QS National Higher Education Systems Strength Ranking

Since the release of Times Higher Education Supplement of University Rankings, we have been taking time to absorb on the outcome of that ranking. For Malaysia, it has been a pretty good year (I know there are parties who are still not happy). 4 out of 5 Malaysian universities manage to climb up on the ranking and we are getting closer to the Top 200 ranking.

This other ranking of "QS National Higher Education Systems Strength Ranking" is by QS, which is the partner with THES for the university ranking. It takes into account the university ranking and then calculate inter-country ranking, with several criteria.

And one thing that amazes us is that Malaysia is ranked 26th and Singapore is ranked marginally ahead at 25th. Syabas to our universities and hope that we can continue to further improve ourselves.

The ranking by QS is here

It ranks the nations by 4 equal weighting indicators (quoted from the website):-

System
An evaluation of the overall strength of the system based on the performance of all the intitutions from that country meeting a certain qualifying standard. More precisely, the number of institutions ranked 500 or higher, in the given country, divided by the average position of those institutions.

For System, the ranking are as follow:-
US, UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, Netherland, France, Switzerland, Hong Kong, China, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Singapore, South Korea, Denmark, New Zealand, Ireland, Israel, India, Finland, Spain, Taiwan, Austria, Malaysia (26th rank).

(Malaysia is 8th in Asia)

Access
Widening participation is one of the hottest issues on the higher education agenda today. The first component of delivering against that agenda, for any given country, is having sufficient places at universities of an internationally recognised standard. This indicator is calculated based on the number of places at top 500 universities from the subject country (specifically the total number of FTE students at the universities from that country featuring in the top 500 in the THE - QS World University Rankings) divided by an indicator of population size (specifically the square root of the population).

For Access, the ranking are as follow:-
US, Australia, Italy, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, South Korea, Japan, Greece, Belgium, Finland, Taiwan, Czech Republic, Switzerland, (21st rank country is outside of top 40), Norway, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia (25th Rank)

(Malaysia is 6th in Asia)

Flagship
There is some international debate as to whether a country with limited funds ought to dilute their funds across many institutions in a system or concentrate funds with a view to building at least one "world class university". Whether by direct investment, or by riding the wave of domestic competition, the performance of a country's leading university is a credit to the system from whence it comes. This indicator takes the form of a normalized score based on the global performance of the leading university from the country in question.

For Flagship, the ranking are as follow:-
US, UK, Australia, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Hong Kong, France, Singapore, Denmark, Ireland, South Korea, 13th Rank Unidentified, Netherland, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, Belgium, Finland, Israel, Austria, Taiwan, Mexico, India, Thailand, South Africa, Norway, Russia, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Greece, Malaysia (34th Rank)

(Malaysia is 8th in Asia. In overall, we are not strong in this area).

Economic
Not all nations, or higher education institutions within nations have access to equal funds. The strength of the country's economy is a major factor but also cultural influences that may affect factors such as industrial funding or alumni donations play a role. This indicator recognizes two key factors, firstly the relative fiscal emphasis that the given government places on higher education and secondly, the impact or effectiveness of that investment - essentially recognising performance relative to investment. The indicator takes an indexed score (5 points for a university in the top 100, 4 points for 101-200, 3 points for 201-300, 2 for 301-400 and 1 for 401-500) and factors it against the GDP per capita for the country in question.

For Economic, the ranking is as follow:-
US, India, UK, China, Germany, Japan, Australia, Philippines, Canada, Indonesia, France, Thailand, Netherlands, Brazil, 15th Rank Unidentified, Korea, Malaysia (17th Rank), Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel, Russia.

(Malaysia is 8th in Asia)

For Overall ranking, it is as follow:-
US, UK, Australia, Germany, Canada, Japan, France, Netherland, Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Ireland, Finland, Taiwan, Austria, Denmark, Thailand, Israel, India, Singapore, Malaysia (26th)

(Malaysia is 9th in Asia)

Lets hope that our universities can further be improved!

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Comments on Times Higher Education Supplement Ranking

Thanks to my loyal blog reader for sharing this link.

This is regarding the comments on our universities, after the release of Times Higher Education Supplement ranking.

Personally, I would say that our universities do move in the right direction this year. There has been quite substantial improvement for 4 of the universities, and this argurs well. Even USM, which suffered a drop, does not get affected too badly.

For the article, please read it here .

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WHILE substantial investment may be needed to get into and stay at the Top 200 tier of the Times Higher Education (THE) -- QS World University Rankings, Malaysia is still on track for such aspirations with the Accelerated Programme for Excellence (Apex) for universities.

British Council Education and Training Director Peter Clack said this recently in Kuala Lumpur.

"Universities and higher learning institutions need to invest a lot more to be there and stay there. It is now harder to forge ahead into the Top 200 but Malaysia's aspirations are on track with the foundation of the Apex universities and these things will bear fruit someday."

Although Malaysian public universities have improved their rankings with the exception of Universiti Sains Malaysia, none was listed in the Top 200 tier. Competition from universities of other countries was a factor.

"This year, universities from 33 countries are represented in the Top 200 but it was only 28 last year. It is a long-term investment of the future to be an international university and universities in the UK can't celebrate either as it is a constant process."

While high rankings for local universities are not going to happen overnight, Clack says: "Members of the committee for the Apex universities have demonstrated foresight and strategic thinking.

"They understand they have to be international universities working with partner universities in the UK, Canada and Australia where the link between finances, quality and resources do make a difference."

He adds: "Although it is not just about money, technology universities have managed to attract considerable funding from the private sector."

The THE -- QS World University Rankings 2008 reflects the increasing profile of technology-based universities.

Many of the world's top tertiary institutions in this area such as the California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology improved their positions as demand by international employers for more technology-literate graduates has grown.

QS Managing Director and Top Universities Guide co-editor Nunzio Quacquarelli says: "Rankings are contentious and QS has always argued that they should be used with caution, understanding, that they cannot reflect all aspects of university excellence."


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Other Rankings for Malaysian Universities

Thanks to my loyal blog reader for submitting these several links. Would combine them into this one article. :)

This is regarding to the ranking of the universities. I blogged about it recently here .

At that point, I haven't had the info on the ranking of Malaysian universities.

Thanks for the info shared with me. The ranking is:-
UM from 246 to 230
UKM from 309 to 250
USM from 307 to 313
UPM from 364 to 320
UTM from 415 to 356

Generally, would like to congratulate all the universities for the improvement. Hopefully that USM, with its appointment as Apex University, it would be able to surge forward too.

What has changed for Malaysia?

Last year, we have 1 university in Top 250 Universities. Now, we have 2.
Last year, we have 3 universities in Top 350 Universities. Now, we have 3.
Last year, we have 4 universities in Top 400 Universities. Now, we have 4.

Other than that, nothing much changes yet. Would hope if anyone has the analysis on which aspect our national universities improve or deprove? Is it peer review? employer review? faculty student ratio? citations? international staff? international students?

Would hope to see that they are improving based on peer review, employer review and citations. To me, those 3 are more crucial. :)

Some other rankings that are available out there.

1. Shanghai JiaoTong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities
--> None of our universities are in Top 500 in the world, nor in Top 100 in Asia Pacific. This shows how different this ranking is from the THES.

2. Academic Ranking of the Universities in OIC Countries
--> Universiti Malaya is ranked 16th in Share of Articles Published.
--> Malaysia is ranked 6th in Share of Articles Published per Publishing University (Kuwait, Turkey, Oman, Iran, Egypt are top 5)
--> Malaysia is ranked 4th in Total Share of Articles Published (Top 3 are Turkey, Iran, Egypt).
--> Ranking by a Composite Index (Research Quality 35%, Research Performance 35%, Research Volume 18%, Rate of Growth for Research Quality 12%)
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (12th), Universiti Malaya (14th), Universiti Sains Malaysia (41st).

3. Webometrics Ranking
--> This ranking is based on 20% on Web Size, 15% on Rich Files, 15% on Google Scholar and 50% on Visibility of Links.
--> Malaysia's best is Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) at 929th ranking (97th rank in Asia), USM at 977th , UKM at 1219th, UPM at 1281st, and UM at 1328th.

While ranking is just one of the many things we can look at things, we have a lot to improve on this aspect.

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Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) 2008 Ranking

I know that it is late, but this post is too exciting for me to put off to tomorrow!

Times Higher Education Supplement Ranking for 2008 is out today!!!

Bad News:-
None of the Malaysian universities are in Top 200 ranking.... sob sob... Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). I didn't see any of them in the Top 200 THES Ranking. (By the way, Thailand now has 1 university in Top 200 in Chulalongkorn University, which improved from 223rd to 166th)

Hopefully that our Malaysian universities do improve a bit in their rankings. (Anyone knows their actual ranking?)

Good News:-
My alma mater, Cornell moved from 20th Rank to 15th Rank. Congrats!!! :)

Some comparisons between 2007 and 2008 Ranking.

Improvement:-
Caltech - 7th to 5th
University College London - 9th to 7th (I'll get to visit it on 29th March 2009 in UKEC Career Fair that JobStreet.com would be exclusive sub organizer).
University of Pennsylvania - 14th to 11th
Cornell University - 20th to 15th (so far the best improvement!)
Stanford University - 19th to 17th (Cornell ranks higher than Stanford! Yay!)
University of Michigan - 38th to 18th (Huge jump!)
ETH Zurich - 42nd to 24th
Brown University - 32nd to 27th
UCLA - 41st to 30th
NUS - 33rd to 30th
Bristol - 37th to 32nd
HKUST - 53rd to 39th
NYU - 49th to 40th
University of Copenhagen - 93rd to 48th
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne - 117th to 50th
Washington University in St. Louis - 161st to 60th
Tokyo Institute of Technology - 90th to 61st
Emory University - 74th to 62nd
Utrecht University - 89th to 67th
University of Geneva - 105th to 68th
University of Alberta - 97th to 74th
Rice University - 92nd to 78th
University of Aarhus - 114th to 81st
Georgia Institute of Technology - 97th to 83rd
University of Minnesota - 142nd to 87th
Lund University - 106th to 88th
Hebrew University of Jerusalem - 128th to 93rd
KAIST - 132nd to 95th
University of Virginia - 110th to 96th
University of California, Santa Barbara - 117th to 98th
University of North Carolina - 151st to 102nd
University of Southern California - 119th to 102nd
University of Zurich - 140th to 107th
University College Dublin - 177th to 108th
Technion, Israel Institute of Technology - 231st to 109th
Tel Aviv University - 151st to 114th
Erasmus University Rotterdam - 163rd to 126th
Stony Brook University - 224th to 127th
University of Groningen - 173rd to 144th
Shanghai Jiao Tong University - 163rd to 144th
National Autonomous University of Mexico - 192nd to 150th
Rutgers - 177th to 151st
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi - 307th to 154th
VU University Amsterdam - 304th to 155th
University of Lausanne - 217th to 161th
Chalmers University of Technology - 197th to 162nd
Chulalongkorn University - 223rd to 166th
University of Frankfurt Am Main - 209th to 169th
KTH Royal Institute of Technology - 192nd to 173rd
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay - 269th to 174th
RPI - 191st to 174th
University of Cape Town - 200th to 179th
Lomonosov Moscow State University - 231st to 183rd
Brandeis University - 208th to 185th
University of Bern - 214th to 192nd
University of Buenos Aires - 264th to 197th
Dalhousie - 221st to 197th
University of Athens - 248th to 200th

Guess I shouldn't be analyzing too much into those which have dropped. Just a few example.
Princeton University - 6th to 12th (This ranking is too fluctuating. Can't see how Princeton's quality could drop like that).
McGill University - 12th to 20th
University of Hong Kong - 18th to 26th
University of California, Berkeley - 22nd to 36th
University of Melbourne - 27th to 38th
Peking University - 36th to 50th
Tsinghua University - 40th to 56th
University of Auckland - 50th to 65th
University of Warwick - 57th to 69th
University of Texas, Austin - 51st to 70th
University of Western Australia - 64th to 83rd
University of Nottingham - 70th to 86th
University of Pittsburgh - 77th to 97th
Purdue University - 77th to 99th
University of Southampton - 80th to 99th
Vanderbilt University - 82nd to 101st
University of Leeds - 80th to 104th
Penn State University - 90th to 105th
University of Adelaide - 62nd to 106th
Fudan University - 85th to 113th
University of Vienna - 85th to 115th
Queen's University - 88th to 117th
University of Rochester - 101st to 119th
University of Maryland - 79th to 122nd
National Taiwan University - 102nd to 124th
University of Waterloo - 112nd to 129th
University of Basel - 114th to 131st
University of Liverpool - 101st to 133rd
Texas A&M University - 122nd to 137th
Nanjing University - 125th to 143rd
Kyushu University - 136th to 158th
University of Western Ontario - 126th to 159th
Newcastle University - 129th to 162nd
Simon Fraser University - 139th to 164th
University of Florida - 135th to 165th
Indiana University Bloomington - 137th to 170th
University of Lancester - 147th to 170th
Hokkaido University - 151st to 174th
University of Colorado - 107th to 180th
Universit Libre de Bruxelles - 154th to 183rd
Stuttgart University - 165th to 190th
University of Massachusetts - 175th to 191st
University of Bologna - 173rd to 192nd
University of Sao Paulo - 175th to 196th

This has been a very long post. Universities from China seems to be dropping by quite a bit.

Do share with me what you thought. I know that ranking is just ranking and we need to look deeper into it.

For full details, again go to Times Higher Education Supplement (THES)

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Maxis Scholarship for Excellence Undergraduate Programme

Thanks to my loyal blog reader for sharing. This is a great scholarships for Maxis users.

This is quoted from NST

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Mobile phone service provider, Maxis Communications Bhd today launched the Maxis Scholarship for Excellence Undergraduate programme exclusively for its postpaid subscribers.

Its chief executive officer, Sandip Das, said the scholarship is open to Malaysians who have been Maxis postpaid customers continuously for a minimum of 12 months and to the children of these customers.

He said Maxis will offer a total of 40 scholarships per year under the programme.

The scholarship is merit-based and covers undegraduate studies at institutes of higher learning in Malaysia and abroad, he said at the launch of the programme here today.

Under the programme, the successful applicants will be offered the scholarships based on the location of their university of choice.

For those who are applying for scholarships to pursue undergraduate degrees at Malaysian institutes of higher learning, the amount awarded per person will be RM10,000 per year while for studies in non-Malaysian universities, the award will be up to RM150,000 per year.

Das said the Maxis Scholarship for Excellence Undergraduate programme is an extension of the prestigious Maxis Scholarship for Excellence Postgraduates programme, which was launched in 2005 to support high-achieving Malaysian graduates wishing to pursue their postgraduate studies and research at top universities abroad.

He said the programme has awarded full-ride scholarships to 12 bright young Malaysians including four recipients for this year’s intake.


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University of Malaya Fellowship Scheme Session 2008/2009

This is quoted from The Star 27th April Page 8.

University of Malaya Fellowship Scheme Session 2008/2009

This is open to Malaysians and non-Malaysians

Eligibility:-
a) Registered candidates of UM Master's (research mode or mixed mode with research component not less than 70%) or PhD program

b) Offered admission for item listed at a)

c) Submitted applications for the program listed above or had discussions iwth the Director/Dean/Head of Department/Supervisor of the Academy/Faculty/Institute/Centre concerning the postgrad program to be applied for.

Applicants who are working (except as Research Assistant in UM) or are receiving any type of financial assistance are not eligible to apply.

Value is up to maximum of RM100,000 inclusive of monthly stipends, registration fees, tuition fees, research fees, exam fees and service fees.

Monthly stipend:-
RM1,500 per month for Master's candidate
RM1,800 per month for PhD candidate

Application forms can be obtained from the Institute of Postgraduate Studies, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur or downloaded from the IPS website of http://www.ips.um.edu.my

Completed form to be submitted by 16th May 2008 to
Student Affairs Section
Institute of Postgraduate Studies
University of Malaya
50603 Kuala Lumpur







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Al-Azhar 1st Overseas Branch in Malaysia

Al-Azhar University, one of the world's oldest university will set its foot in Malaysia. It would have a branch campus in Negeri Sembilan, marking the presence of another prestigious university in the world.

For more info, go to The Star

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Al-Azhar boost for Malaysia
BY SARBAN SINGH
THE prestigious Al-Azhar University, one of the world's oldest, will open its first branch campus outside Egypt in Kota, near Rembau, Negri Sembilan.

The foundation stone for the branch campus, to be built by Yayasan Sofa, was laid by Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan on April 12.

“This is an honour not only for us, but for the entire country. The university, which has been in existence for 1,000 years has finally agreed to set up a branch and it is right here in Rembau,” he said adding that Yayasan Sofa received the approval from Al-Azhar on March 10.

Also present were a representative from Al-Azhar University, Dr Umar Abdullah Kamil and Yayasan Sofa chairman, Mohd Shukor Sabudin.

Mohamad said the university, which was expected to admit its first batch of students next year, would first offer Usuluddin and Syariah courses.

“It will later expand to offer medical and science and technology-related programmes.”

He said the decision to open a branch campus in Malaysia would allow more students to pursue tertiary education at an affordable cost at the reputable institution.

It now costs each student between RM10,000 and RM15,000 a year to study in Egypt.

Mohamad said under the agreement, Al- Azhar would also have its own pool of lecturers to teach at its branch campus.

“There may be some changes done to the courses to suit local requirements here, otherwise, the basics would be similar to what we have been practising at Al-Azhar in Egypt,” he said.

Mohamad said when he visited students sponsored by the state government at Al- Azhar in 2005, he had asked the university authorities to explore the possibility of opening a branch campus outside Egypt.

“We are happy that they finally agreed, and have chosen us amongst the many others who had also made similar requests,” said Mohamad. He said the Thai and Indonesian governments were among many parties which had approached Al-Azhar to allow them to open up branch campuses in their respective countries.

Mohamad said the construction of the university bode well for Negri Sembilan, which hoped to become an education hub. He said the Sedaya International University College was the latest to agree to set up operations there.

“They will operate in Bandar Springhill. Another university which can help train graduate nurses will also be built in the state at Sendayan,” he said.

On the construction cost for the Al-Azhar branch campus, Mohamad said this would come from the private sector.

Yayasan Sofa advisor Datuk Kamarudin Meranum, who was also present, said it was too early to tell how much it would cost to build the university.

“We have a plan, but it is premature to divulge details,” he said.

Kamarudin said the university would first open its doors to local students and only then enrol students from the region.

Asked if Yayasan Sofa would pay a royalty to Al-Azhar, Kamarudin said it would not.

Dr Umar, when asked why the university authorities picked Malaysia for its branch campus, said it was because they were happy with the proposal submitted by Yayasan Sofa.

“Malaysia is also strategically located ... it can be the regional centre for students from this part of the world,” he said.

Of Al-Azhar’s 28,000 students, 7,000 are from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Dr Umar was also impressed by the Muslims here, whom he described as deeply religious.

“When I was growing up in Mecca, Malaysians bound for Al-Azhar would first come to the holy city and only then proceed to Egypt.”

He said the university may allow Thailand to open a branch campus as well, but, it would certainly be smaller than the one that is to be built here.



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OPT Extended Up To 29 Months

Thanks Jiin Joo for alerting on this news.

Quoting from New York Times on OPT is extended to 29 months for students in science, math, engineering and technology

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Some Foreign Students Get Extended Stay
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 4, 2008
Filed at 3:58 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Foreign students in the United States studying science, math, engineering and technology can stay in the country 17 months longer if their future employers comply with an immigration verification program of the Homeland Security Department.

The policy change, announced Friday, will give those who want to work in the U.S. under a highly skilled worker visa program more time to wait for their applications to be processed. The hitch is that their employers must be enrolled in the E-Verify program, the system employers use to check whether they are hiring documented workers.

Until now, these students had 12 months to be accepted into the highly skilled worker visa program, known as H-1B. Now they will have 29 months to stay in the U.S. as a student worker.
The change will affect about 23,000 foreign students getting degrees in science, engineering, math and technology during a time when the U.S. is creating more tech jobs but producing fewer college and university graduates with engineering degrees.

Part of the new policy is to create a ''logical ladder'' to citizenship for foreigners who come to the U.S. to study these highly skilled fields, said Homeland Security policy undersecretary Stewart Baker.

''Lots of people come here to study, and then they say, 'Well, I'd like to get a job,' and pretty soon they find that they and their kids are really thinking like Americans and they want to become citizens,'' Baker said during an interview with reporters.

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Cornell on Universities Ranking

Quoting from The Ithaca Journal

CU provost downplays importance of rankings in defining school worth

By Topher Sanders
Journal Staff

ITHACA — Colleges shouldn't use rankings to define or determine their value, Cornell University Provost Biddy Martin said Wednesday during the second annual Academic State of the University address.

Martin spoke to a crowd of about 400 at the Call Alumni Auditorium in Kennedy Hall on the school's campus. She talked about the value of institutions of higher learning and how the value of universities is defined.

Martin spent the first 12 minutes of her talk referencing a 2005 article from The Economist called “The Brains Business,” which lauded American universities for providing access to students regardless of background and ability to pay, among a host of other positives.

“I think this is a description of a model of higher education pioneered by Ezra Cornell and A.D. White in 1865,” Martin said, referring to the university's founders. “Its primary features continue to define Cornell.”The Economist, Martin said, failed to highlight the growing problems of competition in higher education. Universities' attempts to be among the best in the country have consequences, like the developing of a “winner-take-all attitude” among schools, she said.

The value of a college is being defined too narrowly, based on schools like Harvard University and Yale University, and cost is being driven up as each school attempts to keep up with the elites.

Martin took special aim at the rankings of U.S. News & World Report magazine.

“The U.S. News & World Report rankings are usually something I refuse to talk about,” she said.

“When I report to trustees I usually say they're not important, we don't care about them.”

Martin showed slides that depicted the close relationship between the wealth of universities and their rankings in U.S. News & World Report.

“Does wealth influence rankings?” she asked. “It's been 11 years since a public institution cracked the top 20,” she said.

Slides showed Cornell's ranking over time as compared to other schools and the factors used to establish the rankings. Martin cited Harvard's 9 percent acceptance rate as an example of one of the factors considered by U.S. News & World Report.

“And this is the thing of which we are suppose to be proud, how many people we can reject, most of whom have the exact same qualifications,” Martin said.

Martin gave numerous examples of drastic changes Cornell would have to make to rise from its No. 12 ranking in the magazine's list.

To match Harvard's acceptance rate, Cornell would need to attract 77,000 applicants, 44,000 more than it currently receives, Martin said. Cornell would also need to cut the undergraduate numbers by more than half, or add 1,100 faculty members to match Princeton University's 5-to-1 ratio of faculty to students.

“Within that top tier, the relative rankings are not useful, I don't think,” Martin said. “I don't think we should make it our goal to follow the leaders. Our goal is to remain worthy of being recognized as a top-tier, world-class research university that creates the conditions for the most rigorous and original scholarship ... and a research university that translates our research into solutions.

“We can worry about our rankings,” she said, “or we can be who we are and define our value in our own terms, taking advantage of what makes Cornell unique. Or we can do a little of both, and I suppose that's where we are.”

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LimKokWing Brings Pride to Malaysia

LimKokWing is definitely a pride for Malaysia, especially in terms of higher education!

This article by The Independent further showcased the situation!

The full article is reproduced below
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From Malaysia to Mayfair: The foreign university that is sending out shivers in the higher education world

The overseas student market is worth millions of pounds to Britain, but the competition is increasing from private universities and companies. Are we in danger of falling behind?



Ritzy address: students outside the private Limkokwing University campus in Piccadilly
Lucy Hodges
Thursday, 20 March 2008


A stone's throw from the Ritz Hotel in the heart of London's Mayfair district lies an extraordinary new educational institution – a private Malaysian university which has opened a campus in Britain. This is the first foreign university from outside the United States to establish itself in the United Kingdom with the aim of competing with British institutions for the lucrative overseas student market – and it is sending out shivers in the higher education world.


Limkokwing University of Creative Technology set up shop in Piccadilly, next to the Cavalry and Guards Club, a year ago with hundreds of Malaysian and other students at any one time studying courses in design, business, IT, multimedia, and communications, media and broadcasting. Its presence has caused British universities to sit up and take notice of the threat that could be posed by an entrepreneurial and flexible outsider prepared to invest large sums in a business in Britain. The University of Chicago already has a presence in the UK and is seen as a threat. Could Limkokwing be one too?

Some universities are viewing its arrival as an opportunity for them to get a share of the action. Both Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Bedfordshire have gone or are going into partnership with Limkokwing. The result is that students will end up with two degrees – an Asian degree from Limkokwing and a British degree from one of the two UK universities.

"We are offering something that English univers-ities don't offer," says Professor Dave Taylor, director of the London campus. "We don't necessarily take the most academic students. We're looking at those who would benefit from higher education. We take students with Ds rather than A grades, and we're offering to give them a close relationship with industry. We're training people to hit the ground running when they graduate."

The University of Bedfordshire talks in the same breathless language about its enthusiasm for the partnership with Limkokwing. "We're very excited about this," says Professor James Crabbe, executive dean of creative arts, technologies and science at Bedfordshire. "It's a wonderful relationship we have got. We are two outstanding institutions that are coming together transnationally to provide value added for students."

The deal involves students coming from Kuala Lumpur where they have completed the first two years of a degree in media, art, or design and spending their final year in Britain, partly at the Piccadilly campus and partly at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton. Crabbe insists that Bedfordshire is not doing it for the money but to promote education and knowledge around the world. "It's about raising the profile of the excellence of British higher education," he says.

The London campus of Limkokwing believes that it can compete with British universities when it is not collaborating with them. It is charging its students the same kind of figure as they would pay to a UK university, around £7,000 to £10,000 a year for a classroom-based subject, according to Taylor.

Students are accommodated in rooms in Brentwood built by Thames Valley University – and pay extra for that. But the university is not offering British degrees (except in the partnerships described above, and in those cases the degrees belong to the UK universities concerned), so it does not have to undergo the UK's rigorous quality assurance regime.

Developments such as Limkokwing's expansion around the world reflect the fact that the higher education scene is changing rapidly as universities – and private education companies – take advantage of the new marketplace.

Higher education is now a huge business, worth around £200bn a year globally. Many countries in the world are experiencing a rapid growth in demand for university education – and the state simply can't fund and provide for all these students. This is where the private providers come in.

In India, for example, 30 per cent of higher education is provided by not-for-profit private foundations, according to Neil Kemp, adviser to the UK-India Education and Research Initiative and former head of Education UK, the British Council's marketing arm.

These institutions charge fees and pay their staff well, just like private Ivy League universities in America and lay on degree courses that the state simply could not provide for the vast numbers of people now clamouring for a higher education, Kemp told a conference organised by the UK Higher Education International Unit last week.

Then there are the for-profit companies, such as Phoenix, which provides mainly vocational higher education for adult learners, and Laureate and Kaplan, which own universities around the world or have partnerships with universities internationally. They are all American and have really taken off in the past few years.

Kaplan, which is owned by the Washington Post group, itself owns the Dublin Business School in Ireland and the Holborn College of Law in London, but also has partnerships with Sheffield, Glasgow and Nottingham Trent universities to give English language and other teaching to overseas students who are not well enough prepared for an English degree course. They get them up to the required standards and the students can then transfer to one of the British universities.

Laureate owns 12 universities outside the USA, including Universidad Europea de Madrid, Ecole Superieure du Commerce Exterieur in France and Cyprus College in Nicosia. And it is famous in Britain for its partnership with Liverpool University which includes an online MBA.

"This is an interesting partnership where both organisations benefit," says Kemp. But the real feather in Liverpool's cap is the university it has created in China in partnership with Laureate and a Chinese institution. The Xian Jiaotong Liverpool University is running degrees closely related to the needs of a massive industrial park in Suchow, near where it is located.

The aim is not to make money for Liverpool University, insists Professor Kelvin Everest, Liverpool's director of academic affairs for China, but to burnish the university's brand and put it on the global map.

"Obviously you don't want to do things that lose money," he says. "But you need to make sure you are operating in a contemporary way and do the things you are there to do, like educating people and carrying out research.

"For us it's been very bracing. It's raised our profile and made us much more visible than we were."

Nottingham University led the way in China with its own campus, Ningbo, and others have followed, using different models. Almost every university in Britain now has a presence in China. But, when it comes to private companies, the British have nothing that can rival Laureate and Kaplan in their activities around the world. Although INTO UK University Partnerships has moved into a number of campuses to bring overseas students up to the standard needed to enter degree courses, it is small compared to the American companies.

This, says Kemp, is something we should be concerned about. "Given that the UK has a leading role globally, where are the big UK companies?" he asks. "We're going to get overtaken by US big business."

Most of the private colleges in Britain are similar to the London College of Commerce, which he advises, and are run by single-owner proprietors who do not have the huge resources of a Kaplan or a Laureate, he says. That makes it difficult to take advantage of a potentially large market such as India where there are going to be big players with whom it would be worth joining up with now.

Not everyone shares Kemp's pessimism. John Fielden, director of CHEMS Consulting, argues that British universities are doing rather well overseas by establishing joint degrees with overseas partners and by setting up a supply chain of students who come to the UK for their final year of study. And Shaun Curtis, head of the UK Higher Education International Unit, who commissioned a report published last week on how the international work of British universities is organised within institutions, says there is a distinct lack of complacency in Britain.

"We sometimes beat ourselves up too much about how our universities are faring in the global marketplace," he says. "The UK seems to be ahead of the game and is thinking quite deeply about this issue."

It looks as though the Government is not self-satisfied. It has commissioned Professor Drummond Bone, the vice- chancellor of Liverpool University, to look at how well UK higher education is doing internationally. One of the most useful things he could do would be to commission a report into what private universities and companies are doing around the world and how Britain is responding to the competition.



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NTU Scholarships

Thanks to the link from one of my loyal blog readers.

Quoted fully from The Star .
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Post-grad awards

NANTAH Education and Research Foundation is offering post-graduate scholarships to pursue programmes at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) of Singapore.

The scholarships are for science and technology, business studies and arts subjects.

Candidates can pursue these subjects at the masters or PhD level. The scholarships cover tuition fees and a monthly allowance. Applicants for the masters programme should have, preferably, at least a class ll honours degree.

Successful candidates will not be bound by the foundation.

All applications must reach the foundation's office on or before March 25. For details, call 03-2148 3053; or fax 03-2148 3049; or email: nantah@po.jaring.my

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Merck Young Scientist Award 2008

Thanks to the link from one of my loyal blog readers.

Quoted fully from The Star . Hope to see more fellow young scientist of Malaysia participate in this.
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Search for young scientist

MERCK Sdn Bhd, in collaboration with US-based HMD Chemicals Inc, has launched its inaugural nationwide Merck Young Scientist Award (MYSA) 2008.

The objectives for the award are to encourage and honour home-grown research and development excellence in the biosciences.

Higher Education Department director-general Datuk Prof Dr Hassan Said has expressed his support for the initiative.

"The involvement of the private sector is most welcome and such a programme is certainly aligned with and supports the government's objective to develop the biotechnology field.

"This award will further add impetus to the commitment from local institutions of higher learning in their research efforts for the advancement of biosciences in Malaysia," Prof Hassan said.

The competition will accept only published research papers or researches that are due for publication in selected speciality areas of bioscience study.

Another key condition for entry acceptance is that the research must be conducted at local institutions of higher learning. All entries must reach Merck by April to qualify.

Originality, quality and impact of the research on the future development of the biosciences in Malaysia are expected to be among the key elements driving the judging.

The top five finalists are required to present their research papers to the panel of judges for the final winner to be decided.

MYSA 2008 posters and entry form leaflets will be made available at selected universities and university colleges. You can also visit the websites Merck , MOHC and Biotek to view details and to download the entry form.

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Solving the mystery of crawling cells

Obtained this from one of the blog readers. Really appreciate you guys sharing with me interesting articles to add in my blog.

This is about a cutting-edge research done by Brain Research Institute at Monash University at Sunway campus.

For full details, go to Monash's Website

Full article is quoted below:-
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Solving the mystery of crawling cells
29 January 2008
Researchers at Monash University's Sunway campus are using Southeast Asia's only Live Cell Imaging microscope to solve the riddle of how cells migrate from one location to another and stop at precisely the right location for their purpose.

"At present, science does have some answers to how cells 'crawl' from one location to another in the brain, but not what tells them to stop," said neuroscientist Professor Ishwar Parhar.

He said understanding how this happens could shed light on how to tackle a number of problems in medicine, especially the spread of cancer.

Professor Parhar, who is one of the world's leading neuroscientists and head of the Brain Research Institute at Monash Sunway (BRIMS) said the Live Cell Imaging microscope is being used to watch the migration of certain brain cells in mice foetuses.

"In a growing foetus, certain brain cells are first created at a spot in the nose. From there, these cells migrate to the brain and live there for the rest of our lives."

"We're using this migration to understand the migration process and solve the riddle of how cells migrate and eventually stop at a precise place in the brain," said Professor Parhar, adding that the state-of-the-art Live Cell Imaging microscope offers an environment that can preserve cell life and allow for long-term observation of the cell's activity.

He said researchers at BRIMS are using a delicate technique developed by the institute to extract individual cells from a tissue or examination.

"We pioneered and developed the single-cell extraction technique to allow better study of specific cells that we have genetically tagged for easy detection and further developed it into single cell gene expression studies using a laser-capture microscope."

The laser capture microscope, which is already in service at BRIMS, uses a very thin computer guided laser beam to extract individual cells from brain tissue. "This allows us to pick up and study specific cells without having to deal with unnecessary surrounding cells," he said.

Established in 2006, BRIMS is leading the study of neuroscience in Malaysia and the region, carrying out frontier research in six major areas: behaviourial neurogenetics; brain imaging; nanotechnology; neuroinformatics; molecular morphology; and proteomics & genomics.

Located at its Sunway campus, it is Monash University's leading centre for the study of neuroscience.

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USM

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has been trying its best to surge ahead.

Somehow, this afternoon, when I was chatting with a friend, she is doing research in USM, before embarking on her PhD at Monash University, Australia. And what she described to me on USM is definitely very positive. She spoke on the high-tech equipments that she had on her lab, and the quality is definitely top notch. She used to study undergraduate in one of the top universities in U.S.

She also commented on USM has been sending a number of its top students for PhD programs in top universities in US and UK. Among those that she knew went to universities like Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College. That's definitely a good start. Hope that USM can continue on its momentum.

Just as I was looking through The Star. Saw that USM took a great step ahead in being environmental friendly. USM banned styrofoam from its campus. Food operators would use biodegradable containers, which would cost 20 cents each, rather than 3-4 cents each for styrofoam box.

Prof Datuk Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said that this is part of its "The White Coffin" signature campaign to get USM staff and students to pledge their commitment to support sustainable initiatives to reduce adverse impact on environment.

Prof Datuk Dzulkifli, who is a columnist in New Straits Times also commented on a recent visit by 25 students from Taiwan. Those students brought their own foldable container, as well as reusable chopsticks. That's definitely a catalyst of change.

Indian Varsities in Malaysia

There have been 2 announcements this week on Indian varsities opening in Malaysia!

The latest one is the opening of a Dental School called Penang International Dental College (PIDC). This would be opened by Vinayaka Mission's University from India, with an initial investment of RM55 Million.

The campus would be built on a 10-acre land in Kepala Batas with a built-up space of 150,000 square feet and expected to be ready by September 2010.

This would have 250 dental chairs and is going to be one of the largest dental center in South East Asia.

Tuition fee is expected to be in the range of RM175,000, which would be a fraction of the cost of dental elsewhere.

The other announcement on education is for a campus named Premier International University to be built in Gua Tempurung, Perak.

The consortium comprises the Anna University in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Dr M.G.R. Medical University, KLE University in Belgaum, Karnataka, the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad and the University of Hyderabad would be operating a university with courses in Medical, Applied Science, Management, Accounting and Information Technology.

Perak State Government (perhaps with other local partners) would own 51% stake of this university, and the university would be built at a cost of RM450 Million.

The 2 campuses would definitely further liberalize our education section and provide the needy manpowers/talents for our students. However, there is a need to ensure that the quality produced is at a certain high level.

On the name of "Premier International University", I would say that it is a very bad name. Although it is tentatively named so, I don't think that name would be able to really reflect such a campus. I would rather that it creates a branding from its source. A good local name could be what it needs and not those hype words like Premier and International, which brings zero added value to the university. It would just create misperception among the public.

Lets hope that these 2 universities would be successful to help develop our human capital for Malaysia, especially for medical and dentistry field.

Early Decision Number Grows Significantly

Highlighted to me by some of the Early Decision Applicants, I decide to google around and see whether it is true that total applicants for Early Decision for most universities have increased.

Harvard, Princeton and Virginia have decided to stop their Early Decision/Early Actioin/Early Admission practice. Guess, I am going to call all these ED, to make things simple.

From various articles, I have gotten such stats:-
Chicago, up by 42% from 3,031 to 4,329
Yale, up by 36% to 4,820
Georgetown, up by 31% from 4,562 to 5,980
Notre Dame, up by 18%, to 4,290
Northwestern, up by 17% to 1,520
MIT, up by ~10% from 3,493 to ~3,800
Brown, up by 6%
Dartmouth, Columbia --> modest increase
Stanford, about unchanged at ~4,570

My stats above are from:-
a) Choate.edu
b) New York Times
c) Chicago Tribune

Other articles on U.S. Universities:-
a) Harvard News
b) Wall Street Journal
c) Cornell Daily Sun on Transfer Students vs Regular Students

Some excerpts of statistics for Cornell Regular vs Transfer Students:-
Agriculture and Life Sciences
Regular Admit Rate: 22.52%
Transfer Admit Rate: 51.47%

Architecture, Art and Planning
Regular Admit Rate: 17.05%
Transfer Admit Rate: 18.89%

Arts and Sciences
Regular Admit Rate: 17.96%
Transfer Admit Rate: 13.78%

Engineering
Regular Admit Rate: 30.89%
Transfer Admit Rate: 18.51%

School of Hotel Administration
Regular Admit Rate: 20.66%
Transfer Admit Rate: 52.27%

Human Ecology
Regular Admit Rate: 35.31%
Transfer Admit Rate: 29.02%

Industrial and Labor Relations
Regular Admit Rate: 27.85%
Transfer Admit Rate: 59.64%

Total University
Regular Admit Rate: 21.40%
Transfer Admit Rate: 29.36%

Good Luck for those who are applying!

Harvard Trims Tuition Bills for Families

Wall Street Journal's report an article on Harvard reducing the amount of contribution by parents who earn below USD180,000 a year. This effectively means that this would make Harvard much more affordable to students. Would this trigger other universities to do so as well?

For me, this is a very important initiative, where we are making quality higher education affordable, especially those high end higher education.

For the link of the article, go to Wall Street Journal

The article reproduced in full.

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Harvard Trims Tuition Bills for Families
Initiative Provides
Lower Costs
Keyed to Income
By JOHN HECHINGER
December 11, 2007; Page B17

Harvard University sweetened financial aid for middle- and upper-middle-class families at a time when elite colleges are increasingly under assault for pricing themselves out of reach for all but the wealthiest Americans.

Under its new program, to take effect next fall, the Cambridge, Mass., school said undergraduates whose families earn up to $180,000 a year would be asked to pay 10% or less of their incomes annually for the cost of Harvard, which now totals $45,620.

The university said that for about half of its undergraduates, the initiative would reduce the cost of attending the college by one-third to one-half, making the price comparable with in-state tuition and fees at top public universities.

Harvard has been criticized for its swelling endowment, which stands at $35 billion, the highest of any university in the country. The school said the initiative would increase its annual financial aid spending by $22 million to $120 million. Last year, its endowment jumped by $5.7 billion because of strong investment returns and donations.

Yesterday, Harvard President Drew Faust said Harvard wanted to attract students scared off by the hefty price tag and fear of debt. Officials said the Ivy League school also would eliminate loans from all aid packages and no longer consider home equity in calculating eligibility.

Harvard's move is likely to put pressure on other wealthy, selective colleges to increase financial aid to attract top students. In recent years, a number of other marquee institutions -- including Amherst, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford and Yale -- have taken similar steps, such as increasing aid and scrapping student loans. Harvard was among the earliest in the effort. In 2004, Harvard drew attention for eliminating tuition for families earning $40,000 annually or less, and later expanded that figure to $60,000. Other schools followed. With yesterday's announcement, Harvard is reaching higher up the income spectrum to attract upper-middle-class families.

Critics -- and college officials themselves -- have long worried about the disproportionate number of wealthy students at universities like Harvard.

At the 146 most selective colleges in the U.S., just 3% of the students came from families that ranked in the bottom 25% in income, while 74% came from the top 25%, according to a 2004 study by the Century Foundation, a New York-based research group.

Harvard says that 3,340 students out of roughly 6,600 undergraduates currently receive financial-aid grants. About a third of those receiving aid come from families earning $60,000 a year or less, with most of the rest earning between $60,000 to $180,000.

Yesterday's announcement comes as lawmakers have been lashing out at colleges that raise tuition while stockpiling money. They have discussed requiring universities to spend a minimum amount of their endowments each year. Yesterday, Sen. Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, who has championed the idea, said he hoped Harvard "would inspire other expensive colleges to make tuition more affordable."

Lynne Munson, adjunct research fellow at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a Washington nonprofit, says some other schools will feel compelled to match Harvard. But Ms. Munson, who testified recently before the Senate Finance Committee, said Harvard could well afford to freeze tuition and eliminate it completely, "not just for poor families but for middle class families."

William Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions, says the college believes tuition should be "a shared responsibility" for families who can afford to pay.

Under the new policy, families making $120,000 to $180,000 will be asked to pay 10% of their incomes. A family earning $120,000 would pay about $12,000, compared with more than $19,000 under current student-aid policies. Families earning below $120,000 would pay a declining percentage of their incomes, down to zero at $60,000 and below.

Write to John Hechinger at john.hechinger@wsj.com

MIT Open Courseware for High School

Got this link from a friend, who is also a fellow ReCom member. He has always been resourceful and able to find many interesting resources, but always would like to stay anonymous.

MIT has prepared Open Courseware for High School students and it is also very useful for those who want to use it to prepare for AP exam.

Do make full use of it MIT Open Courseware for High School

Mensa Penang Scholarships Talk

Mensa Penang will be organizing a Scholarship to Study in U.S. talk on 1st December, Saturday, 2:30pm to 4:30pm at Caring Society Complex in Penang. I will be helping to share my experience for that seminar. If any of you are in Penang and are interested to attend, do hope to see you there!

Among the aspects that I will be speaking on would include:-
a) Life in U.S.
b) Scholarships available from Malaysia/Singapore to study in U.S. Universities
c) Scholarships/Financial aids from U.S. to study in U.S. Universities
d) Application tips for applying to study in U.S. Universities

For some of the scholarships information, you can visit:-
ReCom.org (The Worldwide Malaysian Students Network
Tinkosong.com
Malaysia-Scholarship.com

Good Luck!

Open Letter by Kian Ming to Tok Pa

Ong Kian Ming, co-blogger of Education Malaysia and a PhD student at Duke University has written an open letter to Tok Pa, our Minister of Higher Education in Education Malaysia and Malaysiakini on our Higher Education Policy and ways to improve our local institutions of higher learning.

I would say that Kian Ming has brought up a number of interesting and valuable points for our Ministry of Higher Education to act. I definitely concur with Kian Ming that Tok Pa has taken the right step to focus on improving the quality of our institutions of higher learning, rather than blaming the ranking methodology. That's definitely a step ahead, and hopefully, we can get all the institutions of higher learning to work hard towards improvement.

The full letter by Kian Ming can be read here in Education Malaysia or in Malaysiakini

I reproduce it below:-

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Open letter to Tok Pa
Ong Kian Ming
Nov 27, 07

Dear Minister of Higher Education,

I was encouraged by your letter published in the Star on Nov 14, addressing the issue of our public universities falling out of THES top 200 list of universities in the world. I was encouraged because you did not dwell on the how changes in methodology used by QS, the company responsible for compiling the data, might have affected the ranking of Malaysian universities in the THES survey.

While understanding the technicalities of why our public universities have dropped off the top 200 list may be important to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of our public universities, I believe that from your many travels to top universities worldwide, you know that our public universities are very far from being anywhere close to the top 200 universities in the world, however measured.

I have also been encouraged by the way your ministry has been very focused in its approach to transform our public universities as specified by the National Higher Education Strategic Plan and the corresponding National Higher Education Action Plan 2007 - 2010. The goals set out in these plans are realistic and if achieved, will certainly make significant improvements to our public tertiary education system.

At the same time, I am aware that political considerations and restrictions can prevent even the best plans from being fulfilled and hinder a politician's ability to speak honestly. For example, you mentioned that: “Still, massification of higher education was the right choice for a young, developing country that had to ensure its citizens access to education and thus, a brighter future.”

Was the indiscriminate expansion of higher education necessary in the context of Malaysia? Is this not one of the reasons why there are currently a large number of unemployed and unemployable Malaysian graduates in the market, largely the result of them not being able to pick up the requisite skills to make themselves employable? Would an emphasis on vocational and technical education for those who are not academically-inclined have made more sense instead of pushing these students into courses which they have little interest in and is, at least, partly responsible for making some of them unemployable?

Was the practice of “awarding” and building universities in every state in Malaysia not a political tool for “rewarding” voters in these states? Did it not lead to quantity at the expense of decline in quality?

At the same time, I would guess that it was not possible for you to say that the “massification” of higher education in Malaysia went along with policies which prevented qualified Malaysian students from getting the courses of their choice.

This resulted in them leaving for universities overseas and less qualified candidates “flooding” the gates of our public universities. In addition, a large number of above average students were also awarded scholarships by the government and government-linked companies to study overseas, leaving our public universities almost denuded of top students.

I am also sure you realise that the “massification” of higher education in Malaysia not only decreased the quality of our students. The same phenomenon was taking place among the ranks of the faculty. Lecturers were promoted indiscriminately based on “know who” rather than “know how” and that promotion policies were also responsible for driving many qualified academics to universities overseas, leaving the ranks of many faculties relatively denuded.

The notion that a Malaysia public university can even be anywhere close to the top 200 universities in the world is somewhat laughable given that less than 50 percent of most faculties in our public universities have PhDs. While having a PhD is not necessarily a prerequisite for doing good research, it is an important indicator of proper training for good research, having worked and learned from experienced supervisors and completing a major piece of
research work.

Is it so surprising that our public universities have low peer review and citation scores when many members of the faculty are not trained to publish and produce cutting-edge research? When this is combined with a culture which does not reward publications and punish non-publication, it is no surprise that our faculty has and will continue to score low on peer review and citations per faculty.

How can you change this? I think the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) and public universities are already taking some steps to address this starting with the push to send more Malaysian faculty members overseas to complete their PhD. But even then, the process by which non-PhD holders currently lecturing in our public universities can obtain funding from the MOHE to do their PhDs overseas is still far from transparent.

From anecdotal evidence I've heard from some of our readers, the process is still very much driven by “know who” rather than “know how” and sadly, by racial quotas instead of by ability.

If this practice continues, I would not be surprised if the percentage of sponsored students obtaining their PhDs would be less than 50 percent, again leaving the MOHE in the quandary of not being able to achieve its 60 percent target of PhD holders by 2010.

While your strong words of inculcating a “publish or perish” culture is encouraging, it will have little “teeth” if it is not seriously implemented in our public universities. Our public university lecturers are almost “unfireable.” Hence, a threat of “publish or perish” is not seen as credible unless real action is taken.

Does this mean that you are willing to slowly “weed out” the non-performers in our public university system replacing them with highly motivated and better qualified academics? Only time will tell.

The road ahead is fraught with challenges, both internal and external. As events and trends in the world continue to develop and evolve, our public universities are in danger of being left behind. At the same time, internal political constraints and considerations make it even more difficult to change from within. Your job is not one which I envy and I applaud you for at least taking positive and concrete steps to effect change, hopefully at a substantive rather than a cosmetic level. But I fear that the restraints that is the Malaysian political system will eventually get the better of your good intentions, at great expense to our country.

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This article represents the opinion of Kian Ming.