethnic Malay population - even though a high proportion of the wealth is produced by the ethnic Chinese. This filters down to the education system and the majority of university places are allocated to the Malays rather than the minority Chinese and Indians.

Unless you are of Malay ethnicity yourself it won't be easy to get into a Malay university - and I have no idea whatsoever what the quality of the teaching is like.....do you have fluency in spoken and written Malay?

You might want to consider neighbouring Singapore but you will find the student experience somewhat lacking compared to a Western university. There is a good messageboard on http://www.expatsingapore.com and there are some threads about being an expat student there, but also Malay expats living in Singapore would surely be happy to share info about universities in Malaysia.

barnacles

Thanks a lot, that was really helpful. Not being malay - looks as though i should get my degree here and then move.

VanTheMan

Not really, Multimedia University Malaysia is one good university with lots of research and development centre available currently. I drop by not long ago and they have nanotechnology projects, nokia labs, and etc. Worth trying it out.

www.mmu.edu.my


Rgds,
Van

viceice

To correct Englishmum, the old quota system which reserved a number of place in Malaysian public universities for bumiputras has since been abandoned for a system based on merit.

That said depending on what course you are doing, most public universities in Malaysia actually conduct classes in English and require students to have a working command of English.

Now, aside from courses conducted by public universities, private universities in Malaysia also conduct twinning, distance learning and offshore programmes in partnership with Universities from the world over.

For example I myself am enrolled in an offshore programme, where classes are conducted by local lecturers using a local institution's facilities but the lessons and coursework are set and moderated by RMIT University. There are even Australian students enrolled in the same programme, reason being that it results in the same degree issued by RMIT in Australia, but at 1/3 the cost.

Other then that offshore programmes you might also want to consider foreign universities in Malaysia with offshore campuses. The following foreign universities have offshore campuses in Malaysia. The University of Nottingham, Swinburne University of Technology, Curtin University of Technology, Monash University and FTMS de-Montfort University.

An interesting website to visit is http://www.studymalaysia.com. The site details most institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. It covers profiles of the institutions, courses offered, financing information etc.

Please fell free to post any additional questions you have.

yinwong

Malaysia could be a good place for you to retire; to enjoy the sun and beaches. But definitely not for someone who is in the prime of his/her age, one who is seeking out in his/her life.

Tertiary education in Malaysia greatly differs btw the public (government owned) and private institutions.

Public universities are hopeless. They have a quota system and it works exactly as how Englishmum puts it. The facilities are good I would say but what makes a good educational institution? It's the quality of lecturers and this is what most public universities are generally lacking, seriously.

My brother is currently pursuing his Phd at University Malaya, the so-called TOP university in Malaysia. I should refrain from revealing further his countless frustrations thoughout his course les provoking some quarters.

As for the private universities/colleges, this depends on which.

To sum it all, Malaysia is a beautiful country but definitely not your destination for pursuing higher education, you gotta be kiddin!

Or else, the gove*****t wouldn't have set up ""special"" colleges (eg. Kolej Mel*** K**** Kang*** and M*R* institute) where only the ""special"" race could enter. And these ""special"" colleges prepare their students for pursuing further tertiary education overseas, usually in UK, US and AU.

Ask any Malaysian, given a chance to pursue education overseas, would he/she still consider studying locally.. The answer is obvious.

ptlabs

You wouldn't be an opposition supporter would you, by any chance?

Peter

yinwong

LOL. No, I am not. I still love Malaysia for the bulk of it.

VanTheMan

You are right yinwong. The quota system remains until today. It's really sad to see someone scoring full A's but being denied a place studying medicine, dentistry or pharmacist in public universities. Instead, they are giving irrelevant courses such as Forestry. What do you think? Is it fair? I bet you all know what's going on.

Facilities in public university ain't that good either. Most of the courses in public universities are conducted in Malay language. They can't even speak proper english and how do you expect them to work in multinational companies or to gain international recognition? (Except for University Malaya, the courses are conducted in English and the exam system are different from the current semester system)

Of course there are pro's and con's. Studying in public universities are much more cheaper compared to private universities or overseas. If i'm not mistaken, for a person to finish a full degree course in a public university, it only cost them RM20-25K unlike private universities which cost around 60-70K. For overseas education such as in Australia, I believe the cost per year is around AUD18K.

University Malaya is a good university who produced alot of top graduates. Surprisingly, most of the lecturer's from private universities are from University Malaya. I can say it's almost 40-50%. The rest are from other overseas such as France, UK, USA and India.


Do you know that 30% quota are also given to the ""special"" race in UTAR (University Tun Abdul Rahman)? Besides that, those ""special"" colleges mentioned also provide 100% laons or scholarship to those ""special"" race only. In the end, what happened? they refused to repay back their loan and most of the rebel and involved in terrorism.

Not to forget, most of them have special classes before examination. Hints and tips will be given. Don't go too far, just look within this year itself, how many leak in examination questions are reported in the papers. Isn't it a disgrace to the country education system?

I totally agree with what yinwong mentioned because I've been denied a place in a public university 8 years ago even though my result is far more better than "those" people.





P.S Peter, I've seen that you're quite knowledgeable regarding what's going on in MY, do you have any experience here before?

ptlabs

VTM,

Certainly not as in-depth as some of you

Both you and yinwong participate in the Australia forum, so I'm assuming that you are planning new lives there. I tend to restrict my comments to immigration/citizenship matters, and can certainly give a reasonably-length analysis on citizenship laws for a few Commonwealth states in Asia compared to Australia.

As mentioned to yinwong in private, political discussion is tolerated here. But there are limits.

Peter

VanTheMan

Sure Peter, thanks for your feedback.


Rgds,
Van