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Tertiary education strategies involving masters and doctoral-level qualifications should include some degree of local context and not be based solely on international standards or those of elite institutions in the West.

THE media and blogosphere are abuzz with opinions disparaging the value of several master’s and doctoral level qualifications.

Articles published in respectable publications such as Nature, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes have in the recent past set the tone of this debate, casting doubts about the “return on investment” (RoI) of higher degrees.

These RoI-based discussions seem to focus on the socio-economic circumstances of the developed countries.

These discussions do not reflect the higher education priorities of the rapidly developing parts of the world.

Higher education strategies in developing countries must be based on the ground realities obtained there and not transferred from that of a developed country.

While global standards of educational excellence are fine, there must be a degree of adaptation to the local context.

I shall illustrate this through two examples drawn from India and Malaysia respectively, deriving from those examples, two simple propositions for further debate.

Let us consider MBA-like degrees in India. There are over 2,400 institutions offering such degrees (3,300 by another reckoning), currently targeting a pool of about 400,000 potential applicants every year (both fresh graduates and working executives, in more or less equal numbers).

In India, about 25 institutions offering MBA-like degrees belong to the top-tier, accommodating about 4,000 new students, who are the top-performing students in various entrance tests, every year.

The next 75 institutions constitute a middle-tier, accommodating about 9,000 new students every year. This leaves a vast majority of applicants (around 387,000) who could not make it to one of the top- or middle-tier institutions.

by Prof. D. P. Dash.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/6/9/education/13158368&sec=education

Singapore leaders start to talk about the importance of having multiple skills rather than just obtaining a degree.

A NUMBER of political leaders have appealed to Singaporeans not to place too much faith on university degrees in an apparent effort to manage public expectations.

This is the clearest sign yet that the authorities are expecting a sustained period of relatively low economic growth and slower employment opportunities.

Singaporeans, especially parents, who have long regarded the university degree as a key to a good life will likely be shocked.

For decades, the government has been en­couraging youths to study hard or lose out in a competitive world. This apparently spells a change in education strategy.

It has also thrown more light on a baffling revelation made earlier by a senior Education Ministry official to American diplomats.

This revelation was that the global economy embraced by Singapore has made it much less conducive for over-educated societies.

Having a large number of graduates, once thought crucial for Singapore’s prosperity, is now considered not conducive to the changing manpower market, at least in Singapore.

However, none of the political leaders – the Prime Minister and three ministers – has mentioned another reason for the excess of graduates – the mass intake of foreigners.

Led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan, the leaders are now advising Singaporeans to consider non-university routes to success.

Khaw said: “You own a degree, but so what? You can’t eat it. If that cannot give you a good life, a good job, it is meaningless.”

He added that Singapore could not have an entire nation of graduates.

“Can you have a whole country where 100% are graduates? I am not so sure. What you do not want is to create huge graduate unemployment,” he said.

Then it was the turn of Education Minister Heng Swee Keat, who said that a good qualification alone does not guarantee a career, let alone a job.

Thirdly, Acting Minister for Social and Fa­mily De­ve­l­opment Chan Chun Sing said it is not the degree or diploma that is most important for graduates, but the ability to learn a different set of skills.

“The soft skills in life have to be acquired and have to be continuously refreshed. If not, even with the best degree from the best universities in the world, we may find ourselves obsolete one day.”

by Seah Chiang Nee.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?col=insightdownsouth&file=/2013/5/25/columnists/insightdownsouth/13152861&sec=Insight%20Down%20South

KOTA KINABALU: The consolidation of the Education and the Higher Education ministry into one would help create a systematic and orderly education system.

According to Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) vice chancellor, Professor Datuk Dr Harun Abdullah, yesterday, he saw the union of the two ministry as something positive and that he was certain it would help the government manage the country’s education sector in an orderly manner.

“That means, in terms of decision making, there will be coordination from the various parties involved – those from the education and the tertiary education sectors. I see this as a positive move as it will lead to precise decision making,” he said.

At the same time, UMS registrar, Lt Kol Datuk Abdullah Mohd Said, commented on the cabinet lineup and lauded the inclusion of more ministers and deputy ministers from Sabah.

He was particularly delighted that the post of the deputy education and higher education minister was given to Mary Yap, a former school principal and educator, who is the Tawau MP.

KUALA LUMPUR: The output from local institutions of higher learn-ing has to match the generous allocation given to the higher education sector every year, said Higher Education Department director-general Prof Dr Morshidi Sirat.

In the Universitas 21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems (U21) released recently, Malaysia obtained a score of 70.9% under the resource criteria.

“Malaysia scored higher than developed countries such as South Korea and Germany in our expenditure for higher education, yet we are lagging behind other countries in the output criteria,” Prof Morshidi told reporters at the 4th Asia-Europe Meeting of Ministers (Asem) for Education yesterday.

He urged institutions of higher learning to show better results by publishing more academic papers and improving research and development activities.

“We should strive to be like the institutions from Western nations where the output-to-input ratio is high.

“At the same time, the Government, too, should not reduce spending on higher education to ensure the continuous growth of this sector,” said Prof Morshidi.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/5/14/nation/13107313&sec=nation

OXFORD:  — Who does not know Oxford University? The university is among the United Kingdom’s best and world renowned universities, which is also a reputed educational institution in the world.

Among Oxford University’s competitors are Cambridge in the United Kingdom, Harvard, Yale and Princeton as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.

Academically outstanding Malaysians have also gone to Oxford, which is a 90-minute drive from London, for further studies in master’s and doctorate (PhD) programmes.

Recently, this writer had the opportunity to visit Oxford University and interact with Malaysians studying there. Many of them were sponsored by the Public Service Department (JPA), Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara), Khazanah Nasional Berhad, and the Tunku Abdul Rahman Foundation.

To date, there are more than 15,000 Malaysian students in the United Kingdom, including some 5,000 students sponsored by various government agencies.

Master’s:

Danial Abdul Rahman, who is pursuing Master’s in Law in Oxford University, feels he is fortunate to be able to study at the prestigious institution, sponsored by the Tunku Abdul Rahman Foundation.

Danial arrived in Oxford last year.

“All the knowledge books are written by scholars here. There are so many intellectuals here, making the environment conducive for students.

“The community here focuses its full attention on academics,” said Danial, based on his observation.

Danial said even high school teachers here have master’s degrees.

“That is something good because when the local community is educated, then its thinking is more open. I am happy to be doing my master’s programme in Oxford, after four years of pursuing a bachelor’s degree in my homeland,” added Danial.

Biophysics:

Mohd Firdaus Abdul Wahab is in Oxford, pursuing a PhD in biophysics.

At Oxford, Mohd Firdaus met a group of 20 students from the International Islamic University Malaysia (UIAM), which was on a two-week visit.

BERNAMA,

by Hazlinda Hamzah.

Read more @ http://education.bernama.com/index.php?sid=exclusive_content&id=946045

Pursuing tertiary studies in the US may not be as desirable if its peace and security is frequently threatened by bombings and attacks.

THE DEATH of a Chinese student in the Boston bombings presents a potential image nightmare for higher education in the United States (US), determined to counter perceptions that the country is unsafe.

A Chinese student whom authorities have identified as Lingzi Lu was pursuing a Master’s degree in Statistics at Boston University was identified among the three dead in last Monday’s attack on the city’s famed marathon, which also wounded some 180 people. Lu who was due to graduate in 2015, was among the people killed at the finish line of the marathon

Violence is hardly unique to the United States and few expect a sudden exodus of foreign students who often have already spent tens of thousands of dollars on their US education or consider US universities to be exceptional.

But when students decide whether to study abroad and weigh factors such as quality and cost, attacks such as those in Boston — or gun massacres at Virginia Polytechnic Institute or better known as Virgina Tech in 2007, and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut last December — can only be downsides.

As US lawmakers considered a bill on gun purchases recently, US Secretary of State John Kerry had on a recent trip to Japan said that there were students who were afraid to study in the United States.

“One of the responses I got from our officials from conversations with parents here (Japan) is that they’re actually scared. They think they’re not safe in the United States and so they don’t come,” said Kerry.

The number of Japanese students heading to the United States have fallen since the early 1990s due to factors that likely also include an ageing population and a stagnant economy.

by Shaub Tandon.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/4/21/education/12993502&sec=education

If a student studies hard and keeps his results consistently high, he ends up paying very little for his degree at a private institution.

IT is so competitive out there that private universities and colleges are practically beating a path to the high achievers’ doors to recruit them.

The better their results, the higher the “discount” in the tuition fees at pre-university level. An SPM student with 8As may get RM4,000 to RM8,000 in scholarship, depending on the institution and course.

In the words of a marketer, “we are almost paying them to study with us.”

Most partial scholarships start with 6As and above, and results like that are pretty common among urban schoolchildren. In fact, one premier private university estimates that 50% to 60% of its students enrol with six to eight distinctions.

And yet, many parents and students are ignorant of how easy it can be to secure partial scholarships if only some homework is done.

For a start, students should make their school counsellors their “best friend”. The counsellors are a gem of information and resource as they are the contact point for foreign and local institutions as well as corporations that wish to offer financial assistance. Every top university targets counsellors of premier schools!

Hence, counsellors at such schools can really make a difference. Those who are committed and passionate ones know what are on offer and constantly hound their good students to put in their applications and go for scholarship interviews.

They know, for example, that a high achiever with strong co-curricular and is able to impress at the interview can secure between RM3,000 and RM18,000 in tuition fee waiver months before he even sits for his SPM exam.

The amount may prove a significant percentage of a pre-university course that is priced at RM18,000 to RM25,000 (tuition fees only).

by Leanne Goh.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/4/7/nation/12939705&sec=nation

UNFOCUSED EDUCATION: Schools and varsities are constantly not “adding the value and teaching the skills that matter most in the marketplace”.

WHEN Tony Wagner, the Harvard education specialist, describes his job today, he says he’s “a translator between two hostile tribes” — the education world and the business world, the people who teach American  kids and the people who give them jobs.

Wagner’s argument in his book Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World is that our K-12 and college tracks are not consistently “adding the value and teaching the skills that matter most in the marketplace”. This is dangerous at a time when there is increasingly no such thing as a high-wage, middle-skilled job — the thing that sustained the middle class in the past generation. Now there is only a high-wage, high-skilled job. Every middle-class job today is being pulled up, out or down faster than ever. That is, it either requires more skill or can be done by more people around the world or is being buried — made obsolete — faster than ever. Which is why the goal of education today, argues Wagner, should not be to make every child “college ready” but “innovation ready” — ready to add value to whatever they do.

That is a tall task. I tracked Wagner down and asked him to elaborate. “Today”, he said via email, “because knowledge is available on every Internet-connected device, what you know matters far less than what you can do with what you know. The capacity to innovate — the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life — and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than academic knowledge.

As one executive told me, “We can teach new hires the content, and we will have to because it continues to change, but we can’t teach them how to think — to ask the right questions — and to take initiative.”

My generation had it easy. We got to “find” a job. But, more than ever, our kids will have to “invent” a job. (Fortunately, in today’s world, that’s easier and cheaper than ever before.)

KUALA LUMPUR:  — It is a fact that English is an important language worldwide.

Recently, the Education Ministry said the English language subject will be accorded a compulsory ‘must pass’ status in school public examinations by 2016.

English is among the top three most widely spoken languages in the world today, alongside Spanish and Mandarin, and it is regarded as an important language to master, especially for business purposes.

Thus, Malaysians should be mindful of the proficiency required to communicate in this globally accepted language.

English Test:

Malaysian universities are constantly taking steps to ensure their students are able to effectively communicate in English.

Hence, since 1999, local public universities have made it compulsory for their students to pass Muet before they graduate.

Proficiency in English helps these undergraduates to understand their lectures and tutorials better.

Why do local university students need Muet?

According to local university officials, passing Muet is compulsory for their students to graduate.

“This is to maintain quality. Imagine a graduate who cannot communicate in English. Their market potential is drastically reduced due to this liability (unable to communicate in English),” they said.

What does it take to encourage these young undergraduates to overcome the fear of scoring good marks in Muet and graduate successfully?

Examination Council:

Recently, the Malaysian Examination Council (MPM) talked to potential candidates at a university about what to expect and the preparations needed to pass Muet.

The most recently held Muet in March 2013 saw 43,000 candidates appear for it, while the earlier Muet, which was conducted in November 2012, saw 75,000 candidates appear.

Muet is held over a period of two weeks, during which different requirements are tested. Some of these tests are conducted on different days, in separate sessions running one after another during each day.

Muet was first introduced in Malaysia in 1999 and conducted only twice a year. However, in 2012, its frequency was increased to three times a year to cope with the increasing demand from universities.

Required Bands:

A local university undergraduate has various requirements to fulfill to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in a local university.

The usual requirement is for these graduates to obtain at least a Band Three or Band Four (according to the requirements stipulated by the respective universities/faculties) in their Muet sitting.

According to an officer in charge of Muet at the MPM, Mazlina Mohamad Arif, “It depends on the course they take and the requirements made by the respective universities.

“An external student at a Law Faculty in a local university in the Klang Valley had taken Muet more than 10 times and had only obtained a Band Three pass, which is short of the minimum Band Four faculty requirement as far as that student is concerned.

by Hazlinda Hamzah

BERNAMA.

Read more @ http://education.bernama.com/index.php?sid=exclusive_content&id=937438

More should be done in the area of R&D, training and collaboration with well-placed universities, to raise the standards of local varsities for only then can they be among the world’s best.

THE recently published Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings saw none of Malaysia’s universities making it into the Top 100.

This is a world-wide survey based on the opinions of peers and experts in the academic community.

The results appear to suggest that Malaysian institutions are not perceived well and do not enjoy widespread international peer recognition.

This ought not to have happened.

It wasn’t so long ago that many quarters had hotly debated the shortfall of our universities in world rankings.

Opinions may differ; but it can’t be argued that if Malaysia were to achieve its much articulated ambition to become a centre for academic excellence, it needs to gain international acceptance and recognition.

Lacking in research

It needs to prove its worthiness in international rankings.

An often-cited reason for our weak rankings is the lack of influential academic research, citations and publications at international level.

As far as the World Reputation Rankings goes; our universities are also not known for the other criteria in addition to research that make up the reputation of an institution, such as international outlook (7.5% of ranking weightage), teaching (30%) and innovation (2.5%).

Malaysia boasts more than 500 higher education institutions and almost 100,000 foreign students; and has been a pioneer and a leader, in many ways, in the market development of higher education in Asia.

The private higher education sector rose from its near non-existence in the 80s, to its present multi-million-ringgit industry status of about 50% in the sector all within a short span of 30 years.

by Chi Kok Leong.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/3/24/education/12825295&sec=education