Local graduate and proud of it

Unlike most of my friends, I completed all of my education locally. My degree, masters and postgraduate diploma come from three different local institutions.

I am pursing my doctorate locally as well. My friends often tell me stories of their experiences studying abroad and while a small part of me is envious that I never had the opportunity to do this, the larger part of me believes that I am just as qualified and capable as an overseas graduate.

Many Malaysians carry within them this stigma that an overseas graduate will certainly be more capable than a local graduate will ever be.

I’ve overheard many conversations where people talk about our local universities with disdain and they often question me on the quality of my lecturers and my course content when I tell them I studied locally.

People sometimes tell me that I could have been smarter, better and have greater opportunities if I went abroad to studies.

When I was pursuing my degree at a local private institution, I met and worked with some of the most amazing and intellectual lecturers I’ve ever known.

These are the people who have shaped me to become the person I am today. As a mass communication student, my lecturers provided me with the groundwork and perspective of the industry like no other.

The skills and knowledge gained at university helped me to secure my first job even before I graduated. There was absolutely nothing wrong with my syllabus or the way I was taught.

The only variable here was me. I was the one who had to decide if I wanted to do well or slack off in college.

I will not deny that there are lecturers who left no impression on the course of my study but we need to understand that this is the same in any university, abroad or local.

There is often a fair mix of lecturers who are amazing and not-so-amazing. Ultimately, I’ve always believed that it was up to a student to decide how much they wanted to learn, or not learn, in an institution of higher learning.

When students pursue their tertiary education, they are at this age where they are more than capable of deciding what’s best for them and what to make of the education they are going to receive.

The lecturers, syllabus and assignments do not vary much from one university to another but it is the effort of the student that will determine the type of graduate they become.

The recent report on our public universities tells us that we are, yet again, not among the world’s top universities.

This gives rise to various speculation and comments about the quality and standards of our education system on the whole.

I’ve always believe that the education process of the country is not the sole responsibility of a teacher, lecturer or a system but the entire community working together to make it better.

Very often, parents are on the lookout for the best school or university for their children because they believe that a teacher or a lecturer will be able to provide their children with the skills they need to be critical thinkers.

In the midst of this, they often forget to tell their children to be responsible for their own learning.

I’ve met too many parents who complain about a teacher, lecturer or the system without realising that it is also them who play a pivotal role in shaping the future of their children.

As long as we are telling our kids to rely on a teacher or lecturer to get the education they need, our rankings will continue to drop because our students will never match up to an overseas graduate thus our universities will never match up to any international ranks.

As much as it is the lecturers and syllabus, it is also the students who determine the quality of our universities. If we keep telling our children to be receivers and users of knowledge, then they will never be capable of being creators of knowledge.

My call for action this time is for parents to be the ones who push their children to become critical thinkers.

It is easy to criticise and talk about our system, especially when our rankings have dropped, but it is also much easier to start teaching your children to be responsible for their own learning. – March 19, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.