Hi,

I have more than ten years working experience in IT and currently attached to an MNC as senior system engineer. Since I have only diploma in IT, it's difficult for me look for career advancement within my company. Currently I have three options as below:

1. UNITAR - I was accepted for BIT second year at UNITAR in July intake. Unfortunately they did not have enough student to start a part time class. UNITAR courses are recognized and accredited by MQA.

2. APIIT - APIIT said I could go for direct entry to second level of an UK degree in computing which is accredited by MQA. It require two and half years study for part time basis.

3. SEGI KD - SEGI KD offered me an MBA course (MBA awarded by SEGI and approved by MQA) since I have enough working experience but I prefer to go for first degree in computing. Personally, i think the first degree carry more weight than MBA when i want to look another job in the future. If Msc, that would be helpful but not MBA.

4. SEGI Subang. SEGI Subang offered me a year 3 (top-up degree) course by University of Sunderland. The duration of study is one year. However this programme is not recognized by the government of Malaysia.


I could wait until Jan next year if i still want to pursue my first degree at UNITAR but they do not guarantee whether there would be enough students to start a class. Both APIIT and SEGI would start from this September. Right now i do not know which one to choose. My preference would be SEGI since it need only 1 year to complete the degree but I'm not sure whether it's recognized by the private sector in Malaysia. As for APIIT, I understand that it's well recognized by the private sector from what I read so far.

I hope someone from this forum can provide me an honest opinion.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Jim

Personal experience here from an ex-unitar. What you were applying for would be from UNITAR's College of Open Learning. Unfortunately, what they told you is true that they may not be able to offer you part time classes. In fact, there are numerous cases when we had to defer few semesters because of less and less students are in our small IT faculty. What's more, since you will be enrolling for part time, you will most likely be what we say "anak tiri" in unitar. In fact, even full time students also face these deferment problems. Don't get me wrong, Unitar would be ok if you were taking other than IT. If you are planning to further in IT, then Unitar is definitely not for you at all. That's my humble opinion.

Cheers

Are you sure, cuz i think i got saw it in the list leh..

3+0 programme is approved by MOA but not the top-up programme. Someone did mention that all top-up degree are "illegal" and not recognized.

I'd go for this.

With your specialization from work experience, you don't need a degree in IT. You should be focusing on MBA which can get you higher salary.
You should also consider a business degree in MBA with subjects on marketing and economics/finance to further propel you upwards past the "glass ceiling" (if you know what this means).

Also consider professional certification like MCSE or CISCO or Novell etc


Unless you're working for the government, private corporations does not bother if it is recognized in malaysia or not.

At your level, they would be focusing more on your portfolio and results. And if you have an MBA, no one will bother about you lacking in a degree.

yeah, this is correct.. but still i wondering is it accredited

how about WOU or OUM? i dunno whether you can transfer the credit

Go for APIIT. Recommended Computing School....

It's actually quite simple, you have an IT Diploma and working in the IT industry. If you like to continue in the IT industry, why would an MBA be useful? As you have worked in the industry for 10 years, you should know that it requires a lot of technical knowledge, hence, the degree should be more useful to you. If you have the MBA but not the technical know-how, your subordinates will not respect you.

The employers from the IT industry are not stupid, they know what they are looking for and are not simply fooled by all sorts of postgraduate titles.

That's my 3 cents.

What is your final decision?

haih. what is your strength? good coding in which platform? Judging from what you have said. 10 years is surely a lot of time. No point going back to college studying basic programming principle when u already have 10 years experience.

Degree simply to climb corporate ladder? If you are merely working as programmer, you can go far. You have to branch out to a more diverse position - consultation. That requires knowledge in business operations. Business/finance/law.

Going back to college wasting 2 more precious years doing part-time. Better for you to get MBA/ professional cert. 36 years old?