Overall, the design of the new lakeside campus is not bad.

Most of the storm water management issues have already been more or less resolved. But before that, rainwater was always infiltrating into the library and stairways. Just imagine walking over to the staircase to find it completely flooded with heavy rain pouring right in; those were totally unusable.

The campus has also been designed to take full advantage of natural cross wind ventilation, however, the concentration of wind gets rather too high & energetic in some parts. For example, crossing over the opened connecting walkways linking the blocks above; where the wind is always blowing very strongly across, or in the opened corridors & cafe area between the blocks at ground level where the wind pressure is always very strong. The wind just blows right through the entire campus in general, and it is always very hard to escape when it is raining; somehow you will get drenched as long as you have to move from one part to another (for example just walking from your classroom/studio to the toilet located just across is also going to get you splashed all over by the rain).

The entire campus is very much done in an opened plan design concept (unlike a fully enclosed air-conditioned building), as such, it is always a hot & sweaty process to get from one place to another, which tend to involve really long walks between respective places/zones. (Most of the spaces are opened-air)

Living in the hostels above the commercial block isn't bad, but the entire place is like a construction-site right now. Drilling, hammering, and welding goes on in full swing throughout the day as shops, cafes, & restaurants are being set up one by one. Heck, my room has also been frequently visited by construction workers to perform plumbing & electrical jobs within. The entire building is currently in the "teething stage" for now; things are not yet working properly. (It is not beautiful as of now, but it will be in the future.)

In my opinion, our previous campus building in LCS was a more comfortable place, being predominantly a typical office building concept; all of the walkways within were air-conditioned, each classroom & studio had an attached toilet, and the lecture theaters had broad expense of tables along each row for us to comfortable place our laptops & stuffs for working on during lectures. It also wasn't so crowded & congested as the new lakeside campus now, but that is because this new lakeside campus today has to house all of the courses/programs (uniting all the faculties under one roof).

If I am not mistaken, the fees has also increased for everything. But existing students who enrolled earlier (before the new lakeside campus was ready), are not affected by the increased fees.

For every semester, I'm still paying RM550 - computer fee, RM450 - library fee, RM400 - studio fee, RM195 - student services fee, and finally RM450 - exam fee - which is strange, considering that I'm not having any exams for this semester.

I am very interested to know how much more new students are paying for those service & facility fees. (If I'm not mistaken, the computer fee per semester has been increased to RM650) But the old computers has all been replaced by new & more efficient computers with higher specifications such as nVIDIA QUADRO FX series workstation graphic cards; now moving inside view-ports & 3D rendering is a breeze, no longer a painful chore. Finally, not to mention the recent new addition of updated software versions too. (The only problem now is that I'm not using any of the lab computers for my work.)

Last but not least, I'm still waiting for a stationary shop (if there's going to be any) to be available here at Lakeside campus. At the old LCS campus, there are two very good shops for all types of stationary & materials, and we are still getting our items from there today. In addition to that, the choice of food here is also just satisfactory, but still cannot be compared to what we used to have back in the old LCS campus. Not all students would like to be paying RM10 (on-average) for each meal or snack at the only available (expensive) outlets like Wong Kok Cha-Chan-Teng, Starbucks, Subway, B.R., Famous Amos, Bread Story as such. Even the cafeteria is considered to be more expensive than usual, and only offers a very limited variety in average quality. Finally, we used to also have 24 hours 7-Eleven for getting stuffs throughout the night while working in studio, but there is still to be one over here at Lakeside.

This post has been edited by Benjamin911: Oct 30 2010, 11:38 PM

Bsc. Architecture people? They don't have the time to check in here lol.

BTW, I wonder why had Taylors just increased the fees recently; for us existing students...?? (I checked the fees & already paid the correct amount last week, but then to my great surprise, I saw the fees increased a few days ago by a couple of hundred for each of the subjects & the computer fees, now giving me the outstanding fees... )

(This is breaking their promise & integrity, because it was clearly stated that existing students pay the old fees as agreed upon in their enrollment earlier.) I am their old student from the year 2008 intake. (The other 55 students in my intake are also experiencing the same issue, but they are not doing anything about it... )



This post has been edited by Benjamin911: Jan 30 2011, 11:58 PM

Thanks for your helpful response Hikari, I will make an inquiry about it and hopefully everything will turn out fine.

Regards.

Yes, I agree that Taylors is a nice place and the people are friendly.

But please be aware of the foreign students in there (especially those from Tanzania, India, Botswana, South-Africa, and the likes); they can be very nasty, hash, or even dangerous in their personality. (For one, they tend to be dogmatic and assumes a bureaucratic or autocratic attitude when making decisions in projects.)

They can also be very bad-tempered & violent too (yes, it would surprise & shock you to the max); they dampened the otherwise nice & friendly environment in the institution. (Even the lecturers are scared of them.) I have personally worked with them (not by choice, but by leftover inclusion), and all they have given me so far is "Hell". (The strategy is to continue working diligently and just do your part, and don't mind going the extra mile by doing more work or contributing more if you have to; like this you will be on the safe side no matter what happens.) These people can be really unappreciative & demanding to the max.

In addition to all of that, these foreign students also despise & condemn everything around them over here such as the lecturers, the people/students, and even the climate & food.

Just be aware of them when you come across them, for your own well being & safety. Never be too hesitant to be friends with them, as (later on) they will take good advantage of you, or take advantage of your nice/gentle personality if you are one.

The bottom line is, you do need to know how to deal with these foreigners when you encounter them (as they tend to have a very hard type of personality). You need to know how to be firm & take your stand, show them that you mean business & would tolerate no-nonsense from them, be ready to proof to them even if it means having to go up to the higher authorities such as the dean to get things right/sorted out, and finally just avoid having any dealings with them in the first place if you have the chance/choice. (Prevention is always better than cure, in this case.)

This is my advice.

Other than all of the negatives stated above, Taylors is indeed a nice institution with friendly people & lecturers.

Regards.

This post has been edited by Benjamin911: Mar 5 2011, 06:17 PM

Well, you can also "rent" a dedicated parking lot if you want to, and that will be exclusive yours. (I am really considering it.)

P.S., it also seems that all of the best spots has already been taken up/booked...

This post has been edited by Benjamin911: Aug 1 2011, 08:41 PM

I agree, the parking situation & condition over here can be very "atrocious"...

In addition, the human population in Taylors Lakeside Campus is also "bursting" with too many staffs & students all at once...

This new Lakeside Campus is also rather too small to cater to all of the programs (classes are sometimes so full that there is not even enough space to contain all of the students...); something must be done... (Perhaps an adjacent expansion/extension building.)

There are not enough computers (not to mention they are outdated & slow computers), as well as books & educational multimedia resources. (Drastically not enough to cater to the great student population...)

Not enough printers. (The printers are all overworked, and they are all producing flawed results due to overuse...)

Regards.

This post has been edited by Benjamin911: Aug 29 2011, 10:42 PM

Thanks for sharing that Taylors Facebook link to the parking issue discussions.

Regarding the computers & library; each student is paying around RM 700 - 900 (depending on the type of course enrolled) for computers fees alone (as well as RM 500 for the library fees) in a semester; looking at the sheer amount of students in a semester alone; it is certainly not an excuse to be not having adequate book resources as well as better computers for the Architecture, Interior Architecture, & the Design students. (Where such an application intensive & graphic demanding course definitely require better computer systems; believe it or not, my old & cheap RM 2K normal consumer level Laptop is even more powerful than the Ancient - low specification Dell Precision Workstation Series Desktop computers in the "architecture/design" studio computer lab, in-terms of both specifications & real life usage... Just think about it... Desktops are technically supposed to be even cheaper than laptops of the same specification... Where are all the money from students going to... I've been using my very own cheap budget laptop all this time round to crank out all those master works of mine; as such, I can appreciate & thank only it, but I still need to pay for the expensive computer fees...)

Regards.

This post has been edited by Benjamin911: Sep 2 2011, 06:25 AM

Most of those who are staying at the Taylor's Accommodation in the Lakeside Campus; they are primarily the foreign/international students. (Sometimes it can get rather noisy/rowdy in there... However, the security is quite good.)

Just be aware that the food & groceries can be rather costly in the commercial block.

Regards.

You can try inquiring from Taylors themselves; they are also in-charged of the other accommodations around the region for students (such as the surrounding housings & nearby apartments like E-Tiara; all the way up to the Mentari, Rizuan, & the Shurimas apartments/condominiums...)

Just drop by and make an inquiry.

Regards.