Of being a student

(Warning: criticisms abound. Don't read if you're not in the mood to listen to some whining).

I enrolled in the MBA programme last November. I like being a student. Perhaps because if there’s one thing I excel at, it is at academic learning. Or because I could ask the silliest question in the world and the worst repercussion is ridicules from classmates, which is fine by me. And I’ve been lucky to get to know some brilliant lecturers who are patient enough to entertain our questions, regardless of how nonsensical they may seem.

Being a student is not all hunky dory though. I hate exams. And one thing that my classmates and I are in total agreement of is that the organizing and coordinating part at the uni leaves much to be desired. Why am I saying this? At the risk of sounding whiny and bitchy, let me try to give some examples:

1. Last week, I drove almost 40km to uni in heavy rain and thunderstorm and the accompanying traffic jam, only to reach there and be told that the class was cancelled. The Centre Manager sent us a text message at 6.05 pm to inform about the cancellation (class was supposed to start at 6.30), but for someone who lives 40km away from the uni, that’s already too late. My reply to him: “Would appreciate advance notice. I live 40km from the uni.” His reply was, “Apologies but we only knew today. But I wonder why XXXX (the lecturer) did not inform the students?” Actually, the centre found out from one of the students who went to see the lecturer at his office, only to be told by his staff that he had left for Jeddah.

2. This week, 3 out of 4 classes were cancelled. We were informed in advance about two of the cancellations, but not for last night’s class. We all waited in the classroom, but the lecturer didn’t turn up. A query with the Centre yielded the response, “Wait until 7.30.” So we waited. I left at 7.29 because I figured that it’d be 7.30 by the time I reached the Centre’s entrance. I texted to the Centre Manager, “I’m disappointed that we weren’t informed that XX class was cancelled. We waited until 7.30. This week we only have one class out of 4. I’m not blaming anyone but clearly we are in need of a better system that’s fair for everyone.” His response, “I will check with XXX (the lecturer) tomorrow. He can’t be contacted this evening. So far he has never informed class cancellation today. I wonder what happened to him.” Clearly, he didn’t understand my message.

3. Now we’re told that the class for this coming Monday might also be cancelled because the lecturer will only be arriving from Jeddah on the same day. If the class is cancelled, we will be missing 3 QDM classes in a row. It’s almost mid-term, and we’ve only had two QDM classes so far. And the lecturer has not even briefed us about the individual and group projects!

In total, there are already 4 classes due for replacements (potentially 5 if the QDM class this coming Monday is also cancelled). It’s going to be tough to slot in the replacement classes. Now I’m reminded of the nightmare of the last semester. We had so many replacement classes that while other students were busy preparing for the finals, we were busy attending replacement classes. In one particular week, we had classes on every day of the week (including Saturday and Sunday). It was followed by another week of 6 classes, with only 1 day break. It was crazy, attending classes on daily basis while trying to do revision of past topics as well as reading on the topics just covered in the replacement classes. And some classes were stretched till 11.30pm because we were short of time to cover the syllabus.

I’m very very disappointed with the way things are going. And to think that we already pleaded with the Management to make sure that last semester’s experience is not repeated. I shudder to think how my international friends are feeling. Some of them quit their jobs (one even sold his house and uprooted his family to Malaysia) to enrol for the course. The point is, we all made sacrifices in order to pursue our studies.

I think it’s time that the Centre starts being more customer-centric. Yes, we are their customers. We pay them fees and we expect reasonable returns from our investments. And I know that the centre is rich because my Accounting lecturer told me so. In fact she said that the Centre is the richest among all centres/faculties in the university. So why can’t they use their riches to improve on their services? If the lecturers are stretched to the max (which I have a feeling that they are), then they should start employing more academic staff. Right now, the lecturers suffer, the Centre staff suffer (well, from our complaints, if that can be called suffering), and mostly, we the students suffer. How can we learn in an environment where classes can’t even be scheduled properly? Isn’t that one of the most basic things?

It’s time to come out of the third world mentality!