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Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Of local and overseas qualifications

Posted by Alphonso Tan

Aha… A case that attracted me, and which also encourages me to blog about this.

Let’s start about our local tax first. An individual will be entitled to a RM4,000 tax relief if he/she has a child who is above 18, unmarried and studying in local institution, diploma and above, OR, he/she has a child who is above 18, unmarried and studying in overseas institution, degree and above.

See the difference? For your parents who want to obtain a RM4,000 tax relief, you have to be studying in a local institution, minimum diploma level. But for your parents who want to obtain a RM4,000 tax relief, you have to be studying in an oversea institution, minimum a degree level. Why?

Aiyahh… Malaysia is like that one lah…”

There’s a case which happened recently. It was published in the GuangMing Daily's headline, and also some Chinese presses, but not even a short note in the English and Malay presses.

Apparently, the case is like this:

A boy from Raub, he has an ambition since he was a small kid. He wants to be a policeman when he grow up. So later, later, he pursued his Diploma in TARC, Advance Diploma in TARC, then obtained a Campbell University’s Bachelor Degree in Science. So, 4 years ago, he submitted his job request for an inspector post for the PDRM Submission after submission. He has submitted his requests for 3 times. But his hard work failed. So, he was very sad, he went to DAP office and lodged a complained. Later, the DAP Assistant Publicity Secretary, Lau Weng San accompanied him to go to the GuangMing’s office to make-big-the-issue.

Now, for your information, to be a sarjan, you must at least, be a diploma level holder. To be a higher rank (I’m not sure what post), you ascend the education level.

And now, for your another information, a BSc (Hons) from overseas, is equivalent to local’s BSc only. Overseas BSc, is only equivalent to local’s General Degree from Public Institution of Higher Learning … Everything from overseas, you have to reduce one level lower in order to equivalent the to the local tertiary education level. Don’t ask me why. It is like that. This is mend to reduce the unemployment rate in Malaysia, and it is also another way to reduce the outflow of the smart students from Malaysia, and it is also another way to self-comfort us to think that the local tertiary education level is definitely higher than overseas!!

So, with this 2 information combine, plus the unemployment rate in Malaysia, I still believe that no matter how he stands on his ground, no matter whether the qualification is being recognized by LAN, MOHE or JPA, he will mst likely won't be chosen as an inspector for the PDRM.

And here’s my advice to all the readers, if you have the money and plan to get qualifications from oversea institutions, think again. If you wish to work in overseas, and you think you are able to do that, just go for it. But for students who wish to get qualifications from oversea institutions, and wish to work in Malaysia for some purposes (miss your parents, loyal towards the country), think again.

Last but not least, IMHO, professional qualification is still the best =P The status will not change, and it will be recognized by nearly everywhere around the world =D

Once again, if I’ve made any error or mistake, kindly feel free to correct me. Thanks ya…
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Comments
12 Comments

12 comments:

  1. Well, I don't know much about your topic but I support studing in overseas. Not that I have anything against local U. However, I think studing overseas would make the person more independent and experience newer culture etc. This are some things you cannot obtained if you study in local U.

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  2. Sorry,may I know what is the meaning of "general degree"? Is it equivalent to diploma? How do we call general degree in Bahasa Melayu?

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  3. I can't comment about the rest since I'm not familiar with the system.

    But the bit about RM4000 tax rebate makes perfect sense. Why should equal benefits be given to people who study overseas? From the govt's point of view - studying overseas = outflow of currency = making the country poorer. Same logic as PTPN loans.

    Studying overseas isn't cheap. If you're going to pay thousands, you should be doing it at the degree level rather than diploma.

    Besides, the purpose of a tac rebate is to ease the financial burden of parents paying for children's education. If you can afford to send you kids overseas, you probably won't need that extra RM4000 as local students' parents.

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  4. hi! nice blog!

    i'm studying the ACCA professional qualification now :)

    fyi, the personal relief of RM4000 is not the actual deduction of the tax payable! The RM4000 is meant to reduce your taxable income.

    That means the reduction in your tax payable is only a fraction of RM4000, depending on the tax rate applicable to you. The reduction is kinda low if your parents don't earn much.

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  5. this has got to be one of the most ludicrous posts i have ever read, only UMNO's webpages can claim to have THE most ludicrous posts in the whole world wide web, hands down.

    for your information, an overseas degree is not inferior to a degree earned in msia. an overseas undergraduate degree with honours is not equivalent to a local one without honours. you are like saying a BSc(hons) from oxford is equivalent to a BSc, say, from UM, this statement alone will qualify you for a job in comedy central.

    let me clarify with this sad but true fact. an honours in msia is but a free commodity. nearly everyone gets a first class honours! and virtually no one in msian public unis would obtain a degree without honours after 3 years of study.

    in other countries, such as australia and new zealand, you do 3 years of undergraaduate study, and if you are deemed qualified(having high grades), then you are invited to partake an extra year to study for honours. there is a quota of about 30% of students who could be admitted into an honours year. during your honours year, you do maybe 1/4 year of coursework and the rest of the year you'd participate in research work, doing your thesis, defending it etc. and after that your thesis and defence are evaluated and is given grades of 1st class, or 2nd upper etc. mind you, 1st class and 2nd upper are really rare, and in many cases not even one 1st class honours is awarded in one whole year. if your research work is totally not up to standard, they will just grant you a normal degree.

    britain, however, is different in such they award an honours after 3 years of study. nevertheless, their uni courses are done in intensive mode and are very compact, making it possible to cram all the theories into 3 years and demand that you complete your thesis etc by the end of your 3rd year. anyway, getting good grades in your honours is really difficult too and is warranted by merit.

    do msian unis have such rigorous mechanisms as to evaluate honours thesis and defence? it seems that everyone can get an honours degree in msia and are all at 1st class too. since the unis are giving away free honours, local grads without honours are considered extremely stupid and shouldnt even have the intelligence to enrol into uni in the first place.

    many organisations and recruiting agencies in msia(even recruiters for the civil service) recognise this fact and stipulate that all prospective applicants should possess at least a 2nd upper honours degree. this is to really weed out the incompetent ones who dun even have an honours degree in a system that practically dishes out honours like its free.

    recruiters overseas do not bother to state the requirement of whether you have to have an honours or not because they know that getting into honours is no easy feat and that some high achievers practically dump honours year altogether because it takes an extra year of their time. furthermore, the honours year emphasises on research skills anyway, it might be useful if the student wanted to take a ride in the academia, but not very in the outside world where practical work is done.

    it is official that the gov does not recognise TARC diplomas. generally, the civil departments are so drowned in their own ignorance and naivety they do not acknowledge that an overseas honours is not equivalent to a msian honours. even if you present a degree without honours say from harvard uni they still wouldnt accept you as being as intelligent(or more intelligent) than an honours degree holder from a third rate uni msia. what do civil departments know anyway? i once had a friend who wanted to apply for a scholarship to study at the london school of economics and got rejected at the counter and got this reply from the admin: "school? sekolah tak boleh, minimum mesti peringkat university." after that, we were like, "so this is what honours degree graduates of msian unis are like".

    to anonymous april 06, 2007, 3.47am, a general degree(or a pass degree) is a degree without an honours. a degree with an honours is called an honours degree. i know its hard to visualise it in msia since basically everyone in msia get an honours degree, if not 1st class honours.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I definitely agree with emogrande.

    M'sians are still living under the impression that everything titled "first" is good.

    They fail to see the actual quality behind that word. Having said that, you can never underestimate the quality of overseas degree. Or even put it on par with local degrees because it is not the same standard.

    Getting a grade B in all my subjects at university ... is good enough. It may be considered the average mark. But it is the norm that only a minority of the co-hord are able to achieve A or A+ in this sense. This statistics is normal. Not like the ones in Malaysia.

    Hence, distinction degrees here cannot be compared to first class honours in M'sia.

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  7. It is undeniable that going overseas to further studies is going to train one to be independent. However, I feel that it doesn't necessarily to have to go overseas. Some people are born independent and some are not. And some, it's just because of the way they have grown up or family backgrounds. There isn't really a need to overseas since we have a lot of offshore campuses here already. The qualities may be better or poorer, I am not sure. But at the end of the day, what matters the most is not which universities you have come from, but YOU, yourself.

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  8. yeah, the post totally wrong!!
    sory, im emo for a while
    imma disagreeD!!!
    please have a good knowledge on govenrment qualification and not just influenced by the case
    JPA will do qualificate your studies from overseas universities.
    you dont believe it?
    check the link

    http://www.interactive.jpa.gov.my/webinteraktif/frmMainIktiraf.asp

    for those fellas who planning to studies abroad, please check out your studies qualification from the webpage because JPA does qualificate all the studies from all the universities over the world
    i just want to make the others clear with this situation
    im not telling that malaysian studies is not good, but if you have any opportunities to studiy abroad, go for it,
    then you can work there because overseas countries does provides high demands in any field
    and the rumors said that malaysia will lower one of your studies level, its didnt make a sense
    what a lie!!

    dear autor, do you have been experienced the case?
    for a reason, if government will do so, what the hack are they doing by sending a lot of scholars to do honours in medicine for 6 years at russia and all over the world?
    sorry, emo again
    guys, please have a clear view on this situation


    check the qualification please...!!

    http://www.interactive.jpa.gov.my/webinteraktif/frmMainIktiraf.asp

    ReplyDelete
  9. hi pls help me! I am malaysian but born in singapore my whole life. Am a pr there. Studied til o levels in singapore then came to help college to do a levels cos i wanna go uk after a levels. Is there anyway i can get exemption from taking lan subjects? I cant speak a word of malay. Am only in malaysia for the a levels. Liable for ns in singapore after a levels. Thanks!!

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  10. any student loan applicable for study abroad..? im taking acca part2 nw...and planing study acca part2 in uk.. but facing a insuficient fund problem...any student loan suggest?!?!thx^^

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  11. Where is the best college to study music after SPM exams? Could someone brief me on this matter.Thanks

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  12. Great help regarding that I used once in my exams as the 1st batch of British student.

    ReplyDelete

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