… you have been warned…
KUSTEM to be empty come New Year’s Day
Yes, it’s official. It was announced not too long ago though the talk of it becoming empty started wayyyy back.
Ouh well, and since there are people who refused to come to KUSTEM because it is only a “university college” instead of a full-fledge university- naah, you have it NOW. Come and tell me whether this university lives up to your expectation.
And since I’m there, I might as well continue rambling because the chance will pass once the clock strikes 12 midnight this Dec 31st.
What is wrong with a university college anyway?! A university college is so called because it isn’t as BIG as a university should be. Because it doesn’t have a student-and-postgrad enrollment as HIGH as a university should. And it doesn’t have as MANY faculties, institutes and what-other-important centres as a university should.
Apart from that, it IS a university after all! You come here to pursue your tertiary education which your parents think is more important for your future compared to how you think. Or maybe you come here because the society demands you of it. Or maybe because your parents needed to keep you in a place without you creating too much problems for them so they decided to put you among gentlemanly-academicians. I mean, how BAD and ROTTEN can you get among educated people, right?
WRONG.
But I digressed.
I think it’s good to be in a small university. There’s always ample space at the cafeteria. There’s always ample computers to go around in the library, and there’s always more space than we will ever need at the library. You will always get the lecturers’ attention due to the smaller classes. You will never need to camp outside the lecturer’s office just so you could be enrolled in his class because, apparently, your seniors said he IS THE BEST. You will never have to queue forever in the bank because there are less students. And you always get to occupy the whole-freaking-gym because other students prefer football and volleyball and tennis and basketball.
Yea, I think it’s good :)
But now we all have it. Whether or not we like it.
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), with effect from Jan 1st, 2007.
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#2 written by Joshua 5 years ago
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Honestly I think this whole thing is just st*pid. We’re creating more universities and more grads and for what? To come out and find no jobs and add to the unemployed population.
And demand this and that from the Government and have the government come out with some st*pid scheme to increase their net worth through English classes la, burger flipping classes la, etc.
pelf: Yea, true, true..
Then we will inflate the public service sector by creating more unneeded ,unnecessary jobs and add a further financial strain to the government, who will of course still be spending money like water, so they will pass the strain conveniently to the rakyat and ask us to ‘share their pain’.
Sometimes I wonder if its better to let squirrels, lemmings or even terrapins run the country!
pelf: Yes, terrapins rule! :P
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#5 written by dreamer idi*t 5 years ago
Dear Pelf, not to hurt your feelings and your pride in your university (all of us need to take pride in our respective institutions), I would have to agree with Emmanuel in saying that there is probably a misuse and ‘inflation’ of the term “university” in Malaysia (though not necessarily your university) with a number of Malaysian university colleges, especially the private ones who do not even warrant the term.
pelf: *nods head agreeingly*
To be honest, there are colleges in the States (US) that not only have better departments than our main local universities, e.g. College of William and Mary, Dartmouth college, they even conduct cutting edge research that are cited widely within their field of expertise, I know that I may sound patronizing here, but that is far from my intention, the fact is that our government has been falsely ‘marking up’ and elevating the status of many of better education than what is offered, very much to the harm of those who choose to study in them. It’s a pity because many of these students work hard and are deserving of a better education that what is offered, but have their degrees devalued instead by the government’s foolish policy and warped rationale of creating more universities in order to produce more graduates – i.e inking and churning out graduates rather than really training them. Again, our government’s confusion of quantity over quality, not to mention the cases of grade inflation, which is now reflected by our current job market situation. It’s a terribly sad situation for our young Malaysian students who, through no fault of theirs, suffer.
BTW, I think it’s high time the federal government build a university for the people of Terengganu who have been suffering years of economic neglect. Hurrah! Cheers for Pelf too! :)
pelf: Yes, I understand this perfectly well. I have been here for half a decade, and I find myself looking forward to having a new university here in Terengganu. But I think I am more supportive towards upgrading not only the university college, but also the mindset of the people who run the institution.
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The only way to get increased funding and visibility would be to upgrade to become a University … see it from the view of the people who run it …
pelf: “See it from the view of the people who run it..” You’re making me laugh, Moz. The situation is really different from that in Australia, Moz. Even if fundings are increased, the SAME researchers will get a piece of the cake. And the only difference is the size of the piece of cake. Others who have never gotten a slice before will never be considered because “they have not proven that they are able to handle projects..” And what visibility?! What transparency?! There’s no “transparency”. The word is non-existent. Period.
And what good is a uni/uni kolej if its facilities are not utilized to the max?
pelf: Utilized to the max?! I’m not sure about other “facilities” but in KUSTEM, this is how it works: We have an existing library. Somebody thinks the library is not big enough. So they built a huge-a$$ library to replace the existing library. But the books/reference materials were the same ones brought over from the old library. OK, I have another case: We have a “biodiversity lab”.. The lab has got limited ovens/machines/balance. Somebody thinks KUSTEM should be upgraded to a university. So he increased the student enrollment. So now we have 120 students in a program, the number of ovens/machines/balance remain the same. Same number of microscopes, glass slides, beakers, hot-plates. So what do students do when they don’t even have a chance to operate a machine/microscope?
Upgrade? I think we are actually downgrading. During my time, we had the chance to operate machines, to break beakers, and that was how we learned. So what if KUSTEM will be a university? The university will only be producing first-class students who have never operated a centrifuge machine. Or a hydrolab. Or a digital microscope.