Looks like the first Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University is finally coming to Malaysia. His appointment was announced and made last November and was highlighted here in this blog. Since then, I've heard from a source that he's had a phone call with Tok Pah, Minister for Higher Education and now, he'll be coming in August of this year to deliver a keynote speech at the Faculty of Economics and Administration (FEA) at the UM.
A recent online search on Jeffrey Sachs and UM revealed this tentative program for a conference on poverty alleviation organized by the Faculty of Economics and Administration (where KS Jomo taught and were Terence Gomez taught before his secondment to the UN in Geneva).
According to this program, the conference entitled "Poverty Distribution Amidst Diversity: Options and Challenges for Development" will be held on Aug 13 and 14, 2007. Prof Sachs will give the keynote address and be a discussant on a higher powered panel which includes Tok Pah and Max Ongkili, Minister in the PM's office in charge of National Unity and Integration and Dr. Denison Jayasooria of the Yayasan Strategik Sosial (YSS).
I've said this before and I'll say it again - the appointment of Professor Sachs to this position is a waste of taxpayers funds and does not fulfill the objectives set out by the UM.
Prof Sachs, in his two year appointment will probably come to Malaysia once a year, given his many other commitments. While in Malaysia, he'll be asked to deliver a few keynote addresses, in the UM and in other settings, set up for him by the University or the MOHE. He won't be able to contribute any significant intellectual contribution to UM or Malaysia in terms of research or advising faculty or graduate students or teaching.
In contrast, Prof Joan Nelson, the third holder of the Pok Rafeah chair at IKMAS, UKM, was / is based in Malaysia for a length of time (9 months, if I'm not mistaken) and was an active contributor to the intellectual and research life at IKMAS in UKM. This is the model that UM should have used - appointing a researcher who had a genuine interest in Malaysia and who would be able to be based in Malaysia for some length of time to be part of the academic and intellectual community.
Furthermore, Professor Jeffrey "mention-his-name-to-any-economist-and-they-will-drop-when-they-hear-it" Sachs (quote is attributed to the current UM VC) doesn't even list his appointment as the Royal Ungku Aziz Chair of Poverty Studies in his most recent CV, thereby not fulfilling one of UM's objectives of appointing Jeffrey Sachs - which is to raise UM's profile internationally.
Too bad I can't be at the UM to take part in the above conference. It would have been interesting to ask Prof Sachs what he hopes to achieve in his two year appointment. And to ask the VC whether she thinks that appointing Prof Sachs was worth the cost.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
New Segi College Campus in Kota Damansara
Check out the new site of Segi College in Kota Damansara on Kenny Sia's blog! Hopefully, the software (teachers, courses, etc...) is commensurate with the hardware!
More foreign undergrads at UM?
Have been so busy with work that I failed to notice this Star report which appeared earlier this week entitled "UM out to woo foreign students". I only took notice of it as I was reading a post from fellow blogger, Whatalulu.
Just a couple of quick notes on this.
Firstly, I've said in earlier posts that I have no problems with the government trying to recruit more foreigners at the postgraduate level but I do have a problem with the recruitment of more foreign students at the undergraduate level, especially if these students are subsidized at the same rate as Malaysian students. Undergraduate spaces are already precious and cannot fulfill the demand of tax paying Malaysians. To bring in foreigners just for the purposes of increasing one's ranking (instead of taking other more substantive measures such as improving the quality of teaching and research) is pretty ludicrous. (Now, if it was for the purposes of increasing revenue for local universities so that they can improve the pay of lecturers and the universities' infrastructure, that would be another story)
Secondly, recruiting just 300 foreign students isn't exactly going to catapult UM into the category of LSE or UCal Berkeley or Melbourne in terms of the percentage of foreign students. You need a couple of thousand to make a decent dent in percentage terms. And if this is indeed the long term policy of UM and the MOHE, then see the first point above.
Just a couple of quick notes on this.
Firstly, I've said in earlier posts that I have no problems with the government trying to recruit more foreigners at the postgraduate level but I do have a problem with the recruitment of more foreign students at the undergraduate level, especially if these students are subsidized at the same rate as Malaysian students. Undergraduate spaces are already precious and cannot fulfill the demand of tax paying Malaysians. To bring in foreigners just for the purposes of increasing one's ranking (instead of taking other more substantive measures such as improving the quality of teaching and research) is pretty ludicrous. (Now, if it was for the purposes of increasing revenue for local universities so that they can improve the pay of lecturers and the universities' infrastructure, that would be another story)
Secondly, recruiting just 300 foreign students isn't exactly going to catapult UM into the category of LSE or UCal Berkeley or Melbourne in terms of the percentage of foreign students. You need a couple of thousand to make a decent dent in percentage terms. And if this is indeed the long term policy of UM and the MOHE, then see the first point above.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Tracking down JPA scholars
This post has been on my mind ever since I had this discussion with a friend in Malaysia last month. The issue at hand is how the government fails to capitalize on the talent and human resource of JPA scholars, who, either through incompetence, lack of enforcement or unwillingness on the part of government departments to recruit / hire JPA scholars, usually end up working overseas or in the private sector in Malaysia. And, as far as I know, there have not been any moves to arrest this trend.
JPA overseas scholarships, which are awarded to approximately 1500 students (in the last couple of years), are perhaps the most prestigious and competitive scholarship among those which are awarded by the JPA. We've discussed the issue of JPA scholarships a number of times in this blog, notably here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. (I may have missed a few more)
I just want to reiterate and highlight a few points arising from this conversation with my friend.
1) That the government / JPA fails to track down JPA scholars who fail to return to Malaysia after they have completed their studies overseas.
- This is costly to Malaysia since these scholars often don't pay back any of the scholarship funds expended by the JPA and also because these scholars don't return to 'contribute' their expertise and human resource to the country.
- This is perhaps the most serious 'waste' of valuable taxpayers money since these scholars are effectively contributing to the economies of the foreign countries they are working in.
- Now, I don't have a problem with Malaysians who want to or are working overseas but if they are JPA scholars and have received taxpayers' funds to study overseas, I think they have an obligation to either pay back their scholarships or return to work in Malaysia, whether it is in the private or the public sector.
2) That the government / JPA fails to find jobs for JPA scholars who have returned home to Malaysia.
- I've heard of and from many JPA scholars who 'report' to the JPA when they have finished their degrees and immediately starts working in the private sector because the JPA is known for taking their time to 'assign' jobs for these scholars. More often than not, the JPA comes back to the scholars and tell them that they have 'failed' to find suitable jobs for them in the government. If I'm not mistaken, there is a clause in the JPA agreement which says that the JPA scholar is released from his or her bond if a job in the government cannot be found for him or her within a year of this scholar 'reporting' to the JPA
- I suspect that this occurs for a few reasons.
Firstly, it could be due to the sheer incompetence of the JPA in finding jobs for these scholars. But I think that this is unlikely given that the JPA doesn't seem to have a problem in other administrative matters such as paying the fees for these scholars.
- Secondly, and perhaps more likely, I have a sneaking suspicion that the heads of many government departments don't want to 'hire' JPA scholars because of the potential of this scholar 'outshining' many others in these departments including the government heads.
3) That JPA scholars are release from their bonds if they find work in a GLC such as Petronas, Tenaga, Telekom etc...
- I'm not sure if this is the current JPA policy. While not being as bad as working overseas and not paying back one's bond, this does nothing to improve the culture and the efficiency of our public sector. Indeed, I know of not a few JPA scholars who have been 'sucked up' by Petronas because of the better pay and working conditions there and because Petronas is a GLC, they don't have to 'pay back' or serve their JPA bond.
4) That a large percentage of JPA scholars end up working in the private sector
- I was told by a friend that quite a few of his colleagues at Accenture were JPA scholars who didn't have to pay back their bond or work for the government because the JPA never 'got back to them'.
- While these JPA scholars are still contributing to the Malaysian economy both as taxpayers and as productive workers, it still does not negate the point that taxpayers' funds were used on their education.
- I was told that perhaps up to 90% of JPA scholars who return home to Malaysia end up working in the private sector.
Now I know that what I've said and what I'm going to say will offend many current and future JPA scholars but I think it needs to be said. It costs upwards of 500,000RM to educate a JPA scholar in England or in the US (less in continental Europe, Japan and Australia but still at least 300,000RM). As much as 100RM million a year is spend on JPA scholars. Hence, it is a TREMENDOUS waste of taxpayers' funds if JPA scholars are not made accountable for these scholarships.
To arrest this trend of disappearing JPA scholars, I recommend the following:
1) Implement a strict 'tracking' system for JPA scholars such that if they do not return to Malaysia after the completion of their studies, they would have to pay back their JPA scholarships in full and with interest. Scholars should be made to assign 'guarantors' so that if they do not return to Malaysia, their guarantors can be made to pay back the amount owed to the JPA.
- Of course, some flexibility can be introduced here e.g. installment schemes, postponement of coming back to Malaysia because of postgrad studies, writing off a certain portion of the loan if the student ends up working in a GLC etc...
- But the point remains that these students should not be left off 'scott-free'
- If the government is clamping down on PTPLN loan defaulters, why not clamp down on JPA scholars who don't return or don't end up working for the government?
2) Design a special position / training program in the civil service that allows the JPA scholars to be rotated among different departments before being assigned / given the choice of a department.
- Many MNCs such as Citibank and P&G have management trainee programs which rotates their better recruits among the different departments in these companies before they decide or are assigned a department. Why can't the Malaysian government do something similar?
- If it takes a larger salary to recruit and retrain these JPA scholars, then why not create a layer of 'management trainees' which can be paid at higher levels, at least initially, and then promoted faster so that their opportunities and pay can expand commensurately?
Note: Not all GLCs are as 'liberal' as the JPA. Some (like PNB) does track down its scholars and are very strict in enforcing repayment terms if their scholars don't fulfill the terms of their bonds.
JPA overseas scholarships, which are awarded to approximately 1500 students (in the last couple of years), are perhaps the most prestigious and competitive scholarship among those which are awarded by the JPA. We've discussed the issue of JPA scholarships a number of times in this blog, notably here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. (I may have missed a few more)
I just want to reiterate and highlight a few points arising from this conversation with my friend.
1) That the government / JPA fails to track down JPA scholars who fail to return to Malaysia after they have completed their studies overseas.
- This is costly to Malaysia since these scholars often don't pay back any of the scholarship funds expended by the JPA and also because these scholars don't return to 'contribute' their expertise and human resource to the country.
- This is perhaps the most serious 'waste' of valuable taxpayers money since these scholars are effectively contributing to the economies of the foreign countries they are working in.
- Now, I don't have a problem with Malaysians who want to or are working overseas but if they are JPA scholars and have received taxpayers' funds to study overseas, I think they have an obligation to either pay back their scholarships or return to work in Malaysia, whether it is in the private or the public sector.
2) That the government / JPA fails to find jobs for JPA scholars who have returned home to Malaysia.
- I've heard of and from many JPA scholars who 'report' to the JPA when they have finished their degrees and immediately starts working in the private sector because the JPA is known for taking their time to 'assign' jobs for these scholars. More often than not, the JPA comes back to the scholars and tell them that they have 'failed' to find suitable jobs for them in the government. If I'm not mistaken, there is a clause in the JPA agreement which says that the JPA scholar is released from his or her bond if a job in the government cannot be found for him or her within a year of this scholar 'reporting' to the JPA
- I suspect that this occurs for a few reasons.
Firstly, it could be due to the sheer incompetence of the JPA in finding jobs for these scholars. But I think that this is unlikely given that the JPA doesn't seem to have a problem in other administrative matters such as paying the fees for these scholars.
- Secondly, and perhaps more likely, I have a sneaking suspicion that the heads of many government departments don't want to 'hire' JPA scholars because of the potential of this scholar 'outshining' many others in these departments including the government heads.
3) That JPA scholars are release from their bonds if they find work in a GLC such as Petronas, Tenaga, Telekom etc...
- I'm not sure if this is the current JPA policy. While not being as bad as working overseas and not paying back one's bond, this does nothing to improve the culture and the efficiency of our public sector. Indeed, I know of not a few JPA scholars who have been 'sucked up' by Petronas because of the better pay and working conditions there and because Petronas is a GLC, they don't have to 'pay back' or serve their JPA bond.
4) That a large percentage of JPA scholars end up working in the private sector
- I was told by a friend that quite a few of his colleagues at Accenture were JPA scholars who didn't have to pay back their bond or work for the government because the JPA never 'got back to them'.
- While these JPA scholars are still contributing to the Malaysian economy both as taxpayers and as productive workers, it still does not negate the point that taxpayers' funds were used on their education.
- I was told that perhaps up to 90% of JPA scholars who return home to Malaysia end up working in the private sector.
Now I know that what I've said and what I'm going to say will offend many current and future JPA scholars but I think it needs to be said. It costs upwards of 500,000RM to educate a JPA scholar in England or in the US (less in continental Europe, Japan and Australia but still at least 300,000RM). As much as 100RM million a year is spend on JPA scholars. Hence, it is a TREMENDOUS waste of taxpayers' funds if JPA scholars are not made accountable for these scholarships.
To arrest this trend of disappearing JPA scholars, I recommend the following:
1) Implement a strict 'tracking' system for JPA scholars such that if they do not return to Malaysia after the completion of their studies, they would have to pay back their JPA scholarships in full and with interest. Scholars should be made to assign 'guarantors' so that if they do not return to Malaysia, their guarantors can be made to pay back the amount owed to the JPA.
- Of course, some flexibility can be introduced here e.g. installment schemes, postponement of coming back to Malaysia because of postgrad studies, writing off a certain portion of the loan if the student ends up working in a GLC etc...
- But the point remains that these students should not be left off 'scott-free'
- If the government is clamping down on PTPLN loan defaulters, why not clamp down on JPA scholars who don't return or don't end up working for the government?
2) Design a special position / training program in the civil service that allows the JPA scholars to be rotated among different departments before being assigned / given the choice of a department.
- Many MNCs such as Citibank and P&G have management trainee programs which rotates their better recruits among the different departments in these companies before they decide or are assigned a department. Why can't the Malaysian government do something similar?
- If it takes a larger salary to recruit and retrain these JPA scholars, then why not create a layer of 'management trainees' which can be paid at higher levels, at least initially, and then promoted faster so that their opportunities and pay can expand commensurately?
Note: Not all GLCs are as 'liberal' as the JPA. Some (like PNB) does track down its scholars and are very strict in enforcing repayment terms if their scholars don't fulfill the terms of their bonds.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The plight of Tamil schools
Hopefully, I'll be able to blog about the latest announcement by the Education Minister in regards to the progress the Ministry has made in fulfilling the objectives of the Education Blueprint (2006-2010) and the 9MP (especially after the full report is out on the Ministry's website). But for now, I'll focus on one element of that progress report which is to make Tamil schools all fully government supported.
According to a recent report in the Star (taken from Malaysian Nanban), " There are 524 Tamil schools in the country with about 150 of them in rural areas and estates, and being partly aided by the government." I'm not sure if this is saying that only 150 out of 524 Tamil schools are partly aided schools or that 150 Tamil schools that are in rural areas and estates are partly aided (there might be other Tamil schools in urban areas which are also partly aided).
As far as I know, partly aided schools (mostly SRJK(C) and SRJK(T)) are schools were the government / MOE pays the salaries of the teachers and staff but does not allocate money for improving or building new infrastructure in these schools e.g. computer labs, upgrading of facilities, new buildings etc... This means that the physical state of many of these partly aided schools, especially those in rural areas and the estates, is very poor.
My impression is that Tamil schools, on the whole, lack the community support which many of the Chinese schools have. Some of this can be explained by the income levels of the parents in the estates where many of these Tamil schools are located. There are other institutional explanations as well such as the better organized Chinese education movement and the larger numbers of Chinese who send their children to the Chinese primary schools.
According to a report by MIED (Maju Institute for Education Development), dated from 2004, "There are 376(71.5%) out of 526 Tamil schools classified as partially aided schools." This may have changed over the past 3 years or so but the announcement by the Education Minister, Hishammudin Tun Hussein, to have all Tamil schools eventually moved to a fully aided status is certainly welcome news for the Indian community, especially those living in the estates.
According to a recent report in the Star (taken from Malaysian Nanban), " There are 524 Tamil schools in the country with about 150 of them in rural areas and estates, and being partly aided by the government." I'm not sure if this is saying that only 150 out of 524 Tamil schools are partly aided schools or that 150 Tamil schools that are in rural areas and estates are partly aided (there might be other Tamil schools in urban areas which are also partly aided).
As far as I know, partly aided schools (mostly SRJK(C) and SRJK(T)) are schools were the government / MOE pays the salaries of the teachers and staff but does not allocate money for improving or building new infrastructure in these schools e.g. computer labs, upgrading of facilities, new buildings etc... This means that the physical state of many of these partly aided schools, especially those in rural areas and the estates, is very poor.
My impression is that Tamil schools, on the whole, lack the community support which many of the Chinese schools have. Some of this can be explained by the income levels of the parents in the estates where many of these Tamil schools are located. There are other institutional explanations as well such as the better organized Chinese education movement and the larger numbers of Chinese who send their children to the Chinese primary schools.
According to a report by MIED (Maju Institute for Education Development), dated from 2004, "There are 376(71.5%) out of 526 Tamil schools classified as partially aided schools." This may have changed over the past 3 years or so but the announcement by the Education Minister, Hishammudin Tun Hussein, to have all Tamil schools eventually moved to a fully aided status is certainly welcome news for the Indian community, especially those living in the estates.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
An Introduction to the Residential Liberal Arts College
The following article was written by Yap Yaowen, currently a sophmore at Kenyon College. You can access his personal blog here. Frankly, I think that more Malaysians should apply to and study in liberal arts colleges. It's a great place to find a great education and to expand your horizons.
An Introduction to the Residential Liberal Arts College
I dread it whenever someone asks me where I am studying in.
“Kenyon College? Why do you want to go to a college instead of a university?” people usually give me that concerned look, as if I am wasting four years of my time in a college. Many Malaysians fail to understand that the word “college” is used very much interchangeably with the word “university” in the United States, so much so that you can be in Princeton and still be going to a “college”.
In the US education system, colleges are broadly classified into two categories: a two-year college, or what normally known as a community college and a four-year college. Both big, research universities (i.e. Princeton, MIT and Stanford) and liberal arts colleges belong to the category of a four-year college. In this article, I will seek to explain what a liberal arts college is, what makes a liberal arts college distinctive and how to finance a liberal arts education.
A liberal arts college is primarily a college that focuses entirely (usually) on an undergraduate education. Most of them provide a high quality undergraduate experience. You may or may not hear of colleges like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore and Wellesley. But you might want to know that these liberal arts colleges ranked side-by-side with top research universities like Yale, Princeton and MIT.
Distinctiveness of a liberal arts college
A difference between a liberal arts college and a research university is its size. A typical liberal arts college is small, with a school population ranging from 850 (Wabash) to 2700 (Wesleyan). This also translates into small classes. The average class size at Kenyon for instance is 14 and the faculty to student ratio is 9:1.
Another difference of a liberal arts college, as mentioned before, is the fact that the school devotes entirely of its resources on its undergraduates. You will be taught solely by professors, people who have earned a PhD and people who can probably inspire you and make you want to be like them. Teaching is central at liberal arts colleges and professors are rewarded based on their teaching ability as opposed to the number of research publications they churn out. They are also highly accessible and diligently keep to their office hours.
Liberal arts colleges also tend to be fully residential. Everyone lives on campus and eat at the dining hall. You will form close relationships with your friends as you meet them everyday in residential halls, classrooms, athletic center, dining hall, parties, at a lecture or a play etc. Being fully residential also means that learning can take place beyond the allocated classroom time. At Kenyon for instance, there are German, French, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese and Italian tables at the dining hall each week, giving students an opportunity to practice their newly acquired language skills.
The foremost distinction of a liberal arts college however, is the majors they offer. According to the American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, liberal arts is defined as “The areas of learning that cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical or professional skills. The term liberal arts is often used as a synonym for humanities, although the liberal arts also include the sciences. The word liberal comes from the Latin liberalis, meaning suitable for a free man, as opposed to a slave”. You probably wouldn’t find business or engineering in most liberal arts colleges (Note: there are always exceptions though. Smith and Swarthmore do offer engineering!). A liberal arts education does not equip you with vocational skills, but rather life, analytical and critical thinking skills. Simply put, a liberal arts education teaches you how to live your life to the fullest.
Financing a liberal arts education
Let’s face it, a liberal arts education isn’t going to be cheap with all the small classes, close faculty interaction and superb facilities one enjoys. The 2006-2007 cost of attendance (inclusive of tuition, room and board) at Kenyon amounts to USD 44390. But fortunately, liberal arts colleges also tend to be well endowed (i.e. RICH)! Most international students at Kenyon are on some sort of need-based financial aid which can go up to full cost of attendance. Many of the top liberal arts colleges are committed to the principle of diversity and ensuring that qualified students are granted access regardless of one’s financial circumstances.
Discover US Education Fair ‘07
At this upcoming Discover US education fair, a total of nine liberal arts colleges will be represented. Some are all male while some are all female. Some are located next to cornfields while some are closer to civilization. They are: Bates, Kenyon, Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Smith, Swarthmore, Wabash, Wesleyan and Wellesley. So be sure to check us out!
Yaowen is a rising sophomore at Kenyon College, a four-year private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. He loves the school and the cornfields surrounding it.
An Introduction to the Residential Liberal Arts College
I dread it whenever someone asks me where I am studying in.
“Kenyon College? Why do you want to go to a college instead of a university?” people usually give me that concerned look, as if I am wasting four years of my time in a college. Many Malaysians fail to understand that the word “college” is used very much interchangeably with the word “university” in the United States, so much so that you can be in Princeton and still be going to a “college”.
In the US education system, colleges are broadly classified into two categories: a two-year college, or what normally known as a community college and a four-year college. Both big, research universities (i.e. Princeton, MIT and Stanford) and liberal arts colleges belong to the category of a four-year college. In this article, I will seek to explain what a liberal arts college is, what makes a liberal arts college distinctive and how to finance a liberal arts education.
A liberal arts college is primarily a college that focuses entirely (usually) on an undergraduate education. Most of them provide a high quality undergraduate experience. You may or may not hear of colleges like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore and Wellesley. But you might want to know that these liberal arts colleges ranked side-by-side with top research universities like Yale, Princeton and MIT.
Distinctiveness of a liberal arts college
A difference between a liberal arts college and a research university is its size. A typical liberal arts college is small, with a school population ranging from 850 (Wabash) to 2700 (Wesleyan). This also translates into small classes. The average class size at Kenyon for instance is 14 and the faculty to student ratio is 9:1.
Another difference of a liberal arts college, as mentioned before, is the fact that the school devotes entirely of its resources on its undergraduates. You will be taught solely by professors, people who have earned a PhD and people who can probably inspire you and make you want to be like them. Teaching is central at liberal arts colleges and professors are rewarded based on their teaching ability as opposed to the number of research publications they churn out. They are also highly accessible and diligently keep to their office hours.
Liberal arts colleges also tend to be fully residential. Everyone lives on campus and eat at the dining hall. You will form close relationships with your friends as you meet them everyday in residential halls, classrooms, athletic center, dining hall, parties, at a lecture or a play etc. Being fully residential also means that learning can take place beyond the allocated classroom time. At Kenyon for instance, there are German, French, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese and Italian tables at the dining hall each week, giving students an opportunity to practice their newly acquired language skills.
The foremost distinction of a liberal arts college however, is the majors they offer. According to the American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, liberal arts is defined as “The areas of learning that cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical or professional skills. The term liberal arts is often used as a synonym for humanities, although the liberal arts also include the sciences. The word liberal comes from the Latin liberalis, meaning suitable for a free man, as opposed to a slave”. You probably wouldn’t find business or engineering in most liberal arts colleges (Note: there are always exceptions though. Smith and Swarthmore do offer engineering!). A liberal arts education does not equip you with vocational skills, but rather life, analytical and critical thinking skills. Simply put, a liberal arts education teaches you how to live your life to the fullest.
Financing a liberal arts education
Let’s face it, a liberal arts education isn’t going to be cheap with all the small classes, close faculty interaction and superb facilities one enjoys. The 2006-2007 cost of attendance (inclusive of tuition, room and board) at Kenyon amounts to USD 44390. But fortunately, liberal arts colleges also tend to be well endowed (i.e. RICH)! Most international students at Kenyon are on some sort of need-based financial aid which can go up to full cost of attendance. Many of the top liberal arts colleges are committed to the principle of diversity and ensuring that qualified students are granted access regardless of one’s financial circumstances.
Discover US Education Fair ‘07
At this upcoming Discover US education fair, a total of nine liberal arts colleges will be represented. Some are all male while some are all female. Some are located next to cornfields while some are closer to civilization. They are: Bates, Kenyon, Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Smith, Swarthmore, Wabash, Wesleyan and Wellesley. So be sure to check us out!
Yaowen is a rising sophomore at Kenyon College, a four-year private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. He loves the school and the cornfields surrounding it.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
KYUEM - An Interesting Model
KYUEM (Kolej Yayasan UEM) has been on my radar ever since I found out that Nik Nazmi, a close aide to an opposition leader in Malaysia, did his A levels in that school. The Star reported recently that 11 out of the 183 graduating class from KYUEM were accepted into Oxford or Cambridge (6% of all students). This prompted me to take a closer look at KYUEM's website.
This is how KYUEM is described in its website:
KYUEM, owned by Yayasan UEM and part of the UEM Group, is a fully-residential college that is modeled upon the top British boarding schools. It has a very active student life on campus and a caring pastoral care system, run by an internationally diverse staff of widely-experienced Malaysian, British and Indian teachers. Occupying a purpose-built site at Lembah Beringin, just 70km north of Kuala Lumpur, and enjoying easy access to the North-South Highway, the College offers tranquil surroundings in which able and highly-motivated students can study without distractions.
Given that many UEM executives probably studied in the UK (not Halim Saad, who is a graduate of Victoria in New Zealand), it is not surprising that KYUEM was modeled after a British boarding school system. (The other such school in Malaysian which I know if is Kolej Tuanku Ja’far which is located in Negeri Sembilan)
What I find interesting about KYUEM is that is it genuinely multi-racial. Nothing in its admissions pages states that there is a racial quota for entry into the school and from its alumni listing and past high achievers, one can immediately see that this school is well represented by all ethnic groups, at least in Peninsular Malaysia (perhaps lacking Sabahans and Sarawakians). Its seems to be a genuinely meritocratic place.
Its residential system also seems to be genuinely multi-racial (unlike the de factor segregated housing in our public universities) and encourages students of different races to engage with each other and to have activities with one another. It's probably easier in a school with 200 to 300 students compared to a public universities with 20,000 students.
While it is not cheap (a year's fees cost 60,000RM, close to what you'd pay for one year's university fees in the UK), its website indicates that most students obtain scholarships from major corporations (it doesn't say which corporations though).
The only thing I would slightly criticize KYUEM's website it that it doesn't provide any information on how one can obtain these scholarships to study in KYUEM. Perhaps this is only revealed after the students send in their applications and are accepted.
Kudos to UEM and the other backers of KYUEM in setting up KYUEM in the way that it was set up. It could have easily set up an exclusive boarding school to cater only to Bumiputeras in Malaysia (much like MCKK) but it chose to take a more progressive path and opened the doors of KYUEM to all, on a merit basis.
Hopefully, the experience of studying at KYUEM will produce future leaders who are as progressive in their thinking and in how they will lead their respective organizations be it corporations, educational institutions or political parties. (If Nik Nazmi is any indication, we need more Nik Nazmis in Malaysia!)
Update: Both Bakri Musa and Nik Nazmi have written about this topic.
This is how KYUEM is described in its website:
KYUEM, owned by Yayasan UEM and part of the UEM Group, is a fully-residential college that is modeled upon the top British boarding schools. It has a very active student life on campus and a caring pastoral care system, run by an internationally diverse staff of widely-experienced Malaysian, British and Indian teachers. Occupying a purpose-built site at Lembah Beringin, just 70km north of Kuala Lumpur, and enjoying easy access to the North-South Highway, the College offers tranquil surroundings in which able and highly-motivated students can study without distractions.
Given that many UEM executives probably studied in the UK (not Halim Saad, who is a graduate of Victoria in New Zealand), it is not surprising that KYUEM was modeled after a British boarding school system. (The other such school in Malaysian which I know if is Kolej Tuanku Ja’far which is located in Negeri Sembilan)
What I find interesting about KYUEM is that is it genuinely multi-racial. Nothing in its admissions pages states that there is a racial quota for entry into the school and from its alumni listing and past high achievers, one can immediately see that this school is well represented by all ethnic groups, at least in Peninsular Malaysia (perhaps lacking Sabahans and Sarawakians). Its seems to be a genuinely meritocratic place.
Its residential system also seems to be genuinely multi-racial (unlike the de factor segregated housing in our public universities) and encourages students of different races to engage with each other and to have activities with one another. It's probably easier in a school with 200 to 300 students compared to a public universities with 20,000 students.
While it is not cheap (a year's fees cost 60,000RM, close to what you'd pay for one year's university fees in the UK), its website indicates that most students obtain scholarships from major corporations (it doesn't say which corporations though).
The only thing I would slightly criticize KYUEM's website it that it doesn't provide any information on how one can obtain these scholarships to study in KYUEM. Perhaps this is only revealed after the students send in their applications and are accepted.
Kudos to UEM and the other backers of KYUEM in setting up KYUEM in the way that it was set up. It could have easily set up an exclusive boarding school to cater only to Bumiputeras in Malaysia (much like MCKK) but it chose to take a more progressive path and opened the doors of KYUEM to all, on a merit basis.
Hopefully, the experience of studying at KYUEM will produce future leaders who are as progressive in their thinking and in how they will lead their respective organizations be it corporations, educational institutions or political parties. (If Nik Nazmi is any indication, we need more Nik Nazmis in Malaysia!)
Update: Both Bakri Musa and Nik Nazmi have written about this topic.
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