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For students who can afford it, you can consider Hong Kong as an alternative to the usual places where Malaysian students have traditionally gone like Australia, UK and the US. Further information on undergraduate studies can be found here. Information on postgraduate studies can be found here. I don’t know why Malaysian students have traditionally not gone to Hong Kong but there are many good reasons for going to study in Hong Kong. The universities are excellent, the city is vibrant and exciting for a young person and if you speak and write Chinese, job prospects ought to be quite good in Hong Kong and big cities in China after graduation.

This PhD Fellowship Scheme offered by PolyU provides a generous package totalling approximately US$114,000, covering tuition scholarship, monthly stipend and annual conference travel allowance for the three years of studies. We are looking for your nominations for outstanding graduates who are interested in pursuing PhD studies at PolyU starting in September 2010.

PolyU has a long history of producing research of high application value. Our six Faculties and two Schools (as listed below) offer PhD students the opportunity to work with leading researchers, supported by modern facilities to make a difference to the community.

1. Faculty of Applied Science and Textiles

2. Faculty of Business

3. Faculty of Construction and Land Use

4. Faculty of Engineering

5. Faculty of Health and Social Sciences

6. Faculty of Humanities

7. School of Design

8. School of Hotel and Tourism Management

If you would like to receive more information on the Scheme, please contact us at oapres@inet.polyu.edu.hk

Obama vows to boost science ties with Muslim world
Wagdy Sawahel

5 June 2009 | EN | FR | 中文

Barack Obama speaking at Cairo University

Flickr/The Official White House Photostream
[CAIRO] The United States’ commitment to science diplomacy in parts of the developing world assumed a firmer shape yesterday (4 June) when its president, Barack Obama, outlined a science plan during his landmark speech at Cairo University in Egypt.

Obama’s speech, which tackled the United States’ relationship with Muslim communities around the world, included several pledges to develop science and technology initiatives as part of his vision for promoting peaceful relations.

He pledged to start a new fund to support science and technology development in Muslim-majority countries to help transfer ideas to the marketplace and create jobs.

He said he would also open centres of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and South-East Asia and appoint “science envoys” to collaborate on programmes to develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitise records, clean up water and grow new crops.

Educational exchange will also play a role in what he called a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world”.

“On education, we will expand exchange programmes and increase scholarships, like the one that brought my father to America, while encouraging more Americans to study in Muslim communities,” Obama said.

Hassan Moawad Abdel Al, former president of the Mubarak City for Scientific Research and Technology Applications in Alexandria, Egypt, welcomed the plan as an “important step in the long road to establish a science-based US–Islamic world partnership”.

He said he hopes to see an easing of the “unprecedented” scrutiny faced by students from Muslim countries wanting to study in the United States.

He added that since the attacks by al-Qaeda on New York City on September 11, 2001, many potential Muslim students and researchers have not been able to secure visas to study in the United States.

Athar Osama, science innovation specialist and founder of Muslim-Science.Com, said: “This is definitely an important step in the right direction but probably only half a step. Those who know the US political appropriations and policy processes will know that these are only intentions at this point”.

“The US government now has the challenge to back this up with sincere will to implement, to do so without attaching it with excessive ideological baggage, and to appropriate the money to make it possible.”

“If and when that happens, it would be in the interest of Muslim-majority countries to reciprocate by working with the United States — and with each other — to maximise the impact these initiatives may have on the Muslim world.”

In Malaysia, Hassanuddeen Abdul Aziz, of the International Islamic University, said that a study of trends in international mathematics and science, published in December 2008, shows that Islamic states are lagging behind industrialised countries in the teaching of mathematics and science to young students.

“The setting up of an online learning network within the new US-Islamic world educational partnership will have a positive effect on science education,” he said. “Especially because the Arabian Gulf education sector appears to be eager to emulate the American model of science and technology higher education in pursuit of the observed success of knowledge economies.”

David Dickson’s blog from the New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy 2009 conference

UNESCO Global Monitoring Report (2009); UNDP Arab Human Development Report (2005); UNICEF Investing in the Children of the Islamic World (2005); World Bank, Investing in All People: Educating Women in Developing Countries (1994); Brookings Institution, Change We Can Believe In? The Muslim World, America, and Obama’s Promise (2009); Brookings Institution Ending Poverty, Promoting Peace: The Quest for Global Security (2006).

Thu, Jun 18, 2009
The Straits Times

He aims to boost NTU brand

By Leow Si Wan

NANYANG Technological University (NTU) has a new point man for fund raising, engaging the university’s alumni and strengthening its ties with the community.

He is Mr Chew Kheng Chuan, 51, who now assumes the title of chief university advancement officer.

The newly created post is aimed at giving oomph to NTU’s fund-raising capability, developing its base of supporters and champions and building its brand, so it can become a ‘great global university’.Mr Chew, a committee member of the Singapore chapter of the Association of Fund-raising Professionals, is no greenhorn in this game.

He comes to NTU after five years of leading fund-raising efforts at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

It has been reported that on his watch, NUS raised $1.5 billion – more than four times what it raised in the previous 12 years.

Before the NUS job, he and his wife, Dr Chia Kwok Ying, ran their own business producing publications, annual reports and designing identities for brands such as the Banyan Tree and Channel NewsAsia. He has his work cut out for him at NTU.

He explained that the public perceives the university as a strong science and engineering institution.

But in reality, the university has also gained competence in other areas such as business, communications, the humanities, the media and research.

He said that more than a few people he has spoken to have noted the ‘gap’ between NTU’s brand and its reality.

The university was better than its brand, he added.

‘This is an area which I have some professional interest and competence… and feel that it is another contribution I can make,’ said the old boy of Anglo-Chinese School and the first Singaporean admitted to Harvard College.

‘Making a contribution’ is a theme he returned to more than once in his interview with The Straits Times.

He is a long way from the 29-year-old who was twice arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act between 1987 and 1989 for his involvement in the Marxist conspiracy that sought to overthrow the Government here.

Altogether, he spent 13 months in detention, but that part of his life is water under the bridge.

Political activism is over for him, he said.

It has been about eight months since he left his post at NUS – time enough for him ‘to reflect, recharge and renew myself for the new challenge’.

After speaking to various institutions, he decided to take the NTU job because of his ‘strong and special affinity for academia’.

He said he also identified with president Su Guaning’s vision of turning NTU into the first choice for those with ideals and passion.

Mr Chew said: ‘It is good to know there are other ways to do one’s duty as a citizen, and work towards the greater good – like advancing NTU, for a start!’

This article was first published in The Straits Times

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Academics needed, by job | May 27, 2009
Article from: The Australian
ANDREJ Bogdanov would have been a great catch for any American university. He arrived in the US from Macedonia in 1996, and succeeded at the top computer-science programs in the country: bachelor of science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; PhD from Berkeley; postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study.

But after a fruitless job hunt in the US, he turned his sights to East Asia.

Following a visit to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he applied on a whim, and promptly landed a high-paying tenure-track position in theoretical computer science.

To many academics in the US, Bogdanov’s choice might seem surprising. Hong Kong’s eight public universities have only recently begun to invest in the research necessary to turn them into global powerhouses. And the move isolated Bogdanov from the network of colleagues he’d built up over his years in America.

But if the Chinese territory’s ambitious plans for higher education take off, Bogdanov’s career path could become increasingly common.

Over the past several years, Hong Kong has made a determined effort to raise its profile by positioning its universities to compete globally for students, scholars and research projects. In the process, it is refashioning its higher-education system from the British three-year model into a four-year system aligned with those of the US and mainland China; the change becomes effective in 2012.

The overhaul includes pumping millions of dollars into research, retooling undergraduate curricula to inspire creative thinking, and hiring more professors: about 1000 in all.

Bogdanov says all this helped convince him that Hong Kong was a good place to be. While American computer-science departments were cutting back, Chinese University “had a lot of plans for the future,” he says. “They are trying to take advantage of the crisis in the US and Europe and bring other people.”

The global financial crisis has not yet hit Hong Kong as hard as it has the US. But the territory’s reliance on logistics, financial, and other services, which accounted for 92 per cent of its gross domestic product in 2007, makes it vulnerable to downturns. Officials see investment in higher education as a way to diversify and move towards a knowledge-based economy.

University administrators say they are searching everywhere for talent, but they cite the US most frequently.

“We want to recruit aggressively right away,” says Way Kuo, president of the City University of Hong Kong, who was hired from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he was dean of the College of Engineering. “We’d like to recruit a lot of people from America.” Kuo hopes to hire 200 faculty members, most of whom will earn the equivalent of tenure.

The University of Hong Kong has hired 100 tenure-track professors in the past three years and hopes to hire 100 more, says Joseph H.W. Lee, vice-president for staffing. The university is reaching out to renowned researchers and young talent to help build its reputation, with an emphasis on biomedicine, environmental science and emerging technologies.

“We would like to be a leading university in Asia,” says Lee. “To do that, you must be really research-intensive.”

The Chinese University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Hong Kong Polytechnic University are each adding more than 100 professors, along with dozens of lower-level instructors and administrative staff.

The main impetus for the hiring frenzy is a shift from the British model of higher education developed during Hong Kong’s lengthy colonial period.

Today the universities are supported by the local government, without interference from mainland China. But economic ties have brought the territory closer to both the mainland and the US, its second-largest trading partner. In 2012, when Hong Kong adds a fourth year of university study, it will shorten high school from four years to three. The number of university freshmen is projected to rise from 50,000 to 64,500.

The shift is part of a larger plan, begun in 2000, to restructure the territory’s entire education system, starting with elementary schools.

“We want to increase our competitiveness,” says S.K. Kwan, a senior staff member charged with curriculum development at the Education Bureau, which oversees the elementary-to- university levels. “That requires Hong Kong to be more flexible.”

To cover new construction and curriculum development, the bureau authorised $723 million in spending.

To preserve institutional autonomy, that money is distributed by the University Grants Committee, a buffer organisation whose appointees include representatives from the academic community. Decisions on how to approach change and proceed with hiring are made at the university level.

At the same time, Hong Kong, which invests nearly 6 per cent of its annual budget in higher education, has ambitions of evolving into an educational hub.

In 2007, Donald Tsang, the territory’s elected chief executive, outlined plans to increase the proportion of international and mainland students and relax employment restrictions for foreign students who stay on to work.

As they expand, several Hong Kong universities are also investing heavily in research.

“There’s a lot of experimentation occurring,” says Glenn Shive, director of the Hong Kong America Center at Chinese University, who left the US for Hong Kong in 1998. “It makes Hong Kong a very interesting place to be.”

A key element of Hong Kong’s higher-education plan is undergraduate curricular reform. Three years ago, the universities jointly announced new admissions requirements, hoping for more well-rounded candidates.

Now they are reworking curricula, generally moving away from requiring students to specialise early, and towards providing a more broad-based education and a universal freshman-year experience. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to really design a curriculum from the ground up,” says Kenneth Young, vice-president of Chinese University. “We have a chance to rethink pedagogy.”

Some Hong Kong institutions are looking to create a set of courses required of all undergraduates, similar to Columbia University’s well-known core curriculum. Others have studied the undergraduate programs at leading American institutions, such as the University of Chicago, MIT, and the University of California at Berkeley.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is broadening its focus by creating a China-studies major, its first in the humanities and social sciences. It has hired sociologist James Z. Lee from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to lead the new program.

One possible obstacle to recruitment is Hong Kong’s low profile in the West.

“I’ve never had a faculty member come to me and, say, ‘tell me about Hong Kong’. On my radar, it’s not there,” says Terrence J. McDonald, dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at Michigan. He said Lee is the only person from Michigan to receive a job offer from Hong Kong.

Still, three universities here – Hong Kong University, the University of Science and Technology, and Chinese University – are among the top 100 institutions in the annual international rankings compiled by Britain’s Times Higher Education.

Some recent hires, from Australia and Europe as well as the US, say the energy and momentum going into this radical overhaul, at a time when universities are cutting back in the West, adds to Hong Kong’s appeal. They also like the fact that they can work on issues of relevance to the region for example, prevention of infectious diseases.

The global financial crisis has also helped. “It used to be we’d send out three offers and one accepted,” says Young, of Chinese University. “Now three out of three accept.”

Abundant research support is another draw. The University Grants Committee distributes nearly $84 million in grants every year, with the bulk going to biology, medicine, and engineering. The committee encourages research on topics of particular relevance to Asia, such avian flu and genetically modified rice. Nearly 40 per cent of professors who apply for funds receive them.

Some recruits, however, may experience an uncertain welcome. Hong Kong is notoriously cramped, and its universities are no exception. To accommodate the additional students, the universities are jointly building a dormitory in the New Territories, far from central Hong Kong.

But providing additional classroom space will be tricky. Some institutions are discussing educating students in morning and afternoon shifts, beginning in 2012.

That could mean odd or extended hours for faculty members, says Leslie Lo, dean of the education school at Chinese University. “We already work evenings. And some of us teach Saturdays. The next step would be to teach Saturday afternoons.”

The switch could prove chaotic if universities don’t achieve their hiring goals by 2012.

“We will try, but it will be difficult to recruit so many good academics within a narrow time span,” says Arthur Mak, vice-president and dean of students at Polytechnic University, the territory’s largest institution. “We will have to phase them in gradually.”

Given those uncertainties, administrators hope that matching American salaries will help lure talent. A junior faculty member in computer science at the University of Science and Technology, for example, makes about $119,000.

“We are competitive to the top universities in the US,” says Roland T. Chin, a vice-president at the university. “That’s our benchmark.”

Indeed, some administrators say their fiercest competitor now is Singapore, also enticing scholars from the West with attractive packages.

Bogdanov assumed his post at the Chinese University of Hong Kong last year. But if his department’s Web page is any indication, his surprise at finding himself here hasn’t worn off. A link he labelled “an attempt to explain where I came from” leads to a map of the world, with countries on four continents highlighted in blue.

Being a foreigner was easier in the US, Bogdanov says, because of its multiplicity of ethnic groups. For the most part, though, his transition to Hong Kong has been smooth. “I’m excited to be here,” he says. “There’s a drive to make the universities better and improve academic research.”

David Rosenbloom, who took an unpaid leave in January from American University, in Washington, to assume a senior professorship in public administration at the City University of Hong Kong, echoes that sentiment. He was given nice housing a four-minute walk from the campus, and Hong Kong’s high concentration of universities yields a vibrant intellectual life, he says.

Being in Asia has an added benefit, says Rosenbloom. “Public administration in the US is building better bureaucrats,” he says. “It’s not a high-prestige field. And academe overall … there are all the professor jokes.”

In Hong Kong, things are different: “Academe is higher prestige.”

It is that enthusiasm that makes administrators think Hong Kong’s plans could work. “It will take us a few more years to get to a knowledge-based economy,” says Chin. “But this is part of the transition.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education

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She scores 12 A1s but gets 0 scholarship

SHE has a stellar academic record, and is among the top in her cohort in the most recent Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) national exam.

SPM is equivalent to O levels.

But 17-year-old Cai Bao Yuan, who scored an impressive 12 A1s in the national exams, will not fulfil her dream of studying overseas on a Public Service Department (PSD) scholarship, Sin Chew Daily reported.

Bao Yuan, who is from Pahang, wrote to the press after she found out her scholarship application had been rejected.

She told Sin Chew Daily: ‘Why is it that students who do the best cannot get a scholarship? This is ridiculous.

‘I hope something can be done about this situation.’

She added that she had worked hard her whole life in order to get a scholarship to study overseas.

She is not alone.

Top students across Malaysia have found that straight As do not guarantee a scholarship.

When Mo Ye Voon, a student from Malacca, scored 10 A1s and an A2, she thought she stood a good chance at a scholarship to study medicine.

But her dream was dashed when she found out she had not been selected by the PSD as a scholarship recipient.

‘I was not even considered for a medical course at any of the local universities,’ she told The Star.

Reconsider decision

She added that there is no way she can afford to pay for a medical course at local universities on her father’s income as a factory supervisor.

‘I hope the PSD would reconsider my application as I have no one else to turn to,’ she said.

Ye Voon’s mother, Madam Teo Ai Woo, said her daughter was not just academically outstanding.

She was also active in co-curricular activities and had represented the district in badminton.

‘She has been crying every night since learning that she did not get the scholarship,’ Madam Teo said.

Chok Chun Ynh, 17, a student from Sungei Petani, is another top student who has been unable to secure a scholarship to study abroad.

He, too, has an outstanding academic record – he is among six students in Malaysia who obtained 14 A1s.

His mother, Madam Tan Lee Mei, said her son had plans to study medicine, and had received numerous academic awards throughout his school years.

According to The Star, there were three students with 16 A1s, two with 15 A1s, six with 14 A1s, 41 with 13 A1s and 229 with 12 A1s in last year’s SPM. Some 15,084 students applied for scholarships under the PSD’s foreign degree programme.

Of these, 8,363 were interviewed.

Two thousand scholarships were offered to candidates to pursue their undergraduate education in local universities.

Unsuccessful candidates have until 18 May to appeal.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

Read more:
» Cabinet to hear cases of 800 top scorers who didn’t get scholarships

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May 21, 2009
Global College Rankings Can Have Positive Effects on Campuses, Report Says
Systems for ranking colleges and universities are becoming more common worldwide, and are exerting an ever-more-powerful influence on how those institutions operate, according to a report issued today by the Institute for Higher Education Policy that reviews four countries in particular: Australia, Canada, Germany, and Japan.

The 28-page report, “Impact of College Rankings on Institutional Decision Making: Four Country Case Studies,” is the latest in a series issued by the institute, a Washington-based research group. The report says more than 40 countries have rankings systems, which it describes as “entrenched,” and several other rankings attempt to evaluate colleges and universities across international borders.

The report, which is based on interviews with people at more than 20 higher-education institutions in the four countries, seeks to determine what role rankings play on their campuses and to suggest lessons for American institutions. While criticizing the impact of rankings in ways that will be familiar to American readers — skewing priorities, warping hiring decisions, hurting disadvantaged students, and so forth — the interview subjects say that rankings can have positive effects.

Among them are better decision making based on data, better teaching and learning, prompt recognition and easy copying of model programs, and increased collaboration, not just competition, among peer institutions.

The research behind the report was financed by the Lumina Foundation for Education, which is making such work a priority and whose president, Jamie P. Merisotis, is a former president of the institute. —Andrew Mytelka

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5 Malaysian varsities among Asia’s top 100

KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Malaya topped the list of five Malaysian universities that were ranked among the top 100 institutions of higher learning in Asia last year.

The ranking was provided by London-based QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd, the compilers of the Times Higher Education world university rankings.

In the “Asian University Rankings” which was compiled for the first time, UM took the 39th spot, followed by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia at 51, Universiti Sains Malaysia at 69, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 82 and Universiti Putra Malaysia, 90.

“The results of the QS.com Asian University Rankings focus on regionally relevant measures of excellence,” said QS managing director Nunzio Quacquarelli in an email yesterday.

He said the top performing universities distinguished themselves not only by quality, but also by high productivity of research.

“Malaysian universities have performed well, with high numbers of international students and faculty. These results make studying in Malaysia an attractive option for international students.”

The top spot for the Asian university went to the University of Hong Kong.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong came in second, followed by University of Tokyo in third placing.

The National University of Singapore and Peking University in China are ranked at the 10th spot.

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Third medical school
A proposal for Singapore’s third medical school, which is likely to focus on areas such as the healthcare needs of the elderly, is expected to be submitted within six months to a year. “… The healthcare needs of the future will move in a direction to cope with more elderly people with an increased proportion of chronic diseases,” said Professor Jan Carlstedt-Duke, director of the Medical School Project at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
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He also sits on an advisory panel that was formed in response to a request by the Education and Health Ministries for NTU to submit a proposal – as the Education Ministry considers the establishment of the third medical school.
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While there is no hurry yet for another medical school, “we need to start planning for our future because we (will) have different demands”, said Education Minister Ng Eng Hen yesterday. “If the proposal is good and affordable, the Government can consider.” Dr Ng said he expects the proposal within six months to a year. ALICIA WONG
A proposal for Singapore’s third medical school, which is likely to focus on areas such as the healthcare needs of the elderly, is expected to be submitted within six months to a year. “… The healthcare needs of the future will move in a direction to cope with more elderly people with an increased proportion of chronic diseases,” said Professor Jan Carlstedt-Duke, director of the Medical School Project at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
.
He also sits on an advisory panel that was formed in response to a request by the Education and Health Ministries for NTU to submit a proposal – as the Education Ministry considers the establishment of the third medical school.
.
While there is no hurry yet for another medical school, “we need to start planning for our future because we (will) have different demands”, said Education Minister Ng Eng Hen yesterday. “If the proposal is good and affordable, the Government can consider.” Dr Ng said he expects the proposal within six months to a year. ALICIA WONG