Integrity of Education Institutions in Sarawak

Institutions of higher education in Sarawak are generally confined to a few larger institutions of student population varying from 500 to a couple of thousands whereas the smaller one having population of less than 500. This blog is primarily concerned with the integrity of these institutions mostly private although vetted and regulated by the local education ministries and departments and other quality control bodies. The word "institution of higher education" encompasses those institutions that offer courses beyond the secondary level within the context Malaysian education systems. The concern though describe here merely as the "integrity" includes the honesty, the administrative nuances and all that which would be of concern to all potential, as well as existing, students, who may be considering entry into or are already pursuing a course with these institutions respectively. The larger institutions are as follows:



Curtin offering Diplomas and degrees

Swinburne offering Diplomas and Degrees

Segi Diplomas and Degrees

Inti Diplomas and Degrees

UCSI Diplomas and Degrees

Sunway Diplomas and Degrees Accounting ACCA/CIMA

FTMS Diplomas and Degrees, Accounting ACCA/CIMA

Informatics Diplomas and Degrees Predominantly IT and related disciplines

Of all these institutions some are dubious in practices either in their administration or in their methods of delivery while others have questionable methods of examination or , hence the integrity of such institutions in Sarawak generally. Overall it translate into whether the diplomas or degrees are up to standard or even valid al all. The question whether private institutions can ever replace public institutions of higher education never arises.

FTMS
For instance the fact that FTMS is known and proven to be questionable is its method of teaching and delivery where questions and answers are provided for students who are sitting for their coming ACCA exams. The reason for such act was solely to increase the passing rates of FTMS as a ACCA tuition provider so that FTMS can be label as a "Premier" provider of ACCA tuitions. The fact that they were actually caught by investigating officers who flew in all the way from Scotland(due to complaints by students) and the subsequent removal of its "Premier" status goes to show that cheating is never a means to an end. For that very same reason FTMS is now attempting to switch to CIMA of late, as having the present ACCA "Gold" label does not clear the cloud of doubt in its integrity and practice.

One of the main principle of being an ACCA accountant is the "Chartered" label which ensure the integrity and honesty of such an Accountant. The fact that the Principal and owner of FTMS who himself is an ACCA "Chartered" Accountant, or so-called Fellowship of ACCA(FCCA), who is supposed to uphold such integrity and honesty, is the chief architect in the fradulent practice of providing questions and answers to students for coming ACCA exams, and still is, places the whole establishment under doubt that it will not do the same for CIMA exams and likewise any other courses it may offer.

Segi

For those who need to seriously look into the quality of the education they are getting and for the parents who will be paying their hard-earned money for the sake of their childrens' future. You will be horrified to know that there have being a lot of dubious going-ons in the Segi group of colleges as shortlisted below:

1. Fake or falsified syllabus created for the education board and ministries inspectors.

2. Fake or prepared teaching plan and scheduled purely fabricated to satisfy inspectors

3. Staffs and students other than those who are supposed to be in class, sat in class over the duration of the inspectors visit to provide misinformation and mislead the inspectors and give false answers their questions(staffs and students are coached in advance)

4. Books are borrowed from vendors just to fill up libraries for the duration of the inspectors' visit after which they were returned to vendors.

5. Student activities room is a temporary set up for the duration of the inspection and then dismantled after the inspection.

6. The most serious of all, each and every lecturers are told at the risks of losing their jobs if they don't comply, to represent a number of students and fake all the examination transcripts(rewrite their examination papers) for all the exams each student sat for, in order to alter their passing grades or failures.

7. Timetable for the whole year are fictitious and not followed in the least. The timetables were created purely for the inpection as well.

The rationale behind these practices may be administrative corruption or just pure poor management or for the sake of financial gain or other fradulent excuses I dread to guess but for whatever reasons I personally cannot justify sacrificing the students integrity and honesty and especially their future to become contributing citizen of Malaysia. I understand that the above was practice in all the Segi group of colleges and dates back even when Segi was a collection of group consisting of IBMS, Systematic, etc..

OUM

Managed by a bunch of incompetent fools who only think highly of themselves. The academics are just as unqualified as a bunch of mental cases and some are even egoistic about it ! The administration does not have any grasp as to what the place is doing or what is actually happening in the establishment. They failed to realise that most of todays students are no longer immature young students who knows next to nothing about what they are studying but are mostly self supporting working adults who probably make more than any of those so-called lecturers made in a year and probably know a lot more then they let out to be!

More to come...