Exchange Report - Spring 2015
Monash University Malaysia Campus
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
k90691
Source:
http://www.intenv.org/sites/default/files/Monash%20University%20Sunway%20Campus%20%20small.jpg
Monash University Malaysia Campus
Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway
47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor,
MALAYSIA
Preparing for the exchange
Monash University Malaysian Campus is located in a small township called Bandar
Sunway, which is within the district of Petaling, Selangor. Bandar Sunway is located
around 20 kilometres southwest of the Kuala Lumpur city centre and the township
provides all the necessary utilities and services needed for living on exchange. Kuala
Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia and is located on mainland Malaysia, or the socalled Western Malaysian. Malaysia is located just north of the equator, and so, has
an equatorial climate, making it hot and humid throughout the year, with daily
temperatures ranging between 23° to 33°.
The Monash University Malaysian Campus is a part of the Australian-based Monash
University, which has all together 7 different campuses, five in Victoria, Australia;
one in Johannesburg, South Africa; and this one in Bandar Sunway, Malaysia. The
campus was established in 1998 and was the first foreign University to open in
Malaysia, and is currently home to around 6 000 undergraduate and postgraduate
students.
I was the first student from Aalto University to have the possibility to attend the
Monash Malaysia campus for exchange, and so, there were no previous guides
explaining what to expect. The university required a fair amount of paperwork
previous to my arrival into the country, which turned out to be the biggest
inconvenience that I experienced through out the exchange process.
For the Student Visa/Student Pass application, the university required an extensive
medical screening that needs to be done here in Finland and a copy of which needs
to be submitted along with the exchange acceptance form for the university. Also, it
is very important to notice that another medical screening needs to be done within
7 days of arriving in Malaysia in order for the Student Visa application to move
forward. For the Student Pass, the university needed a non-refundable payment of
MYR 1,910 (approx.. € 450,00) to be completed. This Student Pass fee covered the
following: Processing fee imposed by the Malaysian authorities, Student Pass
Endorsement Fee, Medical and Health Insurance, i-Kad and Health Screening. Proof
of this payment needed to be placed with the acceptance form.
NOTE! Because all students studying in Malaysia need to have a Student Visa, they
must apply for a Single Entry Visa (SEV) at the nearest Malaysian diplomatic mission
before arriving in Malaysia. In order for a student to get an SEV they first need to get
the Visa Approval Letter (VAL) from the Malaysian government, which will be sent
to you via e-mail and postal mail. You will need the original version of the VAL in
order to apply for the SEV, and this proved to be slightly troublesome for me as I
went travelling for around 2 months before the semester started in Malaysia, and so
you must indicate clearly where you want the school to send you the VAL and at
which consulate you will apply for the SEV, if you plan to leave Finland well before
the semester starts. I had to have the VAL be sent to a friend’s hotel in Ubud, Bali,
and I needed to go to the High Commission of Malaysia in Singapore to apply for the
SEV for my passport, because this particular consulate was the one that I had
indicated in the application form.
The recommended accommodation for the semester is the Sunway Monash
Residences (SMR), which is located right beside the campus. The rules and
regulations set by the SMR may seem to be very strict and inconvenient, and initially
I was actually looking at private options to live in, but I ended up staying at the SMR.
This was definitely the right choice, as all of the exchange students attending the
university all live on the same floor. We had around 80 international students living
on the same floor of the apartment building, so it never became boring. I highly
recommend this choice of living.
The course selection process was slightly confusing as Monash provided a list of all
the courses that were available at the time of application, but were not necessarily
available during the actual exchange semester. The application form required my to
choose 8 courses that I was interested in taking, and then they informed me which
of these courses were pre-approved. Out of the 8 I chose, 5 were pre-approved and
these needed to be checked by Aalto University for approval. Out of these 5, I then
chose 4, which I was to be enrolled in. Once I received the full course description
and the timetables for the lectures, I had the possibility to change one of the courses
to a more suiting one. This process worked out easily from both ends.
The Monash University International Student Support Services unit provided free
transport from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA or KLIA2, depending
on which terminal you fly to) to the campus upon arriving to the country. For this
transport, I needed to fill out an online form at least 5 days prior to my arrival in
Malaysia to schedule the pick-up.
Exchange Studies
The Orientation program for the exchange students for Semester I 2015 was from
23.2. – 27.2.2015, but I arrived there already the week before. This proved to be
good, because as mentioned before, you need to take a post-arrival medical
screening before the university can send your student pass application forward. For
the Student Pass, you need to hand in your passport to the International Student
Services (ISS) office and so you won’t be able to travel abroad during this period.
For me, it took about 2-3 weeks for me to get my passport back, but for some others
who arrived in Malaysia later had a longer waiting period, because once the
Orientation Week started there were hundreds, if not thousands, of international
students, who study full degrees at the Malaysian campus, trying to renew their
Student Visas.
The Semester lasted for 12 teaching weeks, with a one-week mid-semester break
after week 5. After week 12 there was a one-week SWOT (Study Without Teaching)
vacation before the exams started. The exams lasted from 8.6. - 25.6.2015. I was
quite unfortunate with the exam timetables, because I still had exams on the last
two possible dates, 24.6. and 25.6., but these dates were purely dependent on what
courses I had.
I am in the Information and Service Management (ISM) program here in Aalto
University, and I was enrolled into the Masters of International Business (MIB)
faculty in Monash Malaysia. As I was on my Master’s exchange, I had to choose
mainly postgraduate courses within the MIB program, for which in Semester I 2015,
there were around 10 courses I could choose from. I actually ended up switching
one of my postgraduate courses for an undergraduate course, because the topic the
content, Leadership in Asia, has not been taught at Aalto University. All of the
courses taught are in English. The passing grade at Monash is 50% and most of the
course works during the semester were so-called hurdle requirements, meaning
that these works needed a passing grade.
My selection of courses was:
MGX5461 Contemporary Issues in Globalisation – Postgraduate – 6 ECTS Professor Eduard Bomhoff
Time: Wednesday 19:00 – 21:30.
The course work consisted of two essays were worth 20% (2000 words) and 30%
(3000 words), and then there was an exam at the end of the semester worth 50%.
The learning outcomes of the course were to identify major political, economic and
regulatory forces that underpin the globalization process; critically analyse how
international political and economic developments are shaping the structure of
global institutions; evaluate how the globalization of rules can become a source of
competitive advantage for firms, governments and non-profit organisations; and
identify solutions that would enhance the sovereignty of ordinary citizens over the
globalization process. The lectures were slightly boring at times, as they mostly
consisted of the lecturer talking through his slides. However, the lecturer has a lot of
experience and first hand examples of the topics discussed, and so, some very
interesting discussions were formed. Overall, it was a fairly good course with a very
manageable workload.
Negatives: the lecture times and the tedious teaching style of the lecture.
Overall grade: 6/10
MKM5955 Marketing and the International Consumer – Postgraduate – 6 ECTS –
Dr. Nicholas Grigoriou
Time: Tuesday 14:00 – 17:00
The course work consisted of three case studies with the first one being worth 10%
(1500 words) and the two last ones 20% (2000 words) each. The case studies were
done in with a pair of your own choosing. The exam at the end of the semester was
worth 50% of the grade. The learning goals associated with this unit were: to
facilitate understanding of the conceptual framework of marketing in value creation
and its many applications in decision making under various environmental
constraints and with an Asia Pacific focus; evaluate market based information, using
it to plan and develop marketing strategies; understand the behaviour of consumers
and their role in value creation; understand how value is created using elements of
the marketing mix strategies; understand the role of brands in value creation; and to
apply strategic planning tools in developing a marketing mind-set. The lectures
were generally very entertaining and useful, and the lecturer was outstanding. The
two first hours of the lecture was purely the lecturer teaching to topic, and during
the last hour we always did an exercise in which we needed to apply the theory in
practice.
Negatives: The lecturer didn’t hold a single break within the first 2 hours.
Overall grade: 9/10
MKX5931 International Dimensions of Electronic Business – Postgraduate – 6
ECTS – Professor Paul Yeow
Time: Tuesday 10:00 – 13:00
This course was definitely the most time consuming. For each tutorial, one group of
two students had to prepare a presentation on a specific article/topic and two other
groups had to prepare questions for the presentation. Thus, for one group of two,
there was one presentation, two sets of questions and written assignments for each
of the three roles. Also, there was a large group assignment (group of 4 students) in
which we had to develop an E-business plan (about 5000 – 6000 words). The
learning goals of the unit were to: identify and describe the relevant electronic
business technologies for international business including electronic business
mechanisms, infrastructure, tools, payment systems and security and fraud
protection systems; identify, analyse and critically assess the suitability of various ebusiness models for international business including e-retailing, e-banking, emarketing and advertisements, e-procurement, e-learning, collaborative commerce,
mobile commerce, social commerce, etc.; describe and apply electronic business
strategy development process and identify the strategic and developmental issues in
international business environment; formulate an electronic business strategy for
an international business to improve effectiveness and increase efficiency; and
identify and describe the relevant electronic business regulatory, ethical and social
environments in international business. The exam at the end of the semester was
worth 40% of the total grade. The lecturer seemed quite competent but sometimes
his teaching style and expression was hard to follow and understand. He wanted a
lot of involvement from the students during the lectures, which often caused long,
confusing and unnecessary stops in the teaching as he was looking for ideas and
answers from the students.
Negatives: Organisation of the lectures and confusing teaching style. Some work
seemed quite redundant.
Overall grade: 7/10
MGW2991 Leadership in Asia – Undergraduate – 6 ECTS - Ms. Adlina Ahmad
Time: Wednesday 10:00 – 12:00 and 15:00 – 16:00
The only undergraduate course for me. Coursework consisted of an individual
presentation (10%) and individual essay (15%) on an Asian leader of your choosing,
a group report (20%), and tutorial activities for each week (15%). The exam at the
end of the semester was worth 40%. The learning goals were to: define what
leadership is, how it applies to all levels of management in organisations and the
role of leaders to internal and external stakeholders; identify and evaluate various
conceptual frameworks, theories and models of leadership, focusing on the Asian
context and perspectives, and explore other forms and propositions of leadership
that recognise culture and society as an integral component governing different
forms of leadership; recognise and appreciate the individual and personal side of a
leader and the bases, methods, purposes and impact of power and influence in
leadership within the context of Asia; develop awareness on how to build credibility
as a leader and leadership skills in communicating, influencing, and in leading
change in the Asian context; and appreciate 'real-life' experiences and leadership in
action by industry leaders and practitioners in Asia. The lectures were easy to
follow and the lecturer had a good theoretical understanding on the topic and was
able to provide good practical examples for theories. The tutorials consisted of
listening to presentations and completing short exercises on the theory discussed in
the lectures.
Negatives: Sometimes it was unclear what was required in each exercise and course
work.
Overall grade: 8/10
Free time and other information
Malaysia is one of the more expensive countries in the Southeast Asian region, but
the country also provides endless possibilities for leisure activities. The SMR
accommodation needs to be paid in advance for the entire semester if you wish to
stay there. The full payment for the semester was RYM 7550,00 (approx. € 1800,00)
which included 5 months rent (February to June) and one months deposit that will
be paid back depending on the condition you leave your room in.
We went out to eat almost every night, as it was not possible to cook in the SMR
units. A regular meal at one of the food markets is around €2 so it is cheaper to go
out any way. The food at the grocery stores is almost at Finnish prices. Going out in
Kuala Lumpur is slightly cheaper than in Finland, but not by a lot. Public
transportation and taxi’s are very cheap. All of the university fees need to be paid
previous to your arrival and are included in the Student Pass fees mentioned before.
If you decide to stay at the SMR and so pay the accommodation in advance, the KELA
student aid and loans should be enough for you to enjoy a good semester.
As all of the exchange students live on the same floor at the SMR, it is very easy to
meet other international students. Each unit has 8 different rooms, and so, making
friends within the unit becomes instantaneous. The SMR hosts almost 2000
students, so meeting locals and other students is very easy also. The school also has
many sports clubs and other activities where it is easy to meet fellow students.
My room at SMR, taken from the door
Malaysians absolutely love shopping malls. Only a 15-20 minute walk from the
campus, there is one of the biggest shopping malls in the world, the Sunway
Pyramid. This complex has everything you need and then some. There is even a
waterpark.
One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Malaysia was its extremely convenient
location for travelling to other countries. The KLIA2 airport is the hub for AirAsia,
with very cheap flights all over Southeast Asia. Travelling within Malaysia is also
very cheap, even though the bus timetables tend to be quite flexible and operate in
“Malaysian time” meaning that they will not always be on time. There are some very
good island destinations in Malaysia such as the Tioman and the Perhentian Islands,
on the east coast, and Langkawi, on the west coast of mainland Malaysia. After the
Orientation Week, it is a custom that many exchange students fly to Langkawi
(around 25 euros for a return ticket) for a long weekend before school starts. This is
also an ideal destination for the early weekends, since your passport will be with the
Malaysian authorities.
Typical Langkawi sunset
Final Comments
I had a very successful and fun exchange semester at Monash University Malaysian
Campus and I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in learning
about the Malaysian culture and the Southeast Asian region as a whole. Since all of
the exchange students lived on the same floor at SMR, there was always somebody
to go out for dinner with and always someone up for planning the next weekend trip
somewhere. I didn’t get too acquainted with Kuala Lumpur as a city as most of my
weekends were spent else where in Malaysia or in a nearby country, but all of the
impressions I got from the metropolitan city were positive. There are many cultural
and historical locations to see during the day and it has quite a vibrant nightlife
suitable for large international groups looking to party.
Over half of the exchange students (around 40 students) coming to Monash
Malaysia are either from one of the Australian campuses or the South African
campus, which is something that needs to be taken into consideration as they are
quite interesting bunch.
I was the first student from Aalto University, and actually the first student from
Finland all together, to attend this campus and so I had the opportunity to make a
good first impression. I hope that students decide to choose this campus as their
exchange destination as it provided with a very good base for Malaysian cultural
learning and it allows students to explore the neighboring countries also.