Correction: at least 3 years...and it's near impossible to grad in 3 years for Bio-related PhD...you'll finish your labwork in 3 years if you're lucky enough..

You're doing Masters (reseach) ?

Got...1 year Master in biotechnology...but whether you can take PhD after that would subject to the university...I have a few friends who have BSc (Honours) in Biotech from UKM..But Australian National University doesn't recognize the "honours"...They did their Master in biotech and couldn't apply for PhD..They are doing their Honours year now..

Well..it's a different route for those without 1st class or 2nd upper class honours (not malaysian degree) can opt for masters in coursework en route to PhD...
those who got 1st class and 2nd upper class honours don't have to go through Masters..

Australia also adopt such system...like i said their system is 3 years BSc + 1 year Honours where the final honours years is optional and only for elites..after that you could apply for PhD straight provided you have 1st class/ 2nd upper honours..

For Malaysian system, you have 2 ways to do so...1st class honours -> PhD
and non-1st class -> MSc (fulfil all of the objectives in 2 sems) -> convert to PhD with further study..

Of course, for option 2, you need to present your MSc findings and propose what you plan to do after that before the panel approves the conversion..

US would take a longer time...3 yrs Masters, 5 yrs PhD...

@f4te
by the way, out of curiosity, what biochemistry research are you doing for your Masters?

Oo..natural product isolation and LC/MS identification?

In malaysia, BSc with honours means that your will have a final year project which would result in a production of a dissertation (mini thesis) and a viva..You will know whether the degree has an honours component when you enrol..
In some countries, BSc is 3 year program. After that, they can apply to do honours year..which is a full year research intensive program..not all BSc students will apply for honours and not all are qualified..They are chosen based on the BSc results..
Did you have a final year research project at the end of your BSc?
BSc without honours doesn't mean that your degree is not recognized..It would imply inferiority if you intend to apply for related stuffs...such as postgraduate degree or job related to research (in bio context)..
An honours year is placed more importance than MSc (coursework)..at least this is what happen at my university..

I did my BSc in UKM and i am in Australian National University for my PhD..
And you?

Well, i have a 1st class honours and 1.5 years of experience as Research assistant...
With only the 1st class honours, i would not be able to enter ANU...my supervisor used my working experience to push my application thru..

Gave me some exposure...In my BSc i work on E. coli recombinant protein expression system...
In my RA-ship i work on yeast and fungal expression system..and it widen my horizon on what options i have..how systems here work and etc..
If i weren't able to secure scholarship to Aus, the RA project would become my PhD project..

There are ample scholarships available for international students...universities itself do offer scholarships to qualified applicants..
No one is going to do a PhD in Aus without a scholarship..the fees are very high..
3 years...but no one usually could finish in 3 years..usually 3-4 years..
Nope..no publications...i have to work from scratch as the previous masters student left a pile of mess for me to follow up...the more i work on it, the more error i found..and i have to back track to previous stages..and for bio-related project, you can't publish much...if you break up you projects to publish in a few papers, the papers would have lesser quality than you publish them in one as a whole..

PS: if you look around, there are a lot of countries which accept BSc (1st class honours) holders to their PhD program..1st class honours is the minimum for such admission..

Nope...the scholarships i heard of doesn't require interviews..such as Endeavor scholarship for Aus and Commonwealth scholarship for UK..
There purely based on merit...results, awards, publications, reference letter and etc..
They judge your application based on several essays...and it wont be easy..For endeavour scholarship, there were over 2000+ applicant all over the world...only the selected few would be granted scholarship..
The essays are of general type...such as statement of purpose..

Of course...it's like job application..you can't expect to get a scholarship with just 1 application..you have to send in as much as possible...
but it doesn't mean that the more you send, the higher the chances...as all scholarships are competitive..everyone wants a scholarship..but there isn't enough for everyone..
the sum given differs from scholarship to scholarship...but as a rule of thumb, these scholarship are enough..if you know how to manage and cook a lot, you could save..for my city, i would say at least A$1000 per month for essential needs..The ANU website estimates a person needs $20,000 annually..that's a generous estimation of course..
So for your Masters, do your best, publish in high impact publications rather than multiple lower impact ones...you'll need good reference letter for scholarship..

I am doing my PhD now..
Doing a PhD doesn't really correlated to getting a job easier..you have to understand that 1st..
Certain jobs need PhD qualification, certain jobs need Masters and certain need only BSc..They have different niche...like you can't work as a lecturer with BSc and it's insane for a PhD holder to work as a medical lab technologist..
I do PhD because i want to do something related to what i studied..and i don't want to do repetitive stuffs day in day out..With a BSc in bio-related course, i'll end up with jobs like technician if you insist on working on something related to what I studied...and it is kind of a personal satisfaction to get a PhD..

My application for PhD requires 3 recommendation letters and the scholarship requires another 3...So i am glad that i did my RA-ship...and i feel very paiseh when i keep on bugging lecturers for recommendation letters..I took IELTS...the PhD application requires that..the scholarship application requires IELTS, Offer letter, and etc...lack of anyone of those would prohibit you from submitting an application..
Haha...do not underestimate scholarship applications without interview...It's not as easy as you think..for one you miss the chance to prove your worth in front of the scholarship selection panel...and writing an attractive statement of purpose which would stand out among the 2000+ applicants is no easy task..and academic excellence is nothing as most of the applicants have 1st class honours anyway...it would really depend on the essays, letters and credentials you have to pull it through..track record can't be built in a day..

which university are you in now?

This post has been edited by highwind85: May 29 2010, 02:49 PM

Lol...usually lecturers are forgetful...at least for my case..got 1 professor..i asked him to be my referee and he said ok..so i passed him my CV, transcript and everything so that he can write for me..after a few days, i went to see him again and he was like "who are you?" i ROTFLOL...he's just being forgetful..he did write for me..
at least you referee chose not to do anything and that's not too bad...i heard cases where the supervisor agree to write, but wrote badly for a senior...that cost him his scholarship..as the content of the letter is confidential, you wont know unless the author or the correspondent tell you..

what kind of real picture you want to know?

+1
Picture speaks a thousand words...biotech relies on molecular biological technique for DNA manipulation..

Frankly, degree level can't get you far in Biotech...if you only have a degree, you will have to compete with diploma holders in singapore...and sometimes they favour diploma holders due to lower salaries..

To make long story short...if you're thinking about earning rm10k by the time you are 30 with biotech and bioscience, it's not very likely.. you'll have to look else where..

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Added on June 12, 2010, 2:49 pmchemistry is a more established field...a lot of chemistry applications are used in the industry..but they produce a lot of hazardous by products...or required high operation cost due to high temperature and high pressure conditions..this is where biotech comes in...
some of the chemical reactions can be substituted with enzymatic reactions...which are more environmental friendly..
but the thing is biotech application is still very new especially in malaysia...and investors are not will to spend time to research to make it viable...because this is business...they are more into commercial research...most of the time, the will get universities to do the fundamental research...when there is encouraging findings, only they take over and continue from there...if the findings is not encouraging, the will not pursue the research...that explains why only big companies do research..small companies simply do not have the resources to undertake research...

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Added on June 12, 2010, 2:59 pmYup..PhD at ANU...My PhD project is Protein Engineering and Crytallography...
Protein engineering is not very established in malaysia..There's only a handful of people working on it in Malaysia..
Protein engineering is to improve desired properties of protein...such as increase thermostability so that it could by used in the industry or shift the pH of the enzyme so that it can function in a certain pH..Mine is to predict the uprising of bacterial antibiotic resistance toward beta-lactam antibiotics through protein evolution...

This post has been edited by highwind85: Jun 12 2010, 02:59 PM