As a university graduate myself, I always wonder why my tuition fee was so expensive. Especially when I studied overseas where every dollar I spent was equivalent to 3 dollars back in my home country. Also, there is this saying, “you use only about 5% of what you learn at university” which gets everyone with a right mind thinking, why attend university at all if you don’t apply the things you have learnt?

The mainstream media have got most of us into this fairytale story telling us that if we do not graduate with at least a degree, we do not get a job. Well, that is just one side of the story that appeals to only the employers, not the students.

Here are why our university and college education do not appeal to you students and is definitely not worth your parents’ hard earned money.

University Education is Nothing near Advanced Technologically

If you plan to take engineering and hope to get hands-on experience with high-end manufacturing machines. Think again, you might want to double your tuition fees to take up postgraduate studies instead.

If you plan to take commerce with the hope to graduate with all the skills needed to success in trading and investment, you will fail miserably because in university they teach you nothing about diversifying your portfolio. They teach you to diversify your portfolio in stocks, which makes you a loser every time the market crashes.

If you plan to take IT courses, prepare to meet lecturers who have no idea what they are teaching.

If you plan to take law and medicine, you graduate working your heads off with companies that pays you dirt.

Either way, by the time you graduate, all the things you have learnt is outdated and you will have to re-learn everything when you join a corporation.

It’s All About Business Mate

Very few universities actually promote real, practical, hands-on education. Education is now an industry, your vice-chancellors care not about your welfare as a student. Even if you’re excellent in your studies at postgraduate level, they hire you just to keep you as a tutor and pay you enough (you don’t want to be earning only enough your entire life) so that you can produce more papers to promote the university. Yay free advertisement.

Highest Inflation on Your Tuition Fees

Believe it or not, the inflation in the university and college education sector is one of the most inflated industries in the world. I did a search while I was surfing around the other day and found this.

I then checked this graph with the CPI index of Australia and learnt that the inflation in education even higher than the inflation in healthcare!  So I have come to a conclusion that this graph represents most of the universities and colleges around the world. So much for the importance of tertiary education.

Do you know that the money I spent studying in Australia can be used as a down payment for about 3 houses back in my hometown. Can I buy 3 houses in the next 4 years as a university graduate working for companies that pays me dirt? Very unlikely.

The Ever Growing World Wide Web

Every second, data as big as the Library of Congress is transmitted over the internet. You can imagine the whole library swooshing around the world in the network cable. Almost everything you need to know is available on the internet. In fact, most of the assignment given to you in university or college requires the use of the internet to complete them.

Why would you still need to pay a huge sum of money to the education institutes to tell you things that can be easily searched from the internet for free?

What Can We Do About This?

I guess we could form a union and go on a strike on hopes that the universities will reduce the tuition fees, which sounds extremely impractical and dangerous. On top of that, going on a strike is also something done by a person who has no control over anything; to simply put it, a university graduate who is being kicked around in the society.

So what are our options?

A few months ago, I met up with a friend called Fred at a cafe. Fred was complaining about his expensive tuition fees, he said that he should have taken his friend’s suggestion before he entered college.

His friend’s suggestion was this. Instead of paying a lump sum of your university savings to people who teaches you a lot of impractical crap, spend those money on your first few businesses and professional courses.

US’s average annual tuition fee is about 25,000 USD, a university course is usually 3 to 4 years depending on which degree you are taking. Fred’s friend suggested that you spend 20,000 USD on a new business and spend the rest attending courses that will enhance your professional skills.

Most of the time, your first business will fail. But keep in mind that you have 2 more years of savings to work on and usually you learn a tonne after your first business failure. Pool them together with the knowledge you gain from the professional courses you attend, I am sure your second and third (if not your fourth) business will be a success. That is when you will have control over your life.

Please bear in mind that I am not exactly advocating these kind of ideas. However, I believe it is something worth trying out if the universities and colleges keep on jacking up their education fees.

As a person who has searched your way to this article, I am pretty sure you are somebody who have either attended the Millionaire Mind Intensive (MMI) course or have agreed to join the 3 day exciting event created by T. Harv Eker. If you are the latter, prepare yourself for a treat from this article and from the course.

The Irrelevant Matters

Before I continue, let us talk a bit on the credibility of my information. Early this year, I attended the MMI seminar (and possibly have discovered enlightenment) myself and just a few weeks ago, I crewed for the MMI seminar in Australia. As a crew member I have talked to many participants and usually it goes like this the first day; they whine about the information to be “common sense” for most business practices. However, at the end of the third day, the majority of them find the seminar to be an eye opener and is worth the weekend.

To judge the seminar from a participant and a crew member’s perspective, I would say that it is a seminar to sell their products. But do not let this concern you at all, there are a few interesting activities that is definitely worth the 3 days of your weekend. So, I will leave it to you to judge whether the information provided in this article is credit enough or not. Right, so what are you expecting from the seminar?

To quickly go through the unimportant matters, it is a 3 days seminar, it starts early at 9 AM in the morning and ends at about 10 PM at might (yes, about 12 hours).

Day 1 of the seminar is pretty straightforward, Harv will talk about being mindful about your own money and how to keep part of what you earn to yourself. He will sell you products which do just that, they will definitely be sold out (trust me on that).

Day 2 of the seminar starts off to be extremely sleepy (you will know it when you get there). However, the night will be pretty interesting. Harv talks about ruling your money and not let your money rule you, there’s an activity that trains you to do just that.

Day 3 is the most interesting and will be the most important day of the seminar. Do not miss the third day no matter what. The theme on the third day is to believe in yourself, there is also an unbelievable activity to train you to do so. I will not disclose the activity but just pull yourself together to do it.

The Important Matters

As you can see, I am quickly going through the seminar schedules. This is because those are all the things you have to find out yourselves at the seminar. The important part of the seminar is T. Harv Eker’s marketing strategy, I repeat, T.Harv Eker’s marketing strategy.

Harv has polished his ability to successfully persuade the majority of his targeted customers to buy his products and courses. If he wants you to buy it, you will buy it if you have the credit. To simply illustrate his marketing strategy, he creates urgency upon his participants and have them buy their product because they do not want to be left out.

Throughout the MMI course, Harv sells 2 types of things, products and courses. In both the MMI seminar I went to, he sells the products first (which are limited) and they are usually sold out. Products are unimportant, the important ones are the courses such as Quantum Leap which costs about ten thousand AU dollars. Harv will make it sound like the courses will be limited in seats (which is partly true). However, don’t be fooled by that because the crews are told to sell as many courses as possible.

Sometimes Harv will give ridiculously low seminar prices that only valid for the first 25 applicants. But if you think about it, how would the sales person know which 25 applicants comes first? The system is not computerized, there will be at least 15 salesperson around the sales booths, there are more than a hundred application forms that writes the discounted price, there is no way the low seminar prices are only valid for 25 peoples.

To back on that statement, I have even asked the boss (I will not mention the name) to give me seminar prices after the seminar because I need some time to think about joining the Quantum Leap program. The boss agrees and gave me a number to contact if I have made up my mind.

Now the reason I am writing this article is to inform you that during the course of the seminar, you will be placed under Harv Eker’s superb marketing “spell”. So you have to take control of yourself before getting yourself into too much debt. Bear in mind that even after you finish all the courses in the Quantum Leap program, there is no guarantee that you will be a millionaire a few weeks after.

So, that is why I want you think twice before rushing yourself into a course.  I have not attended the Quantum Leap program yet, but I talked to the boss and the boss said that they will be selling more things (I have no idea what) as well in the courses you spent thousands to attend. I believe it is wise to at least have your money ready to pounce on the opportunities offered in those courses.

Nevertheless, do go to the seminar, get yourself equipped with more information and do what’s best for your future.

Oh, do you know that Harv gave out free MMI tickets every MMI seminar? If you have somebody who went and bought the book, get the free MMI ticket from them.

A lot of Malaysian government actions(bribery) can be ignored by closing an eye pretending that they never happened before. However, on the 8th of July, the Malaysian Government announced that Mathematics and Science subjects will be revert back to Bahasa Malaysia, the national language starting 2012.

This in fact is an extremely serious matter that cannot be overlooked because it concerns the future of the present youth!

Reason of this Yet-Another-Political-Farce

“Only 19.2% of secondary teachers and 9.96% of primary teachers were sufficiently proficient in English,” he said, explaining the Government’s decision to revert to the old system.

These absurdly low percentages are the result of emphasis on Bahasa on Math and Science before 2003. I am extremely sure that these results have been constantly improving until yesterday when the Government decided to revert back to Bahasa again.

It’s an English Speaking World Out There

Look, the economy leader(the USA) educates their young in English. Educating our future leaders in Bahasa for Math and Science is suicidal. All of their secondary Math and Science educations are down the drain as they reach to tertiary level of education. I know this from personal experience, many Math and Science terms do not make sense in Bahasa Malaysia.

And more importantly Bahasa Melayu, unlike German, Japanese or Chinese, does not have enough vocabulary keep it updated with the technological terms introduced in Math and Science.

Malaysia is different! Even though Bahasa is the national language, most private corporate companies operate in English language. How do you (the Government) suppose not enhancing the English language education in our youth would do any good to the country’s economy in the future?

Of course, here is a quote from The Star that answers my question above

He (the Deputy Prime Minister) however added that there will be greater emphasis on learning the English language.

This is a joke I can expect from the Malaysian Government. Here’s how,

On efforts to emphasize the learning of English, the number of English teachers would be increased by 13,933 — retirees would be hired, as well as foreigners if need be.

Let’s assume 2 thousand salary per month for English teachers. That is about 28 million per month of tax payers’ money spent unnecessarily on teachers! We are better off without the revert and spending that 28 million properly.

What is worse is they now even started to spend on the foreigners! What happened to the Buy Malaysian Products Campaign?

and …

Primary schools will also increase English classes by 90 minutes a week.

That is 18 hours of English studies everyday! Give the children back their childhood days! The children need more childhood experiences, not some badly designed education system!

The bags are literally bigger than the size of their body. Picture From The Star.

On top of that, more tax money have to be spent on English illiterate teachers. We all know what happens when there are not enough “sufficiently proficient in English” teachers to be hired.

Discussion: What do you think about the Government’s decision? How will this reflect the future of our children and the future of Malaysia?

My Point Of View

I think the reason our teachers are so English illiterate (proved by the percentages) is because of these ever changing education system decided only by a handful of clowns. Answer me this question, 3 times since 1957, how do you expect the citizens to keep up?

This announcement also depicts the incompetence of the Malaysian Government that is unable to analyze Malaysia as a whole and make sustainable decisions. I completely understand that mistakes can be made even by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. What I do not understand is why is the government not improving from the mistakes they had made?

Perhaps there is a conspiracy behind these decisions considering the 28 million per month. Maybe it is another act of corruption that has been ongoing for ages in Malaysia. Or is there an invincible being that is more powerful and currently influencing the Malaysian Government? All we know is, this is another farce from our Malaysian Government … again.

On 30th May 2009, the Ministry of Education in Malaysia proved the naysayers of Malaysian education wrong by announcing to reduce the amount of core subjects from six to four by means of reducing the “My son/daughter scored 20As in SPM” frenzy. In addition to that, they also limited the maximum subjects allowed to take in SPM. From a general perspective, I must say the ministry is doing a good job, but until you look deeper into the roots only you will realize that it is not what it seems to be.

These decisions are decided based on the fact that parents have been pressuring their children to take more subjects, to eliminate the exam oriented education system and so on.

As news, I must say it is quite a welcoming one. First, students get to study for less subjects, second if History and Moral studies is not one of the core subjects (I hope so), then it would be a joy for almost all the students in Malaysia! Apparently, that is how you look at it from outside the box, now let’s tear open the box and see whats in it.

For more than 50 years Malaysia has not been capping subjects in SPM and we have been fine all along. This not only allows the student to enhance their broad knowledge, it also helps tuition centers to earn a living, both party win.

The pressure only starts to build when the examination results were scaled carelessly. That is when every parent thinks SPM is easy and starts to pressure their child to take more subjects (since they think it is easy). The fact is it is never easy to take more than 10 subjects, let alone 15 or 20. Then, the ministry decided to scale the results again to show the world how clever we Malaysians are, thus SPM becomes easier as the years go by.

The fact that a limitation of 10 subjects was introduced in SPM also allows me to think it as an act to limit the intelligence of Malaysian citizens. If a student has the capacity to take 15 subjects and score A in every single one of them (scaled or not), let it be. Why limit their potential to excel academically?

Exam oriented studying environment or not is a matter of how a student study for the exam. It has nothing to do with the amount of subjects taken.

Perhaps the ministry would like to consider abolishing or reduce the scaling of examination results and spend more time on making subjects more interesting at school. This would allow students to critically analyze their ability to even handle 10 subjects, or not.

Not only that, scholarship providers can also easily distinguish the best out of the best if scaling is abolished. Unlike the current scaled results where a straight 11A scorer can be an underdog in the university and be stripped out of their scholarship.

Also, imagine if SPM were to be capped and scaling were still to be done, everybody will be scoring 10 straight As. Now tell me, how is that good for anybody?

I am all in for the reduction of core subjects for SPM, since History and Moral Studies should not be taken into account to determine a student’s future. However the limitation of maximum subject is really a no-no for me since it spoils the education industry, spoil the students and confuse the scholarship providers.

Sometimes, the more you study in the same university or college, the more fed up you get. Seeing the same faces and experiencing the same environment every day. Eventually, it just gets into you. Otherwise, you might already have an aim since high school to enter whichever university you want. Then you work towards your goal. Nevertheless, transferring from one university to another is nothing like restarting the game of life.

Apart from all the fuss of getting your visa done, applying for a new passport, purchasing your air ticket, and all those foreseen problems, there are still ample of unseen hassles lies ahead of your university transfer. One thing I’d like to focus is *advanced standing (or credit transfer).

If you are granted for a credit transfer, you are basically everywhere. In your first year at university, you are second year student and sometimes you are third year student. When you’re asked which year you’re in, you will get confused. However, this matter just does not end here.

There is no guarantee that you will be fitting into the rest of the pack in your new university, academically or socially. Like my case, I am supposed to be in second year, but I am forced to take third year subjects, otherwise I might as well fly back to Malaysia. Anyways, taking third subjects as a second year student is a suicide. Understanding the course becomes much tougher because you have not acquired the foundations needed for the subject.

Blending into your classmates seems to become tougher as well. In this semester you will be mingling with your seniors, then the next semester you’ll join those of your level, then it rolls back again a semester later. This might be a good opportunity to know more people, but in a university, what you want is a decent group of people whom you really know that are able to team up with you in group projects.

Having said all these, it is still up to you to determine whether transferring university can be hard or not. You judge your life. However, let’s look at the bright side, earning an overseas experience while studying is undoubtedly the best thing that can happen in anybody’s life. Isn’t this worth going through all the university transfer hassles?

*Advanced Standing/Credit Transfer – When you transfer to another university from your current university, the credits of your course is considered in a case by case basis. If it fits into their standard/system of studies. You will be granted advance standing.