Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by xenotzu

English Medium of Instruction - Neutral Ground

xenotzu — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 09:24:28 +0800

The Malaysian Insider (12.06.2015) - Johor Sultan says Malaysia should adopt Singapore policy on English in schools
It's the 10th anniversary of the then Sultan of Johor's far-ranging interview about Malaysia's education system in 2015. The gist of the interview was as follows:

1. "One thing that we can learn from Singapore is their way of forging national unity via their education system. The use of English as a medium of instruction has been effective in the development of the country and uniting their people regardless of race or religion."

2. "English schools are neutral grounds. We used to have such schools in Malaysia until it was changed. Was there any problem then?"

3. He also criticised Malaysian politicians who are in "self denial” or opted to "play politics with education" saying that they want to be "heroes" of their own respective races. "They talk about nationalism but at the end, do they send their children to boarding schools in Australia and the United Kingdom to learn in Malay medium?"

4. "I also know of so-called Chinese educationists who champion Chinese education, even insisting non-Mandarin speaking teachers should not be allowed to teach in Chinese primary schools. “These are the extremists. I know one such leader had tertiary education in Western countries. We have many such hypocrites,"

5. The Sultan said not only did Malaysian children have poor English proficiency, they did not mix with one another across ethnic groups. This, he said, did not bode well for national unity. "The Malays go to national schools where the Chinese feel alienated, while the Indians go to Tamil schools. Where is the unity? “Then some people also want Chinese and Indian universities. All this is driving the races apart. Yet we say we are all 1Malaysia. "Unfortunately, I see all this as 5Malaysian".

6. He said the more well-to-do parents sent their children to private and international schools where English is the medium of instruction but expressed worries that this would evolve into a class issue. "This is all due to the myopic planning and thinking of our politicians.”

7. He said having an education system based on a single stream for students would ensure a more harmonious society able to face future challenges together. Having schools with English as the medium of instruction did not mean the national language would be abandoned, the Johor ruler said, as Bahasa Malaysia can still be made compulsory, as well as Chinese and Tamil languages.

8. "Don’t forget, when English was used as a medium of instruction in schools in the 1950s and 1960s, a pass in BM was compulsory. Even a pass in Mathematics was compulsory to pass the Form 3 exam but now you don’t even have to pass your Maths test!"

IT MAKES SENSE, DOESN'T IT?

Singapore Medical Career: RM30,450 Monthly Salary

xenotzu — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 10:07:11 +0800

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Singapore Recruitment Fair for Medical Officers and Clinical Associates in Aug 2025 at KLCC. All Malaysian Doctors & Medical Graduates are welcome. Hold basic Medical Degree. Completed Housemanship. Benefits:
1. Estimated Basic Annual Package SGD110,000 annually (SGD9,166 monthly);
2. Monthly Accommodation Allowance;
3. One-time Relocation Support;
4. Overtime Pay (night duties, weekend rounds);
5. Bonuses (13th month);
6. Flight Ticket & Insurance;
7. Leave Entitlements.

Singapore Medical Career: RM30,450 Monthly Salary

xenotzu — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 10:03:20 +0800

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For a Malaysian junior doctor, the pay package and benefits are irresistible. More importantly, this an opportunity to be talent spotted for further training in Singapore as well as an opportunity for Permanent Resident status or even marriage in Singapore. It's a meritocracy in Singapore, where race or religion does not count at all, as almost 2 million Malaysians who have migrated to Singapore have found.

Singapore has signed up to and ratified ICERD (International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) This is a United Nations treaty that commits its members to eliminating racial discrimination and promoting understanding among all races. Malaysia, Myanmar, Brunei, North Korea, and several island nations like Palau, Niue, and others have not signed up to or ratified ICERD.

Remember the Anti-ICERD Rally or Himpunan Aman Bantah ICERD or Himpunan 812 ("The 8th of December Rally")? This was a rally that was held in Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 8 December 2018. It was organised by opposition Islamist political parties Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), with the support of various non-governmental organisations. It was held in response to the new Malaysian government's plan to ratify ICERD. The opposition parties from UMNO and PAS alleged such ratification was contrary to the Constitution of Malaysia. The argument that this was contrary to the Federal Constitution was strongly opposed by most leading constitutional legal scholars in the country. The constitution recognizes special rights for the Malay and Bumiputra. Even though the government announced that it would not ratify the convention on 23 November 2018, the organiser decided to push on with the rally and shifted its main focus towards celebrating the government's decision on not ratifying ICERD.

Many non-Malays who are straight-A students cannot get a spot in any of the country’s 20 public universities. Many can’t afford private universities by themselves, so it is their parents who have to take out crippling loans for private universities. And the ongoing controversy over Matriculation places for straight-A non-Malay students! Such racial quota in education foster division rather than unity.

I wonder which ethnic race would be the majority of applicants that take up these places in Singapore, then to take up PR, and build a new and economically better life for a new tomorrow?

TNE Graduate Employability Study

xenotzu — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 10:51:19 +0800

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TNE graduate employability study: an analysis of graduate employment trends in Malaysia

This report focuses on graduate employability in Malaysia, a country aspiring to graduate to high-income and to become an international education hub through its Vision 2020 blueprint. The research has been completed in three phases:

Phase 1 - Employability of graduates in Malaysia: the perceptions of selected employers - Key findings:

1. Employers place greater emphasis on soft skills as opposed to hard skills. These soft skills include, very importantly, language (English) and communications skills.

2. Career prospects of TNE students appear to be good compared to other types of graduates.

3. While foreign graduates are top in language, communication skills and confidence, local TNE university graduates are prepared to work hard, committed and are familiar with the local business environment.

4. 60% of employers suggested that a TNE qualification would have a positive impact on a graduates career prospects. 76% of students thought employment prospects would be enhanced.

Phase 2 - Employability of graduates in Malaysia: the perceptions of selected students and parents - Key findings:

1. Like the majority of employers in Phase I, students and parents place a premium on TNE programmes for their international recognition, being well regarded and awarding degrees valued by employers.

2. Both students and, in particular, parents expressed the view that qualifications obtained from international branch campuses in Malaysia and local private universities with TNE elements in their programmes will enhance employment opportunities of their graduates.

3. With regard to importance of knowledge and skills specific to an organisation, both students and parents placed a high value on knowledge, soft skills like the English language and hard skills such as information technology besides specific competencies. This finding, too, largely reflects that of the employers in Phase 1.

Phase 3 - Employability of graduates in Malaysia: the perceptions of senior management and academic staff

1. While senior management and students/parents share the utility function of TNE programmes there seems to be some shades of difference in emphasis as to what TNE can achieve.

2. 70% of the senior management strongly disagreed/disagreed that TNE programmes develop critical thinking much more than local programmes. The main reason cited was that TNE classes are taught mainly by local academicians who tend to emphasise theory rather than practice and knowledge application.

3. There is a clear indication that graduates from private HEIs are more likely to be employed than those from public universities.

4. 96% of the respondents considered that qualifications from international branch campus and local private universities would very likely/likely enhance employment opportunities.

5. These were followed by foreign universities outside Malaysia and local private university colleges, each scoring with 92% of the respondents.

6. Local public universities and local private colleges scored 88% each.

https://www.britishcouncil.org/education/he...trends-malaysia

Interesting study conducted by the British Council in Malaysia in 2018 which examines the worth and employability of transnational education (overseas education) for Malaysians in Malaysia. TNE (transnational education) is all types of higher education programmes in which learners are located in a country different from where the awarding institution is based

Mediocre Malaysian Universities

xenotzu — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 09:13:56 +0800

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Time for substantive reforms of our universities
Syed Farid Alatas -December 9, 2022 7:00 AM

Now that we finally have a new government in place, the university community in Malaysia is looking forward to substantive reforms. Rather than pretend that we have world-class education, we need to recognise the weaknesses in our educational institutions of higher learning, admit that we suffer from mediocrity, and expose the academic dishonesty that characterises our higher education.

In fact, during the last few years, Malaysian universities have come under public scrutiny with references to their mediocrity, the lack of vibrant academic culture and intellectual ambience on the campuses, and the politicisation and racialisation of tertiary education. These problems not only affect the quality of education but have also resulted in widespread unhappiness at universities.

Academics who work in the universities are conscious of the low morale on the campuses. In fact, it can be stated that there is, among academics and students, particularly those doing their master’s and PhD, a growing disillusionment with university life, and a deepening frustration with the state of higher education.

Part of the reason for the lack of academic culture is the level of bureaucratisation the universities suffer from. It leaves academics unable to deal with the various problems that afflict university education. The academic staff has little direction and control over the policies and practices of the universities. Malaysian universities have become more centralised and hierarchical.

The emphasis on top-down planning has meant reduced autonomy at the department level. Malaysian academics have generally acquiesced to this state of affairs. As a result, they are neither willing nor able to influence university policies and cannot play a crucial role in bringing about positive change that would eventually create a more academic atmosphere on the campuses and boost morale in the process.

Let me provide two examples of problems on our campuses that are the cause of low morale, problems that need rectification but which persist, nevertheless, due to the inability of administrators to identify them as problems and the reluctance of the academic staff to push for change.

Clocking-in

One issue is clocking-in. Academic staff members are expected to clock in upon arrival at their offices. A clocking-in system allows the employer to monitor the attendance of employees by providing an indisputable record of when the employee started and ended the workday. It is incredible, however, that university lecturers are required to clock in. Apart from the fact that this practice is practically unheard-of in the hundreds of leading universities in the world, it is tantamount to treating academic staff with a level of mistrust that is unbecoming of university administrators.

It is demeaning and insulting to treat academics in this manner. The requirement to clock in creates in the university a working atmosphere based on objective verification or proof rather than trust in the academic staff. It has been noted that such objective proof may be required in workplaces where there is no personal relationship between the employer and employees. In an organisation such as a university, however, close relations are supposed to be formed, not only between the academic staff and students but also among the various levels and departments of the university.

The requirement of clocking in obstructs the process of creating trust and goodwill, particularly between the academic staff and the university administration. For example, professors who are supposed to be creative and independent thinkers must be thinking that the university administrators lack trust in them and assume that they (the professors) are out to cheat the university in terms of the hours they put in.

In other words, the professors are not being accorded the status that is due to them as the scholars they are. The university is not a factory and should not be treated as such. There is absolutely no good argument to support clocking in and the practice should cease immediately. All it takes is for the minister of higher education to issue a directive. Let us stop treating academics in a distrustful manner.

Forced co-authorship

Another issue that is causing low morale among some academic staff and many graduate students is the practice of forced co-authorship of scientific papers. Here, I am referring to social sciences and humanities where the practice is for these supervisors to put their names on articles for publication that were solely written by their students. This is extremely unethical but widespread in Malaysian universities. It is tantamount to the exploitation of graduate students.

In the leading universities of the world, the supervisor is co-author with the student only if he or she supports the supervisee’s work by being involved in aspects of the research or by writing parts of the paper. Furthermore, this can only happen through mutual consent and is not forced. However, if the supervisor’s role is confined to giving advice and suggestions – then she should be acknowledged in that capacity rather than as co-author.

In some Malaysian universities, graduate students are often required to include the names of their supervisors as co-authors even when the supervisors had not contributed to the writing of the article. In this way, academics who have many graduate supervisees can increase the number of articles attributed to them without actually doing the work.

Malaysian universities should adopt the policies of universities around the world that are founded on academic honesty. Monash University’s authorship policy is an example: “To be named an author, a researcher must have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the work and be able to take responsibility for at least that part of the work they contributed. While attribution of authorship depends to some extent on the discipline, in all cases, authorship must be based on substantial contributions in a combination of conception and design of the project; analysis and interpretation of research data; drafting significant parts of the work or critically revising it so as to contribute to the interpretation.”

The document goes on to refer to unacceptable inclusions of authorship: “The following activities do not by themselves constitute a claim to authorship without substantial intellectual contribution to the work: being head of a department, holding other positions of authority, or personal friendship with the authors; providing a routine technical contribution; providing routine assistance on some aspects of the project; acquisition of funding; general supervision of the research team; providing data that has already been published or materials obtained from third parties (including the routine collation and provision of research source material).”

The practice of naming their supervisors as co-authors when they had not contributed to the writing of the articles has a negative effect on students. It deprives them of producing single-authored papers that would make them more marketable in the eyes of university selection committees.

The practice is also unethical because it credits them with publications that are not of their doing. Ultimately, the practice is alienating for students and those supervisors who take an ethical stance on these matters and abstain from such practices, but who are surrounded by free-riding staff who benefit from students’ work. I personally know of many foreign students in Malaysia who frown upon such practices and regard Malaysian universities as having failed them in terms of nurturing a proper academic climate.

Clocking-in and co-authorship are just two practices that are creating low morale and low standards at our universities. These practices can be easily stopped, which will go a long way towards restoring trust and improving the academic culture of the universities.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...r-universities/

The author is from NUS. Singapore universities went for quality and consistently ranks in the top league of the THE university rankings. Malaysia universities went for quantity with Bumiputra quotas and positive discrimination education polices, and consistently ranks in the mediocre league of the THE rankings.

Sadly, even those University of Malaya's ("UM") graduates who graduated in the 1970s when UM's qualifications were considered superior to NUS, feel ashamed of their alma mater, seeing its standard and ranking dropped after the introduction of discriminatory measures. An engineer who is now a consultant and who graduated from UM in 1975 told me that. This same person is recognised regionally in SEA as one of the foremost engineering experts and sits regularly in arbitrations. He is the one who told me that he is ashamed of his alma mater and given the same choice again, would have picked NUS over UM as he was offered the choice of either. He also told me that most students during his time automatically chose to study at UM and not NUS because the latter was a newer university which still had to developed its reputation then. No longer!

Universiti Malaya Drops In World Rankings

xenotzu — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 16:20:27 +0800

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Universiti Malaya Drops Out of Top 350 In World Rankings, Singapore University In Top 20

Do university rankings matter? The simple answer is yes. Employers who don’t require specific degree subjects tend to choose university graduates with the best overall reputations. In this case, Universiti Malaya (UM) graduates ought to remain the most employable in the country. UM was recently named the best Malaysian university in Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2023. Unfortunately, it fell out of the top 350 in the world, dropping from the 301 to 350 category UM maintained from 2019 to 2022. UM also saw a decline in the 19th edition of the QS World University Ranking 2023, an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds.

22 Universities In Malaysia Made It To The List

22 Malaysian universities made the list, compared with 18 last year. UM is followed by the Universiti Petronas (UTP) and Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), ranked 401 to 500. UTP ranked 501 to 600 last year, while UUM ranked 601 to 800 last year. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) remained at 601 to 800 places. The four newcomers to the list are Sunway University (801-1000), Universiti Malaysia Pahang (801-1000), Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (1201-1500) and Universiti Malaysia Sabah (1501+). Universiti Teknologi MARA, a higher learning institution for Malays and Bumiputera, is in the 1501+ category alongside Universiti Malaysia Sabah. 1,799 universities from 104 countries and regions entered the rankings this year, 137 more than last year.

Oxford Dominates For 7 Years In A Row

The University of Oxford in the United Kingdom (UK) has topped the list for seven consecutive years. Oxford is followed by Harvard in the United States (US), while the University of Cambridge in the UK and Stanford University in the US tied for third. The fourth to tenth places are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University and Imperial College of Technology in the United States. The number of US universities in the world’s top 100 has fallen again, from a peak of 43 in 2018 to 34 this year.

National University Of Singapore Rises To 19th

Among ASEAN countries, the National University of Singapore (NUS) rose to 19th, while Nanyang Technological University also rose to 36th. The University of the Philippines dropped out of the top 800, while the University of Indonesia dropped out of the top 1,000. The data clearly shows that Singapore is a preeminent and growing higher education powerhouse, a beacon among the South East Asian countries and a solid and well-connected international hub.

Is Times Higher Education Credible?

THE measures universities’ performance based on 13 indicators grouped into five pillars. Research, citations and teaching are each weighted at 30%. Since its first edition in 2010, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) have been one of the most reliable university rankings in the world. THE is an excellent resource for international students who seek to study abroad at world-class universities. The QS university ranking system is slightly different from the Times ranking system. In the former, different sets of indicators, with different weightings, are used for evaluating all the universities worldwide.

https://www.therakyatpost.com/news/malaysia...sity-in-top-20/

Haven't heard any news from UM as to why their ranking dropped this year. They are usually very quick to publicise when their ranking goes up.

Singapore's Salary Guide

xenotzu — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 13:32:32 +0800

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TL;DR: What is the Average Salary in Singapore?

As of January 2022, the average salary in Singapore is S$6,282 (RM20,102.40) per month, inclusive of the employer’s CPF contribution.

On average, candidates who are job-hopping can expect a salary increment of 10% to 15%.

In Singapore, the Median Gross Monthly Income from work, inclusive of CPF contributions of full-time employed residents is $4,680 (based on the year 2021). This is a nominal annualised change of 4.2% per annum, from the year 2010 to 2020.

Your gross monthly salary, or gross monthly income, refers to your monthly wage or salary before deduction of employee CPF contributions and personal income tax.

Your gross income includes allowances that you’re entitled to under a contract of service such as

Basic wages
Overtime pay
Commissions
Tips
Other allowances
13th-month bonus

In exchange, Singaporeans are also working an average of 44 paid hours per week to earn this keep.

https://blog.seedly.sg/salary-guide-singapore/

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Singapore's MOM Salary Comparison - https://stats.mom.gov.sg/bt/Pages/salary-co...r-employer.aspx

Singapore's MOM List of Acceptable Institutions

xenotzu — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 13:00:53 +0800

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Accreditation of overseas universities

1. Does the Ministry of Education have a list of accredited overseas universities? How do we find out if the degree qualifications awarded by these universities are recognised in Singapore?

The Ministry of Education does not have a list of accredited overseas universities. There is also no central authority in Singapore that assesses or grants recognition for degrees obtained from overseas universities. The reason is that the employer should be the one deciding whether a degree-holder has the qualities desired for the job and the qualification most relevant to his needs. The employer is in the best position to decide how much value he will assign to a person’s qualification.

However, in selecting an overseas institution for undergraduate degree studies, it is advisable that students establish whether the institution is a bona fide educational establishment. Such enquiries may be made at the Embassy/High Commission of the country where the university is located.

Professional degrees such as those in engineering, medicine, law, and accountancy should be those recognised by the respective professional bodies. For example, a person with an engineering degree from an overseas university who intends to seek registration as a professional engineer in Singapore will have to check whether the institution that awards the qualification is recognised by the Professional Engineers Board.

In the case of overseas universities offering courses here through local agents, the institutions concerned and their agents are responsible for all aspects of the programmes. It is advisable for students interested in enrolling for such courses to find out as much as possible about the programmes from the institutions or agents, before enrolling in them.

https://www.moe.gov.sg/post-secondary/faqs

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List of Universities or Institutions Recognised for Admission to Singapore CA Qualification (Foundation)
90 Universiti Utara Malaysia
91 Multimedia University Malaysia
92 National University of Malaysia
93 Nilai University Malaysia
94 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
95 Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
96 University of Malaya
97 Universiti Putra Malaysia
98 Universiti Sains Malaysia
99 Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

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Singapore's Professional Engineers (Approved Qualifications) Notification 2009
https://www.peb.gov.sg/html/pe_approved.html

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900,000 M’sians Working In S’pore Full-Time, Drawn To Better Pay & Career Opportunities
By Sudeshna Dhar - 3 Jul 2022, 6:13 pm

More Attractive Lifestyles & Better Pay Cause Influx Of Malaysians Working In Singapore. As things gradually return to the status quo with the easing of Covid-19 measures, one aspect of Singapore is also slowly recovering. Many Malaysians have come to Singapore to boost the amount of manpower available. Malaysian officials attributed such a move to better pay and career opportunities. For some, the ease of transport within Singapore is also a bonus. According to The Sun Daily, as many as 900,000 Malaysians have joined Singapore’s workforce. Of these 900,000, a third of them travel to Singapore every day for work.

The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) President Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said this was due to the Lion City’s high exchange rate and better salary packages. In addition to earning more income, Malaysians are also drawn to Singapore due to better career progression and a more attractive lifestyle. By working in advanced industries, Malaysian citizens often get the chance for regional and international postings as well. “They earn better incomes in Singapore, which ensures they have enough savings when they retire,” Dr Syed said. He added that this was an important consideration as the cost of goods and services is rising in Malaysia.

Customer service executive Yuni Lim told The Sun Daily she also appreciated Singapore’s efficient and reliable transportation system because this wasn’t the case in Malaysia. “In Malaysia, you won’t be able to know when the bus or train would arrive, even though there is a schedule,” she said.

The outflow of Malaysians spells trouble for Malaysia as it might face a lack of manpower and an over-reliance on foreign human resources. Dr Syed stated that MEF has urged the government to implement more advanced technologies to encourage more Malaysians to stay and take on jobs within the region. “The government also needs to assist employers in introducing new technology for IR4.0 (Fourth Industrial Revolution),” Dr Syed said. However, he acknowledged that such moves would be expensive. Micro, small and medium enterprises, which make up almost all of the current registered companies in Malaysia, would find it costly to manage such technologies.

Brain drain issue impossible to solve overnight

The number of Malaysians leaving their home country for better opportunities across the Causeway is a brain drain problem that has long plagued our northern neighbour. Encouraging citizens to stay will require a lot of work. While it is a complex issue that’s impossible to solve overnight, perhaps it may be the catalyst to motivate the Malaysian government to do better for its people.

https://mustsharenews.com/malaysians-workin...ngs%20as%20well.

Plagiarism Continues To Plague Public Universities

xenotzu — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 10:22:25 +0800

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Plagiarism continues to plague public universities
Sharifah Munirah Alatas -December 2, 2021 7:30 AM

Plagiarism is defined as “the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own”. In my long career as an academic, I’ve discovered that this practice is second nature to both students and lecturers. What is more mindboggling is how it has been explained away as “something that is done everywhere, not just in Malaysia”.

A few years ago, several news reports highlighted the problem of plagiarism in Malaysian public universities. One such article began with the paragraph “public universities have always worked hard to reduce and do away with dishonesty and the unethical working culture in their institutions as they are public entities that represent the government and nation in higher education.”

Herein lies the first problem: public universities are understood as “representing” the government rather than being independent institutions of thought that add value to government policies and society at large. Logically, it could also mean that public universities are expected to mirror the dishonest practices that abound in government departments and among politicians. Furthermore, the expression “represent the government and nation in higher education” projects a distorted view of ordinary Malaysians.

Our “nation” state of Malaysia today projects dishonesty. There’s widespread corruption, elite convicts are free to roam while petty thieves are punished, there’s rising poverty and there is also the politicisation of race and religion. All these developments are indicative of a leadership with questionable morals. However, most ordinary Malaysians are embarrassed to be globally recognised for the wrong reasons. Going back to the problem of plagiarism, the same article quoted a full professor, who said the following:

“Whether integrity is still alive or not in public universities in Malaysia is never a big issue because public universities have always been monitored and closely scrutinised by many agencies, including the MQA (Malaysian Qualifications Agency), professional accreditation bodies, the National Audit Department and not forgetting the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Academic integrity or plagiarism, as claimed by a graduate of a public university, is not an isolated case in the world. It is happening all around the world because lecturers or supervisors are the directors of research for the student during their studies.”

There is something seriously wrong with the professor’s statement. First, there is a lot wrong if there are repeated allegations of plagiarism among Malaysian academics despite these agencies he mentioned. All these allegations cannot be mere lies. To the contrary, plagiarism is a big issue. Isn’t dishonesty a big issue anywhere and under any circumstance? After all, plagiarism is officially defined as “academic dishonesty”. Second, just because it happens “all around the world” does not make it acceptable. Third, there is suspicion in how closely plagiarism is monitored by the agencies he mentions as well as the universities themselves. If there is indeed monitoring going on, why has there been an increase in both students and lecturers engaging in unethical publication practices? Furthermore, in the midst of rising plagiarism, the fact that there are “supervisors” in charge of student research means both are complicit. This is simple logic.

Publishing in predatory journals is another aspect of academic dishonesty. This phenomenon is also about the global “publish or perish” culture that has infected global academia. It is closely linked to the oppressive university ranking game and higher education’s capitalist ethos of profit maximisation in knowledge production. It is embedded in neo-liberal capitalism and the “business” of education. The system pressures students and academics to pay to have their articles and books published. We may gloat that “our research funds helped us to publish” but what we are really saying is “as long as the fee is paid, quality need not be primary.”

In Malaysian public universities, publication performance translates into the widespread acceptance of quantity over quality. Writing and publishing an article is all that matters. Who cares about the content, the quality of the discussion, the issues raised, the standard of the debate presented, the recommendations listed in the article by the author, or even the grammatical accuracy of the language used? One can argue that one’s article must be excellent if it is accepted for publication in a world-class journal.

However, let us look at this hypothetical scenario. Lecturer A publishes the required number of Q1-Q4 journal articles as well as a plethora of plagiarised articles published jointly with students and colleagues. These academics are deemed prolific and team players, who selflessly elevate the name of the university. Lecturer B publishes only high-quality journal articles, meeting the required number, but refuses to publish elsewhere or with others because of the problem of plagiarism and other fraudulent activities. In the final analysis, Lecturer A has published 180 articles in his career, both single and co-authored, while Lecturer B has only 60, and mostly single-authored. It is almost certain who will be promoted and who will be sidelined.

Thus, what is the ultimate meaning of “monitoring” or “closely scrutinising”? Should we monitor the quantity of publications or the detailed character of the academic, which includes the quality of her publications, her attitude towards scholarship and her ethical stand on the publication process? This is why plagiarism thrives here. Most public universities in Malaysia have official rules to prevent it. They also have dedicated units or departments that address this problem. However, these problems are addressed if and when they are reported. The reality is the bulk of cases remain unreported.

Is such under-reporting due to the lack of expertise in checking for plagiarism? Is it due to the ulterior motive of lecturers and students who want so desperately to be published? Is it the ambition to graduate a student on time so that it looks good on a lecturer’s annual assessment? Is it to avoid the long process of identifying, isolating and punishing the individuals responsible? Or is it mere apathy and the absence of honour in the noble profession of higher education?

Ultimately, plagiarism in Malaysia’s higher education has become a necessary tool to churn out 20 or 30 articles per year just so it satisfies the requirements for promotion and recognition. Students are involved when their publications are required for their degree. So lecturer and student become partners in academic theft and fraud. My piece is one of many already written. Yet things have gotten worse.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...c-universities/

What's your experience of plagiarism of Public and Private tertiary institutions in Malaysia?

Many years ago, I knew this Pakistani student who was studying law at a UK university. I was surprised to find out that he had a Bachelor's and Master's degree in law from Pakistani universities but was studying for a Bachelor's degree in law in UK. He explained to me that it was well known that a lot of cheating and plagiarism occurs in Pakistani universities. That was why his Pakistani degrees was not recognised by the UK university he was studying at.

Can The Power Of Prayer Alone Stop A Pandemic?

xenotzu — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 14:19:13 +0800

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CAN THE POWER OF PRAYER ALONE STOP A PANDEMIC LIKE THE CORONAVIRUS? EVEN THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD THOUGHT OTHERWISE

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing governments and news sources to provide the most accurate and helpful advice to the world's population, as the disease is indeed global in reach. Health care professionals are in high demand, and so too are scientists who study the transmission and effect of pandemics.

Experts like immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci and medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta are saying that good hygiene and quarantining, or the practice of isolating from others in the hope of preventing the spread of contagious diseases, are the most effective tools to contain COVID-19.

Do you know who else suggested good hygiene and quarantining during a pandemic?

Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, over 1,300 years ago.

While he is by no means a "traditional" expert on matters of deadly diseases, Muhammad nonetheless had sound advice to prevent and combat a development like COVID-19.

Muhammad said: "If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague outbreaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place."

He also said: "Those with contagious diseases should be kept away from those who are healthy."

Muhammad also strongly encouraged human beings to adhere to hygienic practices that would keep people safe from infection. Consider the following hadiths, or sayings of Prophet Muhammad:

"Cleanliness is part of faith."

"Wash your hands after you wake up; you do not know where your hands have moved while you sleep."

"The blessings of food lie in washing hands before and after eating."

And what if someone does fall ill? What kind of advice would Muhammad provide to his fellow human beings who are suffering from pain?

He would encourage people to always seek medical treatment and medication: "Make use of medical treatment," he said, "for God has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it, with the exception of one disease—old age."

Perhaps most importantly, he knew when to balance faith with reason. In recent weeks, some have gone so far as to suggest that prayer would be better at keeping you from the coronavirus than adhering to basic rules of social distancing and quarantine. How would Prophet Muhammad respond to the idea of prayer as the chief—or only—form of medicine?

Consider the following story, related to us by ninth-century Persian scholar Al-Tirmidhi: One day, Prophet Muhammad noticed a Bedouin man leaving his camel without tying it. He asked the Bedouin, "Why don't you tie down your camel?" The Bedouin answered, "I put my trust in God." The Prophet then said, "Tie your camel first, then put your trust in God."

Muhammad encouraged people to seek guidance in their religion, but he hoped they take basic precautionary measures for the stability, safety and well-being of all.

In other words, he hoped people would use their common sense.[/b]

https://www.newsweek.com/prophet-prayer-muh...navirus-1492798

Words of wisdom from 1,300 years ago.

Words of Wisdom from a Ustaz?

xenotzu — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 12:35:22 +0800

QUOTE

Ustaz Hanafi: Hairan.. Manusia lebih takutkan Kuman dari Tuhan. Sedangkan kuman tu dari Tuhan. Sepatutnya makin ramai ke Masjid, bukan tutup Masjid.

Mazlina Ahmad: Suruh dia ni stay in kandang harimau.. tak payah takut.. harimau pun ciptaan Tuhan.

See attached pdf for orginal message!

Great Snappy Reply!

A Music Video Tribute to all Good Samaritans

xenotzu — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 16:22:26 +0800

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-xQLlNftXQ

Angels' Lyrics

Don’t be afraid of long dark nights

Look up at the stars together they are shining bright

Maybe it’s a test to see if the scattered hearts could come together

When you’re praying for a miracle

Could you believe that the answer is you?

You are the most ordinary yet loving Angel

At the moment of storm, your faith and persistence is so precious

Those tears that come with the smile will bring the rainbow after the rain

Because of you, in pain we find love

We have been through so many bumps on the way

We have survived so many storms

Maybe it’s scary, maybe you are sad,

But together we will not back down

When you’re praying for a miracle

Could you believe that the answer is you?

You are the most ordinary yet loving Angel

At the moment of storm, your faith and persistence is so precious

Those tears that come with the smile will bring the rainbow after the rain

Because of you, in pain we find love

A tribute from GEM to Wuhan and all the Good Samaritans in this epidemic. Be warned, it is a real moving tearjerker! The one scene that gets me every time, no matter how many times I view it, is the one where a daughter and her quarantined mother pretend to hug each other from a distance. You can see their love and how much they miss each other.

QUOTE

#Showbiz: HK singer GEM produces tear-jerker video tribute to Wuhan

KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Kong singer Gloria Tang, best known for her Queen Of Hearts Tour 2016, has proven herself worthy of that title as her latest music video has shown. Tang, also known as GEM, has been deeply moved by the suffering of the people of Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak which has claimed close to 500 lives in the country. Entertainment portal Asia One reported yesterday that Tang had uploaded a touching music video for her latest song Angels, which showed various people coping with the outbreak. The music video which was released on Monday started off with a CCTV clip of a man donating boxes of face masks to a police station, and running off hastily before the officers could catch him. The policemen then stood from afar and saluted him.

Tang, 28, said: "Angels pays tribute to the common heroes who have contributed, no matter how small, to the fight against the coronavirus, and its music video shows various tear-jerking clips of humanity at its finest." The video has to date garnered more than 400,000 views and over 10,000 shares, and has moved many Netizens to tears. Most of them have applauded Tang for being a beacon of compassion and thanked her for a beautiful message of kindness and humanity. "Watching the clips, especially of a quarantined mother and her daughter play-hugging each other, made me cry. Seeing someone giving an elderly woman a mask made me believe that there will always be love in this world," said Tang.

Tang also said that she found footage of the man who sent more than 500 face masks to a police station in Wuhan a week ago. "I really admire this man. He wasn't asking for a reward or praise. He just wanted to contribute during this difficult period." Another moving scene in Tang's music video showed a nurse decked out in a mask and a scrub cap standing outside a hospital with open arms, and a girl standing some distance away mimicking her actions. The girl was crying as she placed a pot of food on the ground which the nurse later picked up. "The story of the mother and daughter was one of my favourite. The mother had not been home for a week because of work, and her husband brought their 9-year-old girl to visit her, delivering some food as well. "But since they were unable to cross the quarantine line, they could only stand apart and give each other an invisible hug."

Other moving scenes included some children donating bottles of disinfectant to a train station while cheering on Wuhan, a teenage girl in Wuhan who made 800 meals a day for the hospitals, and people giving out masks to others. Tang said: "Maybe in the larger scheme of things, you think you can't do much. But what you don't know is that actions you think are insignificant actually bring a lot of warmth to this world. "When you pray for a miracle, would you believe that the answer lies in you?"

https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/groove/202...o-tribute-wuhan

25 Highest Paying Jobs In USA

xenotzu — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 10:43:42 +0800

https://www.glassdoor.com/List/Highest-Payi...-LST_KQ0,19.htm

A 2019 list by Glassdoor of the 25 highest paying jobs in America. Interesting to note that 14 out of the 25 highest paying jobs in the USA (more than 50%) are IT or Computer Science related. Given that most developing and developed countries tend to have similar requirements for such IT or Computer Science jobs, it is probably quite a good pointer for those who are thinking of what degree to do or perhaps switching to a second career in the future.

Speak Good English, Earn More Money

xenotzu — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 10:03:14 +0800

QUOTE

Singapore and Malaysia both fall in global ranking of English standards - as did most of Asia
Rachel Genevieve Chia 19 hrs ago

Singapore and Malaysia have both fallen several places on this year’s annual Education First (EF) English Proficiency Index, which measures the English levels of countries with non-native speakers worldwide. Singapore fell from third place to fifth place, while Malaysia slid from 22nd to 26th on the ranking, which looked at the EF Standard English Test scores of 2.3 million people across 100 countries and regions. In first place was the Netherlands, followed by Scandinavian countries Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Thanks to the growing prominence of English instruction in universities and on-job practice, millennials aged 26 to 30 had the strongest English skills of all age groups, followed by those aged 21 to 25. Among non-native speakers, Europeans had the highest English standard, while those in the Middle East had the lowest.

The Index’s report said without elaborating that over half of all Asian countries saw a drop in English proficiency this year, and that English standards in the region stayed the same despite major investments in private and public English education. Nevertheless, Singapore defended its place as top in Asia for English standards, followed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong and India. This year, Sri Lanka saw the largest drop in English standards, followed by Singapore and the Philippines. Taiwan, Myanmar and Afghanistan saw the greatest improvements. This year was also the first time China moved from the low to moderate proficiency band, EF said.

Speak good English, earn more money

According to the report, the higher a non-native speaker’s English proficiency, the higher their income. Countries with high English standards also tended to have a higher Human Capital Index score, which measures how well they mobilised citizens’ economic and professional potential. EF’s report also found that the top five industries with the best non-native English speakers were pharmaceuticals, banking/finance, tech, telcos, and consulting. The five industries with the lowest English standard were retail, manufacturing, logistics, education, and the Government sector. The job functions with the best English speakers were legal, finance and research, while those with the worst English speakers were accounting, distribution, and admin. It added that managers tended to have better English standards than executives as businesses preferred to promote those with a good grasp of the language.

https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/singapore/si...cid=mailsignout

The topic title speaks for itself. Unfortunately, too many times, I have interviewed or spoken to so-called graduates or professionals who can hardly string together a sentence in English. Malay Boleh!

QUOTE

Call for comprehensive study into decline in English proficiency among students
By Nor Ain Mohamed Radhi - May 19, 2019 @ 3:12pm

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) has called on the Education Ministry to conduct a comprehensive study into the decline in English proficiency among students. Its president Aminuddin Awang said rather than pointing fingers at teachers’ English proficiency level, the study would allow the ministry to identify the main issues and subsequently address the deteriorating standard of English among students. “We must be professional. Right now we do not have a study that explains the problem we are facing. “In our opinion, it could be due to the shortage of English language option teachers. There could be other reasons as well, such as learning environment, motivation among students and also the fact that English is a non-compulsory pass for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). “All these could be factors, hence the ministry should conduct a comprehensive study on the matter to find the ‘right medicine’. “Currently, the situation is ‘one medicine’ fits all. However, this will not solve anything. "This matter has been a perennial problem and has been going on for long,” he told a press conference after an English language seminar for teachers held at its headquarters here.

The seminar was attended by 40 English option and non-option teachers. Present were NUTP secretary-general Harry Tan and representatives from Sabah Teachers’ Union, Sarawak Teachers’ Union and Sabah Government Teachers Union. Meanwhile, during the press conference, Tan reiterated NUTP’s stand that English language teachers should not be made to sit for Malaysian University English Test (MUET). “Like what we had said before, the ministry should instead be focusing on the main issue — the shortage of English language teachers,” he said. Tan said NUTP hopes to meet Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik to solve the matter pertaining to MUET directive. “Most of our teachers were trained as English teachers at teacher training institutes and universities where they took the English Language as their major. “With such directive, it seems like the teachers are being humiliated. The teachers are trying their best to carry out the tasks given to them, so please do not undermine them.” He said there was no need for the teachers to sit for MUET just to gauge language competency among them. Tan said he hoped the matter would be resolved, as stressed by Maszlee himself.

The directive to have English language teachers sit for MUET was issued in a circular dated April 14 by Education director-general Datuk Dr Amin Senin. It is aimed at reviewing teachers’ English proficiency level in line with the requirements set out in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025. Based on the same circular, all English language teachers should be at the minimum proficiency level of C1 according to CEFR. Meanwhile, a seminar participant who refused to be named, said the lack of interest among students and a non-conducive environment had caused a decline in English proficiency among them. “We need to strengthen the use of English daily as it will help them a lot in mastering the language,” she said. She also opined that it was time to make it compulsory for students to pass English in SPM. “I believe that the move will change the attitude towards the subject.”

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/05/...-students-nsttv

Talk, talk, talk only. Like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Yet, year in, year out, our standard of English keeps declining, despite the so-called incentives and plans to try to shore up our English language standard. In Jan 2017, I posted a topic regarding "English Proficiency problem for M'sian Graduates, M'sian Graduates who can't speak English" https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=4180940&hl=. Now, in Dec 2019, I am again posting another topic which just confirmed that our standard of English has fallen further since 2017, if that is even possible! And in another 2 to 3 years' time, our English standard would have probably fallen further, a race to the bottom.

Bring back English medium schools!

If you get a PhD, get an economics PhD

xenotzu — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 11:16:48 +0800

QUOTE

If you get a PhD, get an economics PhD

People often ask me: "Noah, what career path can I take where I'm virtually guaranteed to get a well-paying job in my field of interest, which doesn't force me to work 80 hours a week, and which gives me both autonomy and intellectual excitement?" Well, actually, I lied, no one asks me that. But they should ask me that, because I do know of such a career path, and it's called the economics PhD. "What?!!", you sputter. "What about all those articles telling me never, ever, nerver, nenver to get a PhD?! Didn't you read those?! Don't you know that PhDs are proliferating like mushrooms even as tenure-track jobs disappear? Do you want us to be stuck in eternal postdoc hell, or turn into adjunct-faculty wage-slaves?!" To which I respond: There are PhDs, and there are PhDs, and then there are econ PhDs. Basically, I think of PhDs as mostly falling into one of three categories:

1. Lifestyle PhDs. These include math, literature and the humanities, theoretical physics, history, many social sciences, and the arts. These are PhDs you do because you really, really, really love just sitting and thinking about stuff. You work on you own interests, at your own pace. If you want to be a poor bohemian scholar who lives a pure "life of the mind," these PhDs are for you. I totally respect people who intentionally choose this lifestyle; I'd be pretty happy doing it myself, I think. Don't expect to get a job in your field when you graduate, though.

2. Lab science PhDs. These include biology, chemistry, neuroscience, electrical engineering, etc. These are PhDs you do because you're either a suicidal fool or an incomprehensible sociopath. They mainly involve utterly brutal hours slaving away in a laboratory on someone else's project for your entire late 20s, followed by years of postdoc hell for your early 30s, with a low percentage chance of a tenure-track faculty position. To find out what these PhD programs are like, read this blog post. If you are considering getting a lab science PhD, please immediately hit yourself in the face with a brick. Now you know what it's like.

(Note: People have been pointing out that EE isn't as bad as the other lab sciences, with somewhat more autonomy and better job prospects. That's consistent with my observations. But econ still beats it by a mile...)

3. PhDs that work. I'm not exactly sure which PhDs fall into this category, but my guess is that it includes marketing, applied math and statistics, finance, computer science, accounting, and management. It definitely, however, includes economics. Economics is the best PhD you can possibly get.

Why get a PhD in economics? Here's why:

Reason 1: YOU GET A JOB.

Can I say it any more clearly? An econ PhD at even a middle-ranked school leads, with near-absolute certainty, to a well-paying job in an economics-related field. I believe the University of Michigan, for example, has gone many, many years without having a PhD student graduate without a job in hand. You will not always get a tenure-track job, though there are a lot more of those available right now than in other fields (thanks, I am guessing, to the nationwide explosion in business schools, which hire a lot of econ PhDs, including yours truly). But if you don't get a tenure-track job, you will get a well-paid job as a consultant, or a well-paid job in finance, or a decently-well-paid job in one of the many, many government agencies that hire armies of economists. All of these are what are commonly referred to as "good jobs," with good pay, decent job security, non-brutal working conditions, and close relation to the economics field. Now, this may be less true at lower-ranked schools; I don't have the data. I imagine it's not as certain, but still far, far better than for lab science PhDs at similarly ranked schools. Why do so very few newly minted econ PhDs face the prospect of unemployment? Part of it is due to the econ field's extremely well-managed (and centrally planned!) job market. Part of it is due to the large demand from the lucrative consulting and finance industries. And part is due to the aforementioned proliferation of b-schools. There may be other reasons I don't know. But in an America where nearly every career path is looking more and more like a gamble, the econ PhD remains a rock of stability - the closest thing you'll find to a direct escalator to the upper middle class.

Reason 2: You get autonomy.

Unlike the hellish lab science PhD programs, an econ grad student is not tied to an advisor. Since profs don't usually fund econ students out of grants (few even have big grants), econ grad students mostly pay their way by teaching. This means you usually have to teach, but that is not nearly as much work as working in a lab. Even when a professor does support you with a grant, (s)he generally employs you as a research assistant, and gives you ample time to work on your own research. Compare this to a lab science PhD, in which you basically do the project your advisor tells you to do, and you succeed or fail in part based on whether your advisor chooses a project that works out. Your destiny is out of your hands, your creativity is squelched, and your life is utterly at the mercy of a single taskmaster. In economics, on the other hand, you can start doing your own original, independent research the minute you show up (or even before!). Profs generally encourage you to start your own projects. Unlike in lab science PhD programs (but like in "lifestyle" PhD programs), your time is mostly your own to manage. This means that as an econ grad student, you'll have a life. Or a chance at having a life, anyway.

Reason 3: You get intellectual fulfillment.

Econ is not as intellectually deep as some fields, like physics, math, or literature. But it's deep enough to keep you intellectually engaged. Econ allows you to think about human interactions, and social phenomena, in a number of different intellectually rigorous ways (e.g. game theory, incentives, decision theory, quantification of norms and values, bounded rationality, etc.). That's cool stuff. And economists, even if their research is highly specialized, are encouraged to think about all different kinds of topics in the field, and encouraged to think freely and originally. That's something few people appreciate. In a lab science, in contrast, you are encouraged to burrow down in your area of hyper-specialization. In econ, furthermore, you get exposed to a bunch of different disciplines; you get to learn some statistics, a little math, some sociology, a bit of psychology, and maybe even some history. Also, as an economist, your status as an intellectual will not disappear when you get a job. Even if you go to work as a consultant or a financier, your thoughts will be welcomed and considered by economists in the blogosphere. And you can even publish econ papers as a non-academic. In fact, it's also worth pointing out that econ is a field in which outsiders and mavericks are able to challenge the status quo. This is in spite of the econ profession's well-known deference to intellectual authority figures. The simple fact is that econ, you don't need money to advance new ideas, as you do in biology or chemistry. And you don't need math wizardry either, as you would if you wanted to introduce new ideas in physics.

Reason 4: The risk of failure is low.

In economics PhD programs, the main risk of failure is not passing your prelim exams. This happens to a substantial fraction of people who get admitted to econ programs (maybe 25% or fewer at Michigan). But if you flunk out, you get a complimentary Master's degree, which is probably worth the 2 years that you'll have spent in the program. And after you pass the prelims, there is little risk of not finishing a dissertation; unlike in most fields, you do not have to publish to graduate.

Caveats about the econ PhD

Of course, I don't want to make it seem like the econ PhD is an utterly dominant strategy for life fulfillment. There are some caveats that you should definitely take into account. First, there is the fact that an econ PhD program is still a PhD program. That means, first of all, that you will be in poverty in your late 20s. That is not fun for most people (some "lifestyle PhD" students and bohemian artists excepted). Also, econ PhD programs force you to manage your own time, while giving you very little feedback about how well or badly you're actually doing. That can be stressful and depressing. Second, be aware that the culture of economics is still fairly conservative, and not in the good way. Econ is one of the few places in our society where overtly racist and sexist ideas are not totally taboo (Steve Landsburg is an extreme example, but that gives you the general flavor). Discrimination against women, in particular, probably still exists, though I'd say (or I'd hope, anyway) that it's on the wane. Finally, there is the fact that if enough people read and believe this blog post (ha!), it will cease to be true. There's a piece of economics for you: as soon as people become aware that a thing's value is greater than its price, they will start bidding up the price. But information diffuses slowly. Expect the econ PhD to lose its luster in five to ten years, but that still gives you a window of time. Anyway, despite these caveats, the econ PhD still seems like quite a sweet deal to me. And compared to a hellish, soul-crushing, and economically dubious lab science PhD, econ seems like a slam dunk. There are very few such bargains left in the American labor market. Grab this one while it's still on the shelves.

Convinced? Well here's your next step: Miles and Noah's Guide to Getting Into an Econ PhD Program!

Update: Here's a 1999 paper documenting that the econ PhD is, economically speaking, a really good deal. Also, here is Bryan Caplan saying some very similar things back in 2005.

Update 2: A grad student friend writes:

[E]ven going to the abysmally ranked [econ]department that I go to I have no worries at all about getting a good job after I graduate. It may not be an academic job, but that's fine by me (or if it's an academic job it might be in a policy department rather than an econ department).

Another anecdote supporting the thesis that even econ PhDs at low-ranked schools don't worry much about employment...

https://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2013/05...nomics-phd.html

For those who are thinking of what PHD to do.

The degrees that make you rich...

xenotzu — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 12:53:33 +0800

QUOTE

The degrees that make you rich... and the ones that don't
By Dr Jack Britton
Institute for Fiscal Studies

Hundreds of thousands of young people are in the process of applying to university, in time for a 2018 start. Their choices can make a huge difference to future earnings. For most university graduates, having a degree pays. Over the course of a lifetime, estimates suggest women can expect to earn about £250,000 more if they have a degree, while the figure is roughly £170,000 for men. In England, higher tuition fees mean that, on average, students graduate with debts of more than £50,000 - much more than their counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But repayments are only one of many factors which affect how much money graduates will have in their pockets in years to come.

The universities which attract the highest incomes

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are big differences in the earnings of graduates from different universities. Five years after graduation, average annual earnings for students who were taught at the London School of Economics, Imperial College London and University of Oxford are more than £40,000. Graduates of the 24 Russell Group universities earn an average of £33,500 after five years - about 40% more than those who studied at other universities. At the other end of the scale, there are several institutions - many of them dance and drama colleges - where average earnings after five years are closer to £15,000. Importantly, many of the differences here are not down to the universities themselves. They have different average earnings partly because students aren't all the same - they have different abilities and interests. Entrants to Oxford, LSE and Russell Group universities start their degrees, on average, with better exam grades, for example.

Subject choice can make a big difference

The big decision about what to study at university can be very important for future earnings. Five years after graduation, the income gap between students who studied the subjects that attract the highest and lowest salaries can be considerable. Graduates of medicine and dentistry earn an average of £46,700, while those who studied economics take home £40,000. These figures are about double the average wages of creative arts (£20,100), agriculture (£22,000) and mass communication (£22,300) graduates. Crucially, these differences are smaller, but remain significant, even when students with similar A-level grades are compared. As careers progress the gaps get bigger, with graduates of the high-earning subjects pulling even further away. For example, students of law, economics and management subjects at the London School of Economics do extremely well, with 10% of male graduates earning more than £300,000 by the time they are in their early 30s.

Sexual inequality

A number of factors influence graduate earnings long before they get as far as choosing which course to study, or which university to attend. In particular, the reality is that male graduates earn more than female graduates. The gap can already be seen only one year after graduation, when men earn an average of £1,500 (8%) more than women per year. After five years, the gap has increased to around £3,500, or 14%. This is likely to continue to increase with age, but it should be noted that this gap is less than half that experienced by non-graduates. Some - but by no means all - of this difference can be explained by differences in subject choices, with women more likely to choose courses with low earnings potential. For example, creative arts, nursing, psychology and social science all have far more female than male students, while the opposite is true for architecture, computing and engineering. However, a large part of this difference cannot be explained away by personal choice.

Rich vs poor

The social background of students also matters. Those from better off households are much more likely to go to university. They are also much more likely to go to more selective universities. That is a large part of the reason why male graduates from households with incomes above £50,000 earn about 20% (£7,000) more than their university peers from lower income households, by the time they are in their early 30s. Among women, there is a 16% (£4,000) gap between these households. Remarkably though, even when comparing students who did the same subject at the same university, those from the richest households still earn around 10% more than their peers from less affluent backgrounds. This suggests improving access to university alone is not enough to address issues of social mobility.

Never-ending debt

The increase in tuition fees to £9,250 per year in England has significantly increased the level of debt students graduate with - and the repayments many will make over their careers. Most will in fact not pay back all of the cost of their tuition, with the taxpayer picking up the difference. Recent changes have offered some respite to those who go on to have low earnings. Graduates only ever have to pay 9% of their income above a given threshold, regardless of the size of their debts. The threshold will rise from £21,000 to £25,000 in April 2018, putting more money in the pockets of significant numbers of graduates. Over the course of their working lives, this could save graduates up to £15,700 in student loan repayments. It also means that more than 40% of graduates are now expected to repay less than they would have had there been no changes to the student loan system since 2011. And, for eight out of 10 graduates, it is likely that they will get to the end of their working lives having never paid off that loan.

https://www.bbc.com/news/education-41693230

Interesting analysis as to which degrees pay the best for their graduates and which don't.

Why Study English Literature?

xenotzu — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 13:18:32 +0800

QUOTE

From Shakespeare’s Stage to the Digital Page: Why Study English Literature?

Picking a degree course can be a daunting task. Everyone seems to have an opinion, and if your own mind isn’t made up yet, those other voices can be confusing. English Literature is often the victim of some lazy accusations when it comes to its status as a degree course. ‘English is so easy/boring/pointless, it’s all just reading/essays/Shakespeare’ (delete as applicable). Well there is a pretty clear response to these naysayers and it starts and ends with the fact that an English Literature degree has always been, and still is, one of the most popular degrees with students and graduate employers alike. Moreover, in the twenty-first century English Literature has expanded rapidly in response to the changing conditions of the contemporary world, and now enjoys an impressive combination of academic kudos, high student satisfaction and diverse graduate destinations.

So let’s start at the beginning – what is English Literature? Most of us will think we know the answer to this question. We have probably read and studied books as part of the courses necessary to get to this point in our studies, have opinions on texts already, or even own a ‘classic’ piece of literature or two. But if you would like to study for a degree in English Literature then you need to prepare to have your assumptions about the subject challenged. The important difference about studying English Literature at degree level is that we will ask you to define what ‘English Literature’ actually is, what it has been, what it is now, and what it can do for us both as individuals and as a society in the future.

An English Literature undergraduate programme will take you on a whirlwind tour of literary legends, big texts and famous names. But it will also expose you to new writings, different voices, and original experiences far away from the confines of your day to day life. It will let you explore a variety of literary forms – from short stories, to novels, drama to poetry – and encourage you to think about form as a political choice for a writer. Examining texts by authors writing in English from around the world you will also confront the problem of using the term ‘English Literature’ to define an ever-growing global field of creative works. Importantly, your studies will address the purpose of literature, its function in society, and its role as an agent of change. Throughout your time as a student of English Literature, you will read the work of a variety of authors who have played a significant role in developing the discipline and examine the role of literature in shaping social, historical and political movements. Hopefully, the texts you study will not be texts that you would have otherwise encountered. And that’s the point. As academics of literature, your tutors will work with you to challenge the way you think about literature, and the role it and you can play in our contemporary world.

The contemporary is an important context for your studies – you will be engaging with literary studies in the new millennium, a period which has witnessed an explosion in the variety and function of modes of writing in the English language the world over. From innovations in recognised forms such as the novel, poem, play and short story, to developments in blogging, new genres, digital writings and new media, modes of writing have dominated initial developments in post-millennial literature. The publishing industry has also changed, with technological advances giving rise to the dawn of the e-book and corporate sponsorship igniting debates about the usefulness of literary prizes and festivals. So who decides what becomes part of the ‘canon’ of contemporary English literature? Well that’s the exciting part – you do. As researchers of the now, English Literature students form part of the process of creating a twenty-first century canon of English. You’re are at the cutting edge - which is an exciting place to be.

English Literature is also a sociable subject – doing a degree should never mean three years of silent reading in a library. You will be encouraged to debate in classes, to speak about your thoughts and feelings on the texts we study, and to listen and value the opinions of others. The ability to form and communicate a compelling argument is a key skill in an English degree. We help you to develop this through oral assessments, group work and social activities designed to hone your creative practice and presentation skills. In addition to essays, you may also be assessed through creative work, reviews, research papers, posters, discussion forums, portfolios and journalism. Supporting you to experiment in writing across different forms and for a variety of audiences, we ensure that you graduate with a wealth of experience in critical and creative encounters with texts.

And don’t just take my word for it - check out the raft of major companies that are also singing the praises of English Literature degrees and their graduates. The transferability and relevance of these skills enable our graduates to adapt and evolve in the rapidly changing socio-economic and political contexts of the modern world. It is no coincidence that the CEOs of many Fortune 500 companies are English graduates. Harvard Business Review recently profiled the increasing trend for top corporate companies targeting English graduates in their recruitment strategies. The financial industries have also stepped up their targeted recruitment of English graduates. Goldman Sachs recently revealed that English students were among its second largest cohort of recruits, and that the company has begun holding special recruitment events aimed at English-related subjects at under and postgraduate levels. This is because English degrees create individuals who are uniquely placed to offer innovative approaches as a direct result of their training in applying new ways of thinking to complicated contemporary problems. These core competencies are key to helping companies better understand the people who consume their products.

Employers love English Literature students because a degree in English Literature trains you to be an independent critical thinker, someone who can process and communicate diverse data in creative ways, an individual who is reflective in practice, and analytical in approach. More importantly, English graduates are global graduates – thanks to their studies, they have the intellectual prowess, leadership ability and world-class standards to understand the importance of breaking down relevant boundaries and to shape shaping and redefine the perceptions of others. As a direct result of the diverse curricula of their degrees, English Literature graduates are global scholars with global horizons, who are flexible and adaptable to the changing contexts and demands of the modern world.

If you want to see how flexible an English Literature degree can be in opening new careers and professional pathways then just check out the alumni page of any university website. Literature graduates end up doing all kinds of brilliant things in weird and wonderful places. My own past students now work for companies as diverse as NASA, Apple, Whole Foods, Oxfam and Instagram, some have gone into teaching, HR, media and journalism, government, law and many have established their own businesses or become successful freelancers. Others have chosen to extend their students and are currently reading for a Masters or Doctorate in English Literature. They also return to their former universities and speak to our current undergraduates about employment options, how to secure work experience and networking opportunities to help the next generation of students get a foot on the career ladder. English Literature graduates are the best advert for an English Literature degree – they are living, breathing testaments to the fact that it’s not all Shakespeare, essays and reading. English graduates excel because English degrees equip them with the experience necessary to take on tomorrow. They are self-motivated time managers with carefully cultivated skills that employers value, and thanks to their creative communication skills, they can make their perspective the centre of the debate.

Learning from the past, in the present, for the future, the study of English Literature opens you up to new ways of thinking, reading, and writing. Thanks to the rich role of literary studies in social engagement, the discipline has a powerful role helping students to shape our society, empowering you with the skills to respond to your own time. Breaking down borders in a world where borders seem to be back in fashion, an English Literature degree equips its students with a tool-belt of strategies, theories and methodologies to navigate contemporary society. In an era obsessed with fake news and rumour, it has never been more vital to talk about the power of stories, the complexity of writing, and the potential contribution of studying English Literature to the well-being and development not only of the you as an individual, but to our twenty-first century world.

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/from...lish-literature

I do not fully subscribe to the views here regarding the importance of English Literature. However, I do know from a Malaysian context, the need for English Graduates seem to be ever increasing and in demand. I've heard about graduates who had above average English language skills who were hired by MNCs and international firms just so that they could use them to communicate and interact with their overseas offices. Now with the ever increasing importance of China in the world economy, the graduates that they are looking out for are those who are effectively bilingual and fluent in both Mandarin and English.

Singapore Graduate Employment Survey (2019)

xenotzu — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 10:08:32 +0800

QUOTE

Graduate Employment Survey 2018 (Published 2019)

The top degree programmes this year are law and computing. In the top 10 of our latest Graduate Employment Survey ranking, law and tech degrees clinched 7 spots (up from 4 last year), and one spot each for Economics, Business Analytics, and Science (Yale-NUS). In terms of employability, Music, Linguistics & Multilingual Studies, and Art Design & Media ranked at the bottom. In total, 84 degree programmes feature in this ranking. Data used in this article are based on the 2018 Graduate Employment Survey Results consolidated and released by MOE yesterday (26th Feb, 2019). The following are this year’s rankings. As usual, we rank first by Average Gross Monthly Salary, and then by Permanent Employment Rate. By Average Gross Monthly Salary (in brackets are the 75th-percentile salaries)

NUS Bachelor of Laws – $5,263 ($5,840)
SMU Law (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – $5,256 ($6,000)
NUS Bachelor of Science with Honours (Yale-NUS) – $5,136 ($6,435)
SMU Law (4-years programme) – $4,856 ($5,600)
SMU Economics (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – $4,721 ($5,200)
SMU Information Systems (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – $4,659 ($5,000)
NUS Bachelor of Computing (Computer Science) – $4,658 ($5,000)
NTU Business and Computing – $4,572 ($4,900)
SMU Business Management (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – $4,544 ($4,800)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Business Analytics) – $4,499 ($5,000)
NUS Bachelor of Computing (Information Systems) – $4,472 ($5,000)
NTU Accountancy and Business – $4,456 ($4,633)
SMU Accountancy (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – $4,439 ($4,773)
NUS Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) – $4,424 ($4,748)
NUS Bachelor of Arts with Honours (Yale-NUS) – $4,381 ($4,642)
NUS Bachelor of Dental Surgery – $4,228 ($4,450)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering) – $4,188 ($4,900)
SMU Information Systems (4-years programme) – $4,160 ($4,600)
SMU Economics (4-years programme) – $4,140 ($4,600)
SMU Business Management (4-years programme) – $4,133 ($4,500)
NTU Computer Science – $4,062 ($4,500)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial and Systems Engineering) – $4,051 ($4,500)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical Engineering) – $4,050 ($4,300)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical Engineering) – $3,982 ($4,546)
SMU Social Sciences (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – $3,880 ($4,100)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) – $3,877 ($4,100)
NTU Aerospace Engineering – $3,873 ($4,280)
NTU Computer Engineering – $3,865 ($4,200)
NTU Information Engineering & Media – $3,796 ($4,140)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Materials Science and Engineering) – $3,794 ($4,305)
NTU Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering – $3,782 ($4,200)
NTU Business – $3,776 ($4,000)
NTU Electrical & Electronic Engineering – $3,772 ($4,000)
NTU Economics – $3,755 ($3,959)
NTU Mathematical Sciences – $3,744 ($4,000)
NTU Science (With Education) – $3,738 ($4,000)
NUS Bachelor of Business Administration – $3,732 ($3,750)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Pharmacy) – $3,723 ($3,900)
NTU History – $3,719 ($4,150)
NUS Bachelor of Business Administration (Accountancy) (Hons) – $3,683 ($4,000)
NTU Materials Engineering – $3,673 ($4,000)
NTU Bioengineering – $3,660 ($4,000)
NTU Mechanical Engineering – $3,653 ($4,000)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering) – $3,627 ($3,900)
NTU Public Policy and Global Affairs – $3,619 ($4,018)
SMU Accountancy (4-years programme) – $3,607 ($3,650)
NTU Civil Engineering – $3,597 ($3,816)
NTU Physics & Applied Physics – $3,576 ($3,800)
NTU Mathematics & Economics – $3,569 ($4,000)
NTU Environmental Earth Systems Science – $3,562 ($4,000)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Nursing) (Hons) – $3,546 ($3,750)
NUS Bachelor of Social Sciences – $3,526 ($3,800)
NUS Bachelor of Business Administration (Accountancy) – $3,522 ($3,500)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Environmental Engineering) – $3,518 ($3,868)
NTU Environmental Engineering – $3,485 ($3,500)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Nursing) – $3,469 ($3,500)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Hons) – $3,460 ($3,725)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Biomedical Engineering) – $3,444 ($3,650)
NTU Chemistry & Biological Chemistry – $3,427 ($3,725)
SMU Social Sciences (4-years programme) – $3,409 ($3,710)
NTU Maritime Studies – $3,409 ($3,640)
SUSS Bachelor of Science in Finance – $3,393 ($3,500)
NTU Psychology – $3,389 ($3,684)
NUS Bachelor of Environmental Studies – $3,385 ($3,600)
NTU Sport Science and Management – $3,382 ($3,600)
NUS Bachelor of Arts (Hons) – $3,377 ($3,600)
NTU Sociology – $3,374 ($3,841)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Real Estate) – $3,372 ($3,600)
NUS Bachelor of Arts (Industrial Design) – $3,371 ($3,800)
NUS Bachelor of Arts – $3,322 ($3,600)
NTU Biological Sciences – $3,319 ($3,650)
NUS Bachelor of Science – $3,289 ($3,850)
NTU Chinese – $3,260 ($3,518)
NTU Accountancy – $3,245 ($3,200)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Project and Facilities Management) – $3,237 ($3,300)
NTU Communication Studies – $3,166 ($3,500)
NTU Philosophy – $3,126 ($3,500)
NTU English – $3,124 ($3,500)
NTU Linguistics & Multilingual Studies – $3,091 ($3,500)
SUSS Bachelor of Science in Marketing – $3,023 ($3,245)
NTU Art, Design & Media – $2,986 ($3,300)
NTU Biomedical Sciences & Chinese Medicine – $2,953 ($3,100)
SUSS Bachelor of Accountancy – $2,879 ($3,000)
NUS Bachelor of Music – $2,100 ($2,700)

By Permanent Employment Rate (in brackets are the median salaries)

NTU Business and Computing – 100.0% ($4,575)
NUS Bachelor of Dental Surgery – 100.0% ($4,050)
NTU Science (With Education) – 100.0% ($3,800)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Nursing) (Hons) – 98.0% ($3,550)
NTU Accountancy and Business – 97.7% ($4,000)
SUSS Bachelor of Accountancy – 97.5% ($3,000)
SMU Information Systems (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – 97.2% ($4,685)
NTU Civil Engineering – 96.5% ($3,500)
NTU Computer Engineering – 95.8% ($3,775)
SMU Business Management (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – 95.6% ($4,000)
NUS Bachelor of Computing (Information Systems) – 95.3% ($4,458)
NUS Bachelor of Business Administration (Accountancy) (Hons) – 95.3% ($3,200)
NUS Bachelor of Business Administration (Accountancy) – 95.2% ($3,020)
SMU Accountancy (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – 95.1% ($3,550)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Nursing) – 94.6% ($3,450)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Business Analytics) – 93.5% ($4,500)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Pharmacy) – 93.2% ($3,650)
NTU Computer Science – 93.0% ($4,000)
SMU Law (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – 92.6% ($5,513)
NUS Bachelor of Laws – 92.6% ($5,500)
SMU Accountancy (4-years programme) – 92.3% ($3,000)
NTU Accountancy – 92.2% ($3,000)
NUS Bachelor of Computing (Computer Science) – 91.8% ($4,320)
NTU Electrical & Electronic Engineering – 91.0% ($3,600)
NUS Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) – 90.9% ($3,895)
SMU Law (4-years programme) – 90.8% ($4,500)
NTU Maritime Studies – 90.0% ($3,350)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering) – 89.8% ($3,500)
SMU Economics (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – 89.5% ($4,000)
SMU Information Systems (4-years programme) – 89.5% ($4,000)
NTU Information Engineering & Media – 89.0% ($3,750)
NTU Aerospace Engineering – 88.4% ($3,800)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial and Systems Engineering) – 87.8% ($3,895)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) – 86.9% ($3,700)
SMU Business Management (4-years programme) – 86.5% ($3,700)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Materials Science and Engineering) – 86.4% ($3,600)
NTU Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering – 86.0% ($3,600)
SMU Economics (4-years programme) – 85.6% ($3,700)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Real Estate) – 85.1% ($3,300)
NUS Bachelor of Business Administration – 84.8% ($3,225)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Project and Facilities Management) – 84.6% ($3,060)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering) – 84.3% ($3,975)
NTU Business – 84.3% ($3,500)
NTU Communication Studies – 84.2% ($3,000)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical Engineering) – 84.1% ($4,000)
NTU Economics – 84.0% ($3,536)
SUSS Bachelor of Science in Finance – 84.0% ($3,400)
SUSS Bachelor of Science in Marketing – 84.0% ($3,000)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical Engineering) – 83.4% ($3,700)
NTU Mathematics & Economics – 83.3% ($3,600)
NTU Materials Engineering – 81.9% ($3,500)
NTU Biomedical Sciences & Chinese Medicine – 81.8% ($3,000)
NTU Environmental Engineering – 81.6% ($3,400)
NUS Bachelor of Arts with Honours (Yale-NUS) – 81.1% ($3,630)
NTU Mechanical Engineering – 81.1% ($3,500)
NUS Bachelor of Science with Honours (Yale-NUS) – 78.9% ($4,800)
SMU Social Sciences (4-years programme) Cum Laude and above – 78.9% ($3,600)
NTU Psychology – 78.0% ($3,380)
NTU Chinese – 76.3% ($3,500)
NTU Philosophy – 76.0% ($3,000)
NTU Mathematical Sciences – 75.9% ($3,650)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Environmental Engineering) – 74.6% ($3,400)
NUS Bachelor of Social Sciences – 74.5% ($3,400)
SMU Social Sciences (4-years programme) – 74.4% ($3,210)
NTU Physics & Applied Physics – 74.1% ($3,400)
NUS Bachelor of Science (Hons) – 72.8% ($3,400)
NTU Public Policy and Global Affairs – 71.0% ($3,350)
NUS Bachelor of Engineering (Biomedical Engineering) – 69.8% ($3,389)
NUS Bachelor of Arts (Industrial Design) – 69.6% ($3,250)
NTU Biological Sciences – 67.0% ($3,250)
NTU Bioengineering – 66.2% ($3,500)
NTU Chemistry & Biological Chemistry – 63.9% ($3,200)
NTU Sport Science and Management – 61.1% ($3,300)
NUS Bachelor of Arts (Hons) – 60.8% ($3,300)
NTU Sociology – 60.4% ($3,220)
NTU English – 59.2% ($3,000)
NTU Environmental Earth Systems Science – 57.1% ($3,500)
NUS Bachelor of Arts – 56.6% ($3,200)
NTU History – 56.4% ($3,500)
NUS Bachelor of Environmental Studies – 55.3% ($3,414)
NTU Art, Design & Media – 53.8% ($3,000)
NUS Bachelor of Science – 47.2% ($3,100)
NTU Linguistics & Multilingual Studies – 45.8% ($3,200)
NUS Bachelor of Music – 23.8% ($1,800)

https://www.salary.sg/2019/graduate-employm...published-2019/

Just an idea of the salaries and employability of Singapore's universities graduates as well as which degree draws the highest pay. The attached document tabulates the results of the MOE survey of 14,987 full-time and 1,126 follow-up graduates from NTU, NUS, SMU, SUSS, and SUTD. Might be worth looking at if you plan to study in Singapore or have an idea as to which degree you would like to study in general in terms of that degree's employability and salary. Although the results are based on Singapore graduates, it might give an idea as to what to do, especially if you plan to work in Singapore or overseas.

As NTU and NUS are now jointly ranked 11 in QS world universities ranking, it might be that those universities have an advantage over other universities in terms of employability.

Information and communications technology (ICT)

xenotzu — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:04:33 +0800

As there are many who seem to be interested in an ICT career, I thought I post this article from a Singaporean newspaper which examines the future of ICT careers and jobs. Like Malaysia, ICT is a hot sector in Singapore and they are expanding their ICT sector rapidly. Further, the Fintech (financial technology) industry is booming in Singapore at present with many new Fintech companies being set up, both local and international firms.

QUOTE

FAST-EXPANDING SECTOR

The wave of digitisation rippling through the economy has bolstered demand for ICT professionals over the years. In June 2015, 172,000 ICT professionals were employed in Singapore, with one in two working in the ICT sector and the remainder in sectors from finance to healthcare. The number had spiked about 20 per cent within four years, and it is set to increase at a faster rate: Another 53,200 — or about 31 per cent more — ICT jobs were expected to be added over three years, between last year and 2018, based on government projections.

Technical specialists are most sought after in four areas: IT development (including software developers and systems analysts), network and infrastructure (including IT infrastructure managers and network engineers), data analytics, and cyber-security.

Honestbee is looking to enlarge its existing pool of about 40 software engineers in Singapore by at least 10 this year, particularly senior developers who specialise in back-end and mobile development, a company spokesperson said. Software engineers in a technical role develop systems, while those who choose the management path have increased responsibility for mentoring or could even manage the product roadmap. “With the advancement of online services, such as ours, the utilisation of mobile applications, mobile web or web usage increases,” said the honestbee spokesperson. “Therefore, there’s a consistent need for such roles.”

Likewise, at Garena, demand for software engineers is also rising. Mr Lucas Jiang, vice-president and head of its people team, said the firm — which has around 150 software engineers — is always on the lookout for exceptional workers, especially software engineers. The 5,000-strong company has a presence across South-east Asia and Taiwan. Mr Jiang said Singapore’s strategic location afforded it an “incredible advantage”, where talent here can be tapped to serve the needs of users beyond the Republic’s borders. “With increasing median income, and Internet and smartphone penetration in the region, we’re witnessing a growing demand for localised products,” he said.

Mr Luo Siao Ping, Singtel subsidiary NCS’ human resources director, said the firm will hire about 200 to 300 more software engineers, as well as data analytics and cybersecurity professionals in the next five years. Data scientists, for instance, help make sense of large amounts of data and build systems to analyse information, while software engineers build links between different equipment, such as allowing mobile phones to control washing machines. NCS is developing a career roadmap - set to be rolled out this year - to give employees an idea of progression paths, said Mr Luo. Software engineers can become senior and lead software engineers, or even cross over to management as project or service delivery directors.

DEMAND FOR CYBERSECURITY PROFESSIONALS

As cyberattacks become increasingly sophisticated and deal severe blows to businesses, cybersecurity has also emerged as a significant growth area in the ICT sector.

Mr Goh Eng Choon, cybersecurity firm ST Electronics (Info-Security)’s senior vice-president and general manager, pointed to Singapore’s Smart Nation effort, coupled with the increasing impact of cyberthreats. In 2014, the company launched the ST Electronics Cyber Security Centre to address a “quite significant gap” in the skills of cybersecurity professionals, said Mr Goh. The 200-strong firm hopes to double its staff in the next two years. Since the middle of last year, it has committed to training 120 individuals over two years under the Cyber Security Associates and Technologists (CSAT) programme, a joint initiative of the IMDA and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore.

Mr Alvin Koh, 54, is one of those who have completed on-the-job training under the CSAT programme. He joined ST Electronics (Info-Security) as a security consultant in July after being laid off about three months earlier. The ICT veteran has worked in various capacities before, from systems administration to technical support, but cybersecurity was a new field to him. His work now includes assessing applications or servers, both for clients and internally, for vulnerabilities such as information leaks and the transmission of log-in credentials. He tries to take advantage of the loopholes to gain access to the systems. Alongside automated tools, professionals such as Mr Koh help clients plug the gaps to reduce the risk of cyberattacks. “When you’re doing the testing... you get an ‘aha’ moment... ‘aha, I’ve found this (vulnerability)’,” said Mr Koh, on the sense of excitement he derives from his work.

TRAINING COURSES GALORE

As new technological trends emerge, the range of training courses open to those keen to join the sector is set to widen.

The ISS at NUS, for instance, will roll out 30 new courses over the next three years, spanning topics from artificial intelligence to deep machine learning and robotics, on top of its current stable of courses on cybersecurity, data analytics and user experience. Last year alone, its programmes in disciplines such as design thinking and cybersecurity trained 2,205 professionals, managers and executives, with 2,420 others undergoing courses leading to international and national certification. Its cyber-security courses, for example, saw enrolment jump by more than a third last year, compared with 2015.

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore-too-o...or-welcomes-you

The article below shows the type of professionals and jobs which are popular and in demand in Singapore, together with their average salaries. Makes for very interesting reading and I hope of some help to students who are planning their future career in ICT. I've also attached a copy of the report here.

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/where...logy-ict-sector

Where the Jobs are in Singapore

xenotzu — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 21:32:02 +0800

Even though Singapore is facing a slump in its economy, there are still industries which are doing well and which remains in demand for the foreseeable future. These are the industries in Singapore where jobs can be found, their salaries, education and qualifications required for them:

QUOTE

Where the jobs are: Logistics industry
This week, we look at vacancies in the logistics and supply chain industry, a sector teeming with bright spots. It is also seen as a more conducive industry for professionals seeking to make a mid-career switch, given the gentle learning curve, and non-specialised skills required.
http://www.todayonline.com/business/where-...-chain-industry

Where the jobs are: Food manufacturing industry
In the second of our 8-part series, we look at vacancies in the food manufacturing industry, which has been embarking on greater innovation and overseas expansion. This sector plays a key role in Singapore’s economy, contributing S$3.7 billion to the country’s GDP and employing some 40,000 workers. New job opportunities are also opening up as Singapore looks to transform into a leading food and nutrition hub.
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/where...turing-industry

Where the jobs are: Hotel industry
In the third of our eight-part series, we look at vacancies in the vibrant hotel industry, buoyed by new hotels sprouting up and a steady stream of tourist arrivals. This sector plays a vital role in Singapore’s economy, contributing around S$3.5 billion to the Republic’s gross domestic product and employing about 35,000 workers. With homegrown hotel chains spreading their wings overseas, new job opportunities in senior management are also opening up for Singaporeans, such as those for general managers and human resource directors.
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/where...-hotel-industry

Where the jobs are: Early childhood and education industry
In the fourth of our eight-part series, we look at vacancies in the early childhood care and education industry – an evolving sector that needs more than just educators. As some preschools expand their footprint locally and abroad, employers are looking to fill new roles like operations managers and cluster principals.
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/where...cation-industry

Where the jobs are: Information and communications technology (ICT) sector
In this fifth instalment, we look at vacancies in the fast-growing ICT sector, fuelled by the Republic’s goal of becoming a Smart Nation and the wave of digitisation sweeping the economy. The rapid advancement of technology has created numerous new opportunities in the sector not only for mid-career entrants, but also for those already in the field. In June 2015, 172,000 ICT professionals were employed in Singapore.
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/where...logy-ict-sector

Where the jobs are: Healthcare industry
In the sixth of our eight-part series, we look at vacancies in the healthcare sector – where passionate and dedicated personnel are needed to deliver quality care. With new healthcare facilities sprouting up, a projected 30,000 more healthcare workers are needed to support the corresponding growth.
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/where...thcare-industry