Back To Campus

Days been passing fast these day. Work, gym and photography has kept most of my time occupied. And now after more than 7 years graduated I can't imagine that I'm now a student again.

I wouldn't want to add pressure to the existing if I wasn't required to take the MSc course as a requirement to sit for the professional exam. Should I blame RICS for not accrediting my Malaysian degree (it was accredited eventually anyway after I graduated) or should I blame UTM for their standard.

It's good to have some obstacles in life that makes you move further. It has always been a dream to study abroad for myself but due to financial constraints I realized since I was very young that I will not go anywhere except for the local options. My mum had done her best to allow me to complete the local degree.

One of my ex gf during university time argued with me naively before that I should asked my parents to send me oversea whatsoever. She studied in Australia that time and I bet that she thought money will fall from the sky. I remember her words until today. Who doesn't want to give their children the best education? I did better in my SPM than most of my friends who went oversea and as a 'reward' I was offered a place in a local university which is like striking lottery for poor people in Malaysia.

However, I have to admit that higher education has been a big failure of the country due to the quota system (racial discrimination I would say) that bring the standard down. There were only 8 non Malay out of 140 in my batch and it wasn't really competitive to be top in the class. I didn't relied much on the lecturers teaching as it was mostly in Malay and really impractical so I spent most time doing my own research in the library. Although most of the lecturers are graduated from the UK they insist to translate the materials into Malay which made us so confused. Perhaps it'll be useful if all of the graduates are going to work with Samy Vellu's department.

The university has all the while sending the wrong people oversea for the master degrees. One of the old tutor was sent to UK 3 times with his family at government expense and failed all 3 times. To be honest, he barely speaks a full sentence in English and how could he survived in the UK? A course mate of mine whom was the 'best' of his color but not better than the non Malays was sent to University of Reading 'quietly' after graduation. It was understood that if the competition is open it'll be a controversy for not spending the money on the best qualified person.

I am truly blessed that I am able to make it to University of Reading today. The syllabus of the MSc course is good, and after 3 days of introduction this week I think I'll like the challenge although it's going to be very busy. The lecturers are good and some are even authors of the reference books that I depended a lot during days in UTM.

The next 2 years will be tough, but it'll be fast.