yeah...this is a project directly related to daily life...

Sorry, quite bz lately, only now realize so many topics discussed here.

Well, i think for my uni, u must finish ur phd in 4 years time for full time. 2-3 years is minimum, if im not mistaken. Still blur about the concept thou.
about study, yeah, read alot of journals, Google scholar quite helpful, i cant imagine how ppl before the birth of internet do their phd, must be quite hard to find books and journals. Need to use university library and inter-loan or something.
Im 24 this year, hopefully can get my phd in 2-3 years time =)


I think if you manage money properly, u can buy a property, lets say u are NSF scholar with 2.3k monthly allowance, buying a small apartment around 100k, i think will cost u around RM700 per month? so u still have 1.6k for cars and food. Well, for me..im looking for one property as well, so lurking around property talk in lowyat.net to learn more. I think u can buy a house and a car with allowance, but perhaps no gf? lolz no money to pay for another half of u =P

yup, my senior in nottingham, just finish his phd and become a lecturer here, he mentioned gaji is around 5-6k. quite good i think.


If u guys have a kids in the future, enroll them in o-levels and a-levels after that. skip spm. haha, one of my fren, much younger than me, i think he is around 22 now? doing PhD at Cambridge.. damn jealous man. haha

hmm...4 years..almost not possible for some bio-related fields...especially those who went out attachment to labs in overseas..3 years minimum and 5 years max in UKM and ANU as far as I know..Possible to extend 1 semester in ukm to finish writing and viva...

And yeah, if you do lab demo/tutor/teach tuition, you can own property...

not biorelated only la.. most science field cant phd so young.. Arts field can la.. management master 1 yr can kau tim

yeah, perhaps you are right, in bio-related, we can see even the degree is minimum 5 years right?

btw, i think, NSF (MOSTI) will sponsor phd students maximum 3 years only?

Tempoh Pembiayaan Biasiswa NSF
a. Ijazah Sarjana - maksimum 24 bulan
b. Ijazah Kedoktoran - maksimum 36 bulan

taken from here http://ehcd.mosti.gov.my/ehrd/nsf.php

ya u r right.. mosti not so rich... so u expect to finish fast.. isnt that good

chemistry can...

Minimum is 3...but people barely finish lab work at 3 years....yeah...NSF only 3 years...can get a 6 month extension....after that you're on your own...
if do attachment at overseas lab, better suspend that semester/academic year and notify NSF about it...

The thing about public uni in malaysia, they like to rush the student. Grad A.S.A.P, I feel rushed when i'm doing my undergrad study, one sem, I have too many classes to attend, sometimes i don't have time to eat until almost midnight.

About time, student should take their time (not too long of course). The thing with research study, the subject have mind of their own....results like chipsmore, sekejap ada, sekejap takda. I think two years is adequate for research (MSc) however, this does not include writing. IMO, 3 years for PhD is too short.

for me i want finish as fast as possible and be a real adult.. not hiding behind the lab and earning puny money...

if can grad 1 yr best

hehe, yeah, i you can finish it early, then it's a good thing. But don't be too absorbed with the study/ research. There's alot more to learn during postgrad study.

not necessarily...depends on your supervisor...some students are so talented that the supervisor refuse to let the student go...came up with all sorts of excuse...thesis draft not yet read la, misplaced the thesis draft, ask the student to do extra work so that more papers could be published...of course, the supervisor is paying the student once the scholarship expires...some lecturers just want their students to grad ASAP..

agree with you on the time part, especially when you are a bio research student...usually PhD lab work takes 3-3.5 years...writing + viva another 0.5 years..

Which of you are doing Masters and Phd overseas?

I'm at ANU Australia for my PhD..

Like my lab colleague, she supposed to finish her MSc research around this time. Somehow, my supervisor still want her to do more work, they working on upgrading her MSc to PhD.

One of my senior, he takes such a long time for MSc writing. He finish his research more than a year ago. But, I think my supervisor is okay with it.

oh...it's good that your university have such upgrade option in place...UKM doesn't have this...if you wanna convert your masters program to a phd program, the conversion has to be done on the 3rd semester...and some requirements to fulfill as well...after that, there's no option for upgrading..

Thats the downside eh? they should be flexible with these stuff. If the students meet the criteria and requirements, why not?

Hmm..pros and cons i guess....UKM's MSc for Biosciences is a research degree with coursework components..
so the criterias to convert are:

1) get 3.67 and above for the coursework components (taken during 1st 2 sems)
2) complete 90% of research objectives within 1st 2 semesters
3) present progress of the MSc results and propose what to do next to make it a PhD in front of a panel and need their approval
4) support of supervisor (usually they will approve coz they want PhD students)

so basically all those have to be done before the 3rd semester of MSc finishes...if not, you could just graduate with a MSc which makes sense isn't it..
it's a more systematic upgrade path...the con is that it's not flexible..

Well, actually Unimas not that flexible. They have the same kind of rules that UKM have. But for biotech, research mode MSc only available. I think because of that, eligibility for conversion can be a bit subjective. My lab colleague a bit skeptic about the conversion. She said the process might take too long that she convo first before they approve it.

A lot of my ex-colleagues and seniors refuse to upgrade even when they met the criterias to convert...they wanna do their PhD overseas once they got their MSc...and frankly, our MSc program is quite good...thanks to our lousy lab equipments and absence of postdocs in the lab, our MSc students learnt alot through trial and errors, have stronger fundamentals and etc, which makes our MSc students look good in CV when it comes to "Skilled/ techniques learnt" department..

Yeah, our lab didn't have postdocs too, so the new MSc will learn from the more senior MSc, usually only 1 years difference. Our lab not so lousy i can say, but I think most of us (in that lab) are child of the 80's when it comes molecular biology technique. I still use the old school ways to do stuff, that really helps with understanding the fundamental of the particular protocol. I still use 1st generation PCR machine. Furthermore, it's cheaper compared to depending on kits all the time. Try to teach the undergrads under my supervision/care that it's not all about the results, but acquiring the skills and techniques, apparently, they don't get it, they are too pampered.

If it were up to me, i also don't want to upgrade, because i like to do my PhD overseas, after all, i'm still not ready for PhD level of responsibilities.