Harvard University or the ding-dong bell university?

EVERYBODY IS PAID THE SAME. IVY LEAGUERS ARE NOT RESPECTED IN MALAYSIA.

by Mansor Puteh

Is there any compelling reason why students should strive to study hard, get all the good grades and find places at the prestigious Ivy League and OxBridge universities in America and England, respectively, and the other similar institutions elsewhere?

I personally don’t think there is any.

Students who study at any of such universities must be sent there for a specific purpose so that when they return they can be given specific tasks to perform, from a level that they are familiar with and not from right at the bottom where they will feel useless, especially if all their colleagues are those with unimpressive academic backgrounds and degrees from the ‘Ding-dong bell universities’ to compete with.

First, why must a student study hard, get good grades and study in any of the universities, when in the end, with their respective degrees, they are still forced to apply for the same jobs together with the other graduates of the ‘Ding-dong-bell Universities’ and get the same pay?

Whereas, studying at the prestigious universities is very costly compared to studying at the ‘Ding-dong bell Universities’ that costs a fraction.

And it is also tougher to graduate, let alone excel, from the prestigious universities compared to the others, whose faculty especially those in private university colleges, may ‘close one eye’ and allow the students to graduate because they do not wish to fail any of them, even if they do not deserve to pass and graduate. No wonder the casualty rate at private colleges is very low. One hardly hears of students from such colleges dropping out or given the boot. Most often it is they who quit on their own.

We can also notice how students of private colleges seem not to suffer from any stress and can afford to socialize a lot, compared to those who are in public universities, who hardly have time for themselves and often look less cheerful and who dress less fancifully than their counterparts in the private colleges who often go to class in fancy clothes.

The only students who go to the prestigious universities are mostly those who are sent there on full government scholarships, so when they return upon graduation, they have a better job and a post that pays better than before they furthered their education to get their more superior degree.

But alas, many of them do not excel in their chosen fields as they were given simple tasks to perform, mostly as administrators doing routine work everyday.

The others were sent to these universities for their graduate studies, after working a while at many of the ministries or government agencies.

Unfortunately, even if many of them had managed to obtain their doctorates even from Harvard, their presence is not felt, as they had not conducted researches leading to their graduation that can be said to be relevant to the needs of the nation let alone the world.



There are many doctorates in Malaysia who have written their theses, but these are only for the purpose for them to present to their supervisors and other faculty members in order to graduate. No wonder, many of them only submit simple theses that did not require them to ‘crack their brains’. No Malaysian doctoral candidate at any university abroad or locally had made any extensive study in their chosen fields and are known for them.

They often become arm-chair experts spouting comments and ideas that are mostly second-hand. No wonder, not many Malaysian experts have also been so recognized abroad and who can be taken seriously in what they say or write about.

I would like to suggest to the authorities that often send students to work on their doctorates at any university abroad or locally to force them to conduct only the type of researches that are useful to the nation only, so that they are not seen as mere academic exercises. There is no point for them to work on any research just for them alone to get their degrees.

Getting the opportunity to work on a doctorate is not only an honor, but more than that, it is a big responsibility. It is not for personal glory, but for the benefit of the nation and not just the university or government agency or ministry that had sponsored their studies or researches.

They should be forced to conduct specific researches that can later be implemented by the ministries or universities they work for.

I do not know of any government ministry, agency or university that demands that the doctoral candidate submits and discusses his or her thesis with the relevant authorities, to find out how what he had discovered and written at great length in the thesis that can be implemented.

And all the doctoral theses must be published because they were all funded by the government and as such the candidates who now proudly call themselves ‘Doctors’ and put the ‘Dr’ prefix before their names should not only be proud of doing just this and expect everybody to address themselves as ‘Doctors’, but to try and trust themselves in the forefront in their chosen fields, not only in Malaysia but elsewhere, and contribute important and interesting ideas.

Those who refuse to publish their doctoral theses must not be accorded with the respect as academicians or intellectuals who are known for their researches and not by the type of prefixes and other long academic titles they may have before their names for self-promotion that they are routinely given from time to time.

There is no need for anyone to guess just how many of the theses that had been written by all those people in Malaysia who have PhDs that have been published. Even if there are a few of them the books are mostly for reading purposes and not to instigate further thought.

In fact, there is one doctoral candidate who even debunked his own thesis purely in order to save his skin when he moved from one political camp to the other. He admitted that writing the thesis was purely an ‘academic exercise’!

I personally know many of them who are embarrassed to allow their close friends to even look at their theses, let alone to want to submit them to publishers to get them published and are read by many.

It is therefore a sheer waste of money and effort for all the doctorates to use the three years they had spent at their respective universities just to conduct simple researches without benefiting the society and country.

No wonder, too, our doctorates are not known by what theses or researches that they had done, like in other countries when a person with a PhD does not use the ‘Dr’ prefix or calls himself ‘Doctor’ but is described as a person who ‘holds a doctorate in such and such a study or research’.

In order to get many more Malaysians to study at the prestigious universities, the ministers of education and higher education and other well-meaning national leaders should not only give speeches to encourage them to do so.

What the respective ministries and government should do is to offer the right incentives to make it attractive for any student to pursue their education at the prestigious universities.

This can be in the form of offering them the jobs they want and wages that are at least three times more than those given to graduates of the ordinary universities.

If this cannot be done, then there is no real or compelling reason for any student in Malaysia to want to study at any of the prestigious universities, because it is very expensive and tougher to graduate, when they could go to any of the private colleges in the country and pay a small fee and still be able to obtain a degree and get a job in the end to lead a normal life.

In America major corporations converge on all the Ivy League universities to grab the students even before they graduate, by offering them jobs with lucrative wages and other benefits or perks, so they do not choose their rival companies to work at instead.

In Malaysia, such a practice is not done, and the corporations are happy to get anybody who has the relevant degrees even though he may not be exceptional. As a result, we can never find those with the best academic qualification taking up top jobs in these companies, especially those that are linked to the government and in the government ministries and agencies.

And ironically, because of that many brilliant Malaysians with more superior academic qualifications from prestigious universities in America and elsewhere are sabotaged by them because they feel threatened by the presence of these smart alecs.

Study at Harvard University or the Ding-Dong-Bell University? What's the difference? Everybody is paid the same in Malaysia. Besides, Ivy Leaguers are not admired and respected in Malaysia.

How ironic indeed!