Hi, I hold a Phd and have been working in IPTS for 7 years. I am in my early 30s and currently working as an associate professor while holding some admin position in the college as well. I can tell you the pay is ok but not comparable to industry. I take in about RM8000 a month and that is including RM1k allowance for my administrative position. In terms of public university, i was offered as an associate professor as well and the pay is not that good, overall is RM7800 (Basic = RM5800 Allowances = RM2000). Anyway, although you have an MSC from LSE, if you were to join private UCs or colleges, without a PhD, the most you can get is probably around 4K plus and not more than 5K. This is a high end pay for a lecturer. Most established private universities or universities college would not offer you a senior lecturer post as you will need to have some good publications, teaching experiencce etc. For Monash in Malaysia, a lecturer will get you Rm7k plus while some senior lecturers get RM8-9k. But again, you need to have good academic records (i.e. publications, research etc).

If you apply to UTAR, you might get less than 4k (probably 3 plus). So I would say try do a PhD in the UK before coming back to Malaysia to lecture if you want a good pay. Thanks.

Not sure about USM. However, the public uni which offered me an assoc prof is University Malaya. They sent me a KPI and I got the associate professor post as I met the requirement of having at least 8 ISI ranked papers (I have around 15 ISI papers). Professor (B) needs 25 ISI papers minimum while Professor (A) needs 35 minimum. This is not including others such as phd students supervised, fundings etc. But I was offered Rm7800 as mentioned in earlier posting (Basic 5800 allowances 2000). Public universities' pay is quite fixed but USM being APEX I am not sure. Anyway, this is no big secret, the pay are listed in http://www.jobstreet.com.ph/jobs/2008/12/d...756389.htm?fr=J for example. ABout 1 - 2 months ago UM also advertised on The Star and they list out the salary. Anyway, with your profile, try foreign universities instead of Malaysia, or try private unis such as Monash and Nottingham!

I don't think so. The salary scale is fixed but the range do vary. But as mentioned, APEX uni has the advantage of being able to offer more. However, these universities are willing to pay for PhD holders as there is a lack of doctorates in Malaysia (The genuine ones).

However, working in a university is more than just about the salary. It is passing on knowledge to students, passionate about your research field, contributing to your research area etc. Depending on your academic rank, an academician jobs' in universities include research, teaching, supervising project students, being a mentor to students, marking papers, setting papers, giving talks, R&D, consultancies etc. Those who do well will gain professorship, good pays, good reputation etc while those who just want to "Cari Makan" in the field will just become a "fake lecturer". They just teach their students (badly) and have no passion in their field. These type of "lecturers" might not progress or even get kicked out after many years due to the current competitions in universities. Most universities are obssessed with university rankings and therefore they are recruiting those with Phds and those who can publish and do research. Universities in Singapore, Hong Kong have been paying a lot to attract talents.

Hope the info helps. Good luck.

Hi. Actually a lecturer's main concern is not just pay as stated earlier. IF yes, no one would lecture and who would teaching you during your first degree? Secondly, most people are confused thinking that people "study" for their masters or Phd. This is probably due to Malaysia's culture where they are being taught even at PhD level. Most people doing PhD are working on projects. It is usually a 2-3 years research projects, and often, it is funded by the private industry.

Who would be the ones working on drugs for cancer, HIV etc but researchers in universities. Sure, private industry will also work on this but imagine if there are drugs from the industry, what would the price be?

If the person just now who mentioned he/she has a masters from such a top university, he/she would probably get scholarship to work on his/her Phd which can be funded by the university or industry. Of course, after coming out with a PhD, experience needs to be gained. However, do not ever underestimate one's career progress. You might not know what happen to someone's career in 10 years' time. A Phd lecturer can probably find a job in any part of the world. Although most people will think that degrees in IT, Engineering etc will lead you to the same thing, there is a lack of good Phds compared to tons of degree holders. Look at the hiring at top companies like Google. Many of their staffs are PhD holders and masters holders as well. In business, who came up with Porter's Five Forces or Blue Ocean strategies which are being applied by CEOs? These are ideas from the academicians! We are surfing the net happily now. But who invented Fiber Optics? This is none other than Professor Charles Kao, former VC of HK Chinese University. We hope that one day, those Phds and researchers will contribute to Malaysia.

Malaysia needs to move towards the knowledge based economy. Unfortunately, how many knowledge workers are we producing? Yes, we have workers in the IT field in Cyberjaya, but these are not knowledge workers. The knowledge workers are in the United States, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong etc. Those in Cyberjaya are probably doing jobs such as support, migration engineering etc. Industries such as biotechnology, sciences etc are also behind other developed countries or even China. We have graduates who can't speak proper English, and neither have the skills to compete with people from other countries. Therefore, we should not discourage potential, motivated people to join the academic fields. We are already losing great professors and researchers to other countries such as Singapore, Australia etc. What would happen to your children in the future? You might need to send them to study overseas, why? Because you probably know that Malaysia's education is not that good, and although you might earn 10-20 k a month, the money will also be spent on your children's education overseas because our education is not good enough.

So it is time that we encourage people to join the academic work force in Malaysia if they have the passion and interest, instead of saying you will not earn much, no progress etc. Look at Dr. Chua http://www.smu.edu.sg/news_room/smu_in_the...s/ST_030720.pdf He is a Malaysian but contributing to Singapore instead of Malaysia... we would do better if more people like him contribute to our education industry in malaysia and we can start by encouraging those interested to join..

Hi. Please note that impact factor classification of high and low depends on the field as well. International Journal of Production Economics (IJPE) has an impact factor of more than 2.0 but less than 3 but it is considered one of the top journal in its field. Yes, I am referring to ranked A or B journals. I did saw a news article from the UM VC saying they are looking at tier 1 journals, and the tier is based on the field, e.g. go to web of science, check the field of specialization, and look at the top whatever percent to rank the tier 1 journal in that field. But I stand corrected.

Anyway, an article that takes more than a year to review does shows that the reviewers are stringent, but hardly makes the journal's practise as being good as the turnaround time is too low. For IT field, if a paper takes a year to review, another year to get published, the area might be outdated. I am not trying to start off with a debate or something. This is my opinion and as an academician, I am sure some will agree or disagree with me. Anyhow, I think Malaysian universities looking at ISI is already a start. Malaysia is a developing country, we are not US, UK, HK, Australia etc. How do we be like that if we don't start?

If the reply is meant to check if my articles are all in impact factor of less than 1, then is not true. But I don't think I need to list all my publications here And of course, I agree that we should also try getting work experience in overseas which is why I am leaving to HK Uni in a few months' time. Hope that in a few years time, I can gain better research experience and contrinute to Malaysia.

We should not be just criticizing all the time. E.g. Someone wins an olympic medal, then we just say so what, in US, so many gold medals.. etc. Be positive, and Malaysian universities looking at ISI is a great start whereby one day we might be classify as on par with unis in countries such as US, UK etc.

http://portal.um.edu.my/doc/vc/MESSAGE_FRO..._CHANCELLOR.pdf

http://web.utm.my/vicechancellor/index.php...288&Itemid=156#

Just an interesting information to share on University Malaya:

_________________________________
All Academic Staff,
University of Malaya.

New Incentive for Publication in the Top Journal: NATURE or SCIENCE.

I am pleased to announce that the university has decided to offer a new reward for publication in the Top Journals i.e. Science or Nature. Consistent with the practice of many top universities in Asia, any academic staff of UM who is able to publish a full length article in any of these two journals will be given a monetary reward of RM50,000.00 per paper and there is no limit to the number of paper anyone can claim. There is only one condition to this: The UM academic staff MUST be the first author in the paper.

I hope this new reward will become a great inspiration to all academics to work hard to go for the highest quality in research and publications.

Best personal regards.

(GHAUTH JASMON)
Vice Chancellor.

Yes, actually this is long being practised in Korea and Taiwan. We are just following their footsteps.