... which brings us to the equal importance of the attitude of the student. A friend of mine, who is the Personnel Manager of a large and very successful local company told me that he is not particularly worried about the origin of the applicant's BBA, DipComp, BIT, MBA, MSc in IT or whatever, be it from MU (KL), USM (Penang), Oxford Brookes (U.K.), Curtin (Australia), or even Timbuktu U!!! The 20 minute interview that the applicant goes through says a lot about the candidate. If he survives that, then he will be given a 1 to 3 months probation where he will have all the opportunity to prove his real worth. My friend says that his company have said byebye to quite a lot of highly-(paper)-qualified recruits from impressive-sounding universities but who cannot even prove their basic worth in the jobs they applied for.
What do you mean by "impressive-sounding" universities? Would Harvard/Yale/Princeton be on that list? Or are we looking more at Melbourne/Monash? Or do you just mean that the name sounds impressive?
I think something that needs to be taken into consideration is the position that is being filled. If you're filling a non-technical sales position (and at times, even a technical position) - the degree doesn't matter at all. A successful sales person isn't influenced/defined by his/her degree.
But try hiring for a technical position, for example, engineer. I think, more often than not, an engineer from MIT would be more experience, knowledgeable and even perform better than an engineer from a local Malaysian institution.
To generalize about the standard of education in any country is silly and frivolous. There was this middle-aged teacher who only had an SPM (Form 5) and a TTC (Teacher's Training Certificate) before going on a scholarship to an accredited university (which obviously took in account his "experiential learning") in the U.S.A. It amazed a lot a people when he came back with a PhD in education from this accredited American university, after having been away for only 5 years! What was more amazing was that his broken English was just as lousy when he came back as Dr. XYZ as when he was just a simple and humble teacher 5 years earlier. Should we generalize about the worth of American qualifications based on this @#%^* example? Maybe not!
You've taken an example to the extreme. He could have been an outlier, where as we're saying that Malaysian universities CONSISTENTLY produce under qualified graduates. Not only that, but across the board, Malaysian universities have been proven to be sub-standard when compared other countries - such as Singapore. Of course, if your yardstick is countries like .. Timbuktu etc, then I guess, you could be right in saying, comparatively to universities in Timbuktu, Malaysian universities are much better.
I don't know, am I wrong to compare Malaysian universities to Singaporean universities? I might be, because the average Malaysian university might be so much better than the average Singaporean university - after all, Malaysia has universities ranked on the THES isn't it?
Malaysia has some fine universities, both private and public. Not everybody in this world is born with a silver spoon and has megabucks to spend on expensive western universities; it is up to the prospective students to carefully assess and compare the programs offered by the various universities within and outside Malaysia and decide on the 'value-for-money' worth of the programs he is considering.
Malaysia does NOT have any "fine" public universities, and for the private universities, I wouldn't really say that they are "fine". They might produce perhaps, a minimum standard, but "fine" would be reserved for much better schools. Perhaps in the context, of NUS. Or maybe Tsinghua. Or maybe Tokyo University. Or maybe Hong Kong University.... oh wait, those aren't western schools either are they? Maybe we should also check if they require "megabucks" to attend.
There are foreign universities in Malaysia - Nottingham, etc, of them, I have only heard of Monash University. The rest, are perhaps, doubtful.
So yes, I guess, I would still conclude that the education in Malaysia... sucks.
<blockquote>
... which brings us to the equal importance of the attitude of the student. A friend of mine, who is the Personnel Manager of a large and very successful local company told me that he is not particularly worried about the origin of the applicant's BBA, DipComp, BIT, MBA, MSc in IT or whatever, be it from MU (KL), USM (Penang), Oxford Brookes (U.K.), Curtin (Australia), or even Timbuktu U!!! The 20 minute interview that the applicant goes through says a lot about the candidate. If he survives that, then he will be given a 1 to 3 months probation where he will have all the opportunity to prove his real worth. My friend says that his company have said byebye to quite a lot of highly-(paper)-qualified recruits from impressive-sounding universities but who cannot even prove their basic worth in the jobs they applied for. </blockquote>
What do you mean by "impressive-sounding" universities? Would Harvard/Yale/Princeton be on that list? Or are we looking more at Melbourne/Monash? Or do you just mean that the name sounds impressive?
I think something that needs to be taken into consideration is the position that is being filled. If you're filling a non-technical sales position (and at times, even a technical position) - the degree doesn't matter at all. A successful sales person isn't influenced/defined by his/her degree.
But try hiring for a technical position, for example, engineer. I think, more often than not, an engineer from MIT would be more experience, knowledgeable and even perform better than an engineer from a local Malaysian institution.
<blockquote>
To generalize about the standard of education in any country is silly and frivolous. There was this middle-aged teacher who only had an SPM (Form 5) and a TTC (Teacher's Training Certificate) before going on a scholarship to an accredited university (which obviously took in account his "experiential learning") in the U.S.A. It amazed a lot a people when he came back with a PhD in education from this accredited American university, after having been away for only 5 years! What was more amazing was that his broken English was just as lousy when he came back as Dr. XYZ as when he was just a simple and humble teacher 5 years earlier. Should we generalize about the worth of American qualifications based on this @#%^* example? Maybe not! </blockquote>
You've taken an example to the extreme. He could have been an outlier, where as we're saying that Malaysian universities CONSISTENTLY produce under qualified graduates. Not only that, but across the board, Malaysian universities have been proven to be sub-standard when compared other countries - such as Singapore. Of course, if your yardstick is countries like .. Timbuktu etc, then I guess, you could be right in saying, comparatively to universities in Timbuktu, Malaysian universities are much better.
I don't know, am I wrong to compare Malaysian universities to Singaporean universities? I might be, because the average Malaysian university might be so much better than the average Singaporean university - after all, Malaysia has universities ranked on the THES isn't it?
<blockquote>
Malaysia has some fine universities, both private and public. Not everybody in this world is born with a silver spoon and has megabucks to spend on expensive western universities; it is up to the prospective students to carefully assess and compare the programs offered by the various universities within and outside Malaysia and decide on the 'value-for-money' worth of the programs he is considering.
</blockquote>
Malaysia does NOT have any "fine" public universities, and for the private universities, I wouldn't really say that they are "fine". They might produce perhaps, a minimum standard, but "fine" would be reserved for much better schools. Perhaps in the context, of NUS. Or maybe Tsinghua. Or maybe Tokyo University. Or maybe Hong Kong University.... oh wait, those aren't western schools either are they? Maybe we should also check if they require "megabucks" to attend.
There are foreign universities in Malaysia - Nottingham, etc, of them, I have only heard of Monash University. The rest, are perhaps, doubtful.
So yes, I guess, I would still conclude that the education in Malaysia... sucks.
