UM has been crowned as the best university in the nation for the third consecutive years. According to the QS ranking, UM is ranked at the 33rd place in Asia followed by UKM (57), USM (61), UTM (68) and UPM (72). These five universities are the five oldest university in Malaysia. I don't really give a damn about these rankings but seeing a lot of people do, it kinda bugs me a little. Because having this ranking out made people question a lot of things. Tiba-tiba ja semua orang super excited nak masuk the top universities and semahu-mahunya nak avoid the not so top universities. Tambah-tambah student yang baru nak masuk september ni. If you think getting in a 'top' university is the answer to everything, you're wrong. Let me talk some sense into you. Belajaq kat mana pun sama saja.
But first, let's talk about the ranking. The QS ranking pakai beberapa kriteria seperti citations per paper, international students, inbound exchange dan papers per faculty. You see, kalau kita betul-betul ranking oriented, benda-benda ni semua kita boleh manipulate. For example, ever since Prof TS Ghauth Jasmon jadi VC UM, banyak ranking-oriented changes yang dia buat. Yang paling famous dia buat, dia banyak hire foreign lecturer untuk jadi lecturer kat UM sehinggakan local lecturers dan ilmuan tempatan disisihkan. You can google this story out. The point is, sapa-sapa pun boleh jadi nombor satu. But to what extend?
Sampai student kita tak paham kuliah sebab accent foreign lecturer terlalu tebal? sampai lecturer abaikan student sebab terlalu busy nak publish papers? sampai uni kita jadi hub dan sarang penjenayah sebab ramai sangat international student yang salah guna visa? sampai macam tu sekali?
And you can also see stereotype student-student kita. Depa ada macam satu rule of thumb nih; lagi sikit huruf, lagi bagus uni tu. UM? bagus. UKM? bagus. UTHM? tak bagus. Sebab empat huruf. UiTM? tak bagus sebab empat huruf. Orang pandang uni-uni yang empat huruf ni sebelah mata. Ranking is only as good as a marketing tools. Let's talk about my uni for a while, USM.
As most of you know, ever since USM achieved this 'apex' status, they had conducted their own intake. Untuk uni lain semua orang kena apply through UPU, tapi untuk usm depa kena beli pin nombor yang lain dan apply kat website yang lain. Dan selalunya result intake USM akan keluar dahulu daripada result intake UPU. In other words, usm have the first pick pastu baru upu boleh pilih. Macam NBA draft lah. Team-team yang kuat akan diberi kuasa untuk pilih player mana yang depa nak sign dahulu. Like when Houston Rockets picked Yao Ming as their first pick in the 2002 draft.
So most students who were selected by USM are the top ones. Creme de la creme. We don't need ranking to know that we have one of the best crop of students in the country. But here's the downside. Sebab ramai sangat yang hebat-hebat, we have this distribution table grading system. You know, the graf loceng thingy we learnt in maths. For example, if you scored 80 marks in an exam it doesnt mean you will get an A. Kalau ramai yang score 80 marks and above, the distribution table will 'drag' the initially weaker A to A-, for example. Maksudnya di sini, depa ada kuota untuk A student. Kalau kuota dia 10% dan 100 orang yang ambik subjek tu, hanya 10 orang sahaja yang akan dapat A. Unlike other university.
Now let's bring UiTM into the picture, yang konon-kononnya one of the who fared quite low in the ranking. Lets not forget about all the babbles I've been talking about earlier regarding how the ranking is calculated. It only make sense, because uitm is the largest university in malaysia, so it is very hard to positioned yourself higher in the ranking due to these criteria. But with all due respect to all UiTM students, I really do think it's easier to score and get a good grades in UiTM. I don't want to elaborate why and I don't want to get into troubles with millions of uitm students , because that's not important.
What's important here is how you fare against the others. Okay Im going to say this straight. Penubuhan UiTM memang betul-betul tujuan dia untuk tolong bumiputera. Bagi peluang kepada bumiputera-bumiputera kita melanjutkan pelajaran. Sebab tu branch campus dia merata kat Malaysia ni. Tak cukup dengan branch campus ada pulak kolej bersekutu, kolej francais yang menawarkan program UiTM at a lower academic requirement. So it is pretty fair to assume that the qualities of the students varies. Ada yang bagus and ada yang kurang bagus. You're probably an exceptional UiTM student who's scoring four flats every semester, only because your teachers have to cater and downgrade the examination standards so your average classmates won't fail and you're probably angered upon reading this, but what's wrong with that?
There's nothing wrong at all. Upon graduation everybody wants you to work for them. You're favored much more than some redneck from USM who probably worked harder than you in school but scored a mere 3.8 in cgpa. Bila habis nanti firms bukan ambil tahu pun dari mana hang graduate. They just want to know whether you're good enough for them. Which comes to my main point. Belajaq kat mana pun sama ja. How do you think I got my scholarship at the first place? I was from a small college. I was a big fish in a small pond. I just needed a chance to sit in that interview room and amazed my interviewer and show them how I was good enough for them.
I believed more than half of my competitors during the interviews worked harder than me, and came through from a much more prestigious educations institutions and also tougher examinations. STPM, A-levels. Tough kot. But in the interview room, it was a different ball game, and I managed to come out on top. So yes, if you'd asked me, I'd rather be a big fish in a small pond. Hang belajar kat Johns Hopkins ka, hang belajar kat AUCMS ka, in the end kot mana pun hang jadi doctor jugak. And who's to know whether John Hopkin or AUCMS produced the better doctor? Because like I said, when you're out there, it's a different ball game.
*Johns Hopkins ada kat Malaysia. Under Perdana Universiti. Guess berapa tuition fees depa? Check them for yourself, http://perdanauniversity.edu.my/pugsom/admissions/tuition--fees/. Nak jadi doctor jugak lah, apply ptptn, vote PR. Pastu kasi mansuh itu ptptn!
I believed more than half of my competitors during the interviews worked harder than me, and came through from a much more prestigious educations institutions and also tougher examinations. STPM, A-levels. Tough kot. But in the interview room, it was a different ball game, and I managed to come out on top. So yes, if you'd asked me, I'd rather be a big fish in a small pond. Hang belajar kat Johns Hopkins ka, hang belajar kat AUCMS ka, in the end kot mana pun hang jadi doctor jugak. And who's to know whether John Hopkin or AUCMS produced the better doctor? Because like I said, when you're out there, it's a different ball game.
*Johns Hopkins ada kat Malaysia. Under Perdana Universiti. Guess berapa tuition fees depa? Check them for yourself, http://perdanauniversity.edu.my/pugsom/admissions/tuition--fees/. Nak jadi doctor jugak lah, apply ptptn, vote PR. Pastu kasi mansuh itu ptptn!
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