This letter below was written in Malaysiakini by a person who called himself “Professor Kangkong“. We must accept the fact that our universities have become the laughing-stock of the nation. The letter below is a clear example of what is happening in our universities.
I was made to understand that in some local universities, you are given an A/Prof post if you just publish 3 papers in any journal or conference publication. This means that if you publish 3 abstracts in any conference (conference publications) you can be considered for an A/Prof post. The same goes if you can publish 3 papers in any journals, it does not matter whether it is an index journal or no impact factor journal! At first I did not believe this untill I saw it with my own eyes! I have even seen so-called “A/Prof” who can’t speak proper English!
Compare this with Monash university Australia where almost 80% of their academics retire at the level of Senior Lecturer after years of service! They not only look at the number of publications but the impact factor and the quality of the publications. Conference publications, abstracts, letters to editor, images are not considered. Case reports are also not considered equivalent to a full article.
I have given up on our local universities. What is the failure rate of our university students? Any guess? I am sure it is 100% unless the students drop out by him/herself.
I just hope my children will be able to study in some prestigious universities overseas. For that I need to save lots of money from now onwards…………….. and that’s the reason I am going full-time private from June 2010!
UPM – a ‘research university’ condoning plagiarism
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Professor Kankong
Apr 6, 10
3:34pm
Last year, two Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) academics, a professor and deputy dean and a senior lecturer, were exposed for plagiarism, the most serious offence in academia.
Both of them plagiarised from the Internet and used the material for their ‘book’- ‘Writing an Effective Resume.’
No action was taken against these two, the UPM vice-chancellor Prof Dr Nik Mustapha R Abdullah said a warning was adequate – they both kept their job and titles and did not lose anything.
How can UPM – a research university – condone plagiarism? You call yourself a world-class university and yet allow your staff to plagiarise with impunity. Is it any wonder that standards in Malaysian universities are dropping like stones?
Worse still, the book is still available on the market. It looks like in Malaysian universities, research means copying from the Internet. Worse still, they are both still doing ‘research’.
If Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak wants to improve the standards of our public universities, the first thing he needs to do is to take action and punish these so-called professors. Worse, one of them is now a member of the National Professors Board. What a joke.
What does it take to clean up the monkeys in our public universities? UPM – University of Plagiarists Malaysia?
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I think it’s high time that such lecturers are dismiss or demoted with no future promotion. As a student of UPM, I felt ashamed of this few minorities which tainted the good name of the university. The VC had been under the spot light for poor decision making prior to this incident. Perhaps the VC should go as well instead of been rewarded with new contract!
UPM is not the only university this is happening. Unfortunately due to political reason, no action will be taken!
I am a victim under this kind of system. I was a student in this uni for its Asasi programme. I went into this uni instead despite getting the offer letter to study in matriculation.This is because I had made up my mind to study Medicine, it seems easier to get that offer as an Asasi student. I worked so hard,day and night and obtained a CGPA of 4.00 for both semesters. But guess what, some of my batch mates they do not even achieve the minimum requirement (3.75,meaning at least A- for all subjects)! And they were called for the interview and they got the offer!!! You know why? Because they were helped by those lecturers to change their grades! Those who want to study vet is also like that. They can just beg their lecturers and change their grades. My apologies, our exams were already not as difficult as STPM!! I even heard lecturers can help to recommend students so interviewers know you before the interview. It was not fair! What will our future like? Hospitals filled with doctors with poor grades? Academic excellence doesn’t mean everything but they could not even pass the minimum requirements for fundamental subjects! How can they finish the 5 year tough course? I am truly disappointed with this system in this local uni. Dr, you did mention that some students were going for private unis to study Medicine. I can assure you that some of them may have higher capability to be a good doctor! It is the fact for our generation! Please be more aware about this dark side of our nation’s local uni!
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Do you know why there are more and more doctors? Because most of them were lousy doctors! Doctors who could not specialise because they do not want to and because they do not have the ability to! Those who wanted to pursue this course so much will still pursue it even though no local unis accept them. And at the end, we Malaysians may need to depend on this kind of doctors eventually. How funny is that!
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It is a vicious cycle of blind leading the blind.
Welcome to Malaysia. Why do you think we are in this mess now?
I had written enough about these issues since 2010