Hi Mr bashlyner.

I browsed thru the website already. I have to say this scholarship is really appealing compared to others in the local scene. With the decent allowances and fees' exemption if one does the postgrad studies in UM, the recipient can really focus in his academical endeavor without much distractions.

May I know what field are you studying right now? What are the responsibility entailed in the contract; Do you have to supervise the works of bachelor and master degrees, conduct at least 3 seminars in the uni in a year, publish the number of research papers required by the contract and etc? You have to fulfill all these obligation altogether? What else you have to do beside the ones stipulated in the contract?

Thank you.

My research field is related to Information Technology and Education, the research involve study and developing an Adaptive E-learning System.

I cant tell you what I actually have to responsible for since I just started my PhD this month and they haven't bank in my money because they need time to process it.
Here is the list of requirement and KPI for me as stated in  their offer letter:

Tuan dikehendaki:

1) terlibat dengan aktiviti penyelidikan di Universities yang dipilih;

2) menghadiri kursus yang ditetapkan oleh Universities bagi tujuan peningkatan sahsiah

And the KPI are same as statedthe brightspark website


Two of my friends already pursue their study for 6 months and according to them you need to attend a course regardless you are BrightSpark candidate or not, other than that no extra course or seminars required by BrightSpark unit so far. Most of the time you'll deal with your supervisor, your supervisor is actually the one who ask you join seminars or any courses, as well as assist in supervision at the Bachelors and Masters Level, if he busy he probably will ask you help him.

All the other KPI related to publication have to be followed strictly since nowadays IPTA keep competing in publishing papers.

That's all I know so far, hope it'll help you, my advice is get a good supervisor.

Yes truly agree of that. In fact, you really need a good supervisor if you want to pursue PhD (according to my supervisor who had the supervisor from hell when he did his phd). It's kinda a matter of life and death if you ask me.

My lecturer told me about this BrightSpark programme too, I recommend my friends who are doing their postgraduate research in UM to consider it, but they say there's a long list of terms and conditions.

A question here, how do you know the supervisor you found is a good one or not? Looking through the research she or he had made so far? Ask for opinion from other lecturers?

Which platform can I get the review regarding the supervisor I'm interested in?

Hello guys,

As you can read from the title, I've a dilemma choosing to further study PhD or to work.

I'm 27 years old this year and already completed my Master's degree (research mode) from IPTA and currently waiting for graduation. For your information, I'm the type that like to study and have no problem to conduct academic research. I want to further PhD but I've heard that it's important to work to get working experiences. Some will say that PhD is useless when you do not have any working experiences. I also get some comments from my friends (who already working after they got Bachelor degree) that PhD won't help me to earn more without working experience. I will also treated as freshy just like other Bachelor degree student when entering job market.

Well, most people have the concept that when they have a PhD, they must able to earn more. This is different from my view that the reasons I want to get a PhD are:

1. To get a sense of accomplishment
2. To achieve my dreams
3. To gain more knowledge in my field
4. Love to study and do research

And to be honest, to earn more money is the last thing in my mind when I think of PhD.

So guys, what's your opinion on this matter? What is your say on this issue? 

Appreciate it if you guys can spend sometime to reply.

Most unis will grant you PhD with 2 refereed journal articles and some university doesn't even require you to publish. Therefore your research will not get another opinion beside those at the university and thus considered as run-of-the-mill PhD (just enough to graduate).

PhD with lots of publication/patent/published work is considered better then 'normal' PhD and will give you extra points in the job application process. The number of publication vary and it will be related to the journal ranking.

Most people doing PhD are under scholarship and paid in the form of stipends. Yes, the pay is really low, but many people survived it. Unless you are the type of person who waste a lot of money on meaningless entertainment, and expensive meals, I fail to see how you can't survive the living cost overseas if you are thrifty enough (which is what many of us poor students do).

Yea the T&C is a lot so its depend on how you gonna live your PhD life, with those T&C you might be more motivated but less time to enjoy postgraduate life.

Since my target is finish within 3 years and I've plan to stay in local U for few years so I take the scholarship, if you plan to go oversea or other private university after your PhD then better take other scholarship with less T&C such as Skim Biasiswa University Malaya (less amount of monthly allowance of course  )

A question here, how do you know the supervisor you found is a good one or not? Looking through the research she or he had made so far? Ask for opinion from other lecturers?

Which platform can I get the review regarding the supervisor I'm interested in?

Thanks for the info, adrian.

I see that you are a Proteomic and Molecular Biotechnologist. So I assume that what you studied has got to do with bioscience. From the way you say it, I presumed that you are a phd holder right now. May I know which university you went for further studies?

What you said above is very true. From a conference I attended by biotechcorp a year before, the experts there were saying its difficult for bioscience degree holders to secure a decent job that has got to do with bioscience as they have yet to master the revelant skills needed for the profession. The most relevant is only lab assistant.

I myself am a biotechnology undergraduate in one of the IPTA entering 2nd year soon. Any recommendation for education institutions if one wants to do further studies in these fields? Which study fields that are in demand in the market now.

Lastly, what can a student of this field do to increase his employability and value? Which platform can one go to do research about recent news in this industry?

Your reply is deeply appreciated.

Thank you 

I'm aware about the advantages of publications in top rated journal. I've just submitted my first manuscript to an international journal, not a top rated journal though. I plan to get another paper published in a better journal in near future.

I'll only able to study in IPTA, judging from my financial power. If I wanted to do phd overseas, one method is to become a lecturer first with master's degree (some new uni accept lecturer with this qualification), then apply for study leave to do phd in a better rank uni. That is what I noticed with lecturers nowadays. Become lecturer and then apply study leave to study overseas. I'm not sure it's easy or hard to apply though.
Unfortunately most people think PhD is not considered as a working experience or a training for future job. I've read that in some countries employers deem PhD as part of the working experience or some sort of training.

Ya, I agree they wanted to push down the salary. Another issue is some interviewers might use "overqualified" excuse as a way to reject our application. They might say like "What for we hire you with masters/phd qualification when we know bachelor degree holder can perform the job well". Another is interviewers might assume that we won't work for them in the long run because with our high qualification, we will always on the hunt of better prospects/higher salary jobs. 

So did you secured that sales-job at the end? Are you a Phd candidate now?

You'll gain experience by studying PhD, just that your experience is in researching but not working. Which one is better is up to yourself.

And it would be stupid if you take your PhD cert and compete with degree holder with same job, since you are a qualified researcher its best you stick to research field or teaching. In either case you can quite nice pay within few years, an IPTA senior lecturer already have 4.5K salary and at least 1.4K untaxable allowance, not to mention tons of other government servant benefit.

I myself is doing PhD in UM and they already offer scholarship up to 3.5k per month. This way you can concentrate on your research without having to worry about financial problem.

A question here, how do you know the supervisor you found is a good one or not? Looking through the research she or he had made so far? Ask for opinion from other lecturers?

Which platform can I get the review regarding the supervisor I'm interested in?

For Masters by research and PhD in IPTA, the thesis will be evaluated by one or two external examiners (lecturers from other universities) before viva voce. 
I need to pay my bachelor's degree student loan and give money to parents as well. I'm not the type that spend much money on unimportant stuff. In my uni, master's degree get rm1,400 per month and phd is rm1600. 

UM got its own scholarship for students pursuing phd overseas?

You can't judge your supervisor by the quality and amount of his/her research. You need to see his/her attitude as well, which is almost impossible to comprehend unless you've working under/with him/her. For example, does the supervisor always on time? Does he/she the type that keeps promise? Does he/she supportive? Does he/she the type that always delaying students work? etc.....

No matter how good the supervisor in producing top quality research, you'll still get a lot of headache if the supervisor always busy, out of office, delay evaluating your work, took more than 1 week to reply your email, think his/her idea is the greatest, ask you to do crazy research, etc. At the end, you'll forever can't grad.

I know my supervisor is good because I've been taught by him since first year in same faculty, and my other friend's also recommend him 

If you are outsider, your best bet is go through their research, and get review from student instead of lecturer ( as many lecture involve in office politics they might mengutuk each other)

For lecturer CV University Malaya you can refer this website http://umexpert.um.edu.my/cv_search_page.php

Please be noted that the quality of lecturer isn't proportional to number of publication, some lecturer who able to publish ridiculous amount of papers might involve in unethical/illegal activity include buy/steal other student's work, force other people to put his name in publication etc. I know a bangla lecturer in Engineering Depeartment of UM able to produce more than 30 papers within a year, that's average 1 papers per 10 days, so ridiculous 

For student review you'll have to go through FB or forum, its best that you could find postgrad student who under some lecturer as they should be able tot provide accurate review.

Wow, by taking brightspark scholarship means you are confident that you can produce at least 1 ISI paper per year? Taking reviewers' feedback, correction, resubmission into account, you should only have 6 month per year to prepare the papers. Would you mind telling me who's your supervisor? I am thinking of doing postgrad in UM as well.

Another Brightspark in UM, spotted. PM me and we come out for tea... I'm not involved in the program.

UM got its own scholarship for students pursuing phd overseas?

I'm not sure about this, but I know for past few years UM had send many lecturer who having Master Degree to UK to study for PhD, if you are an PhD student in UM you might get chance to attach to oversea universities for a certain period if your supervisor pull the string for you, or you propose to the faculty they might let you.

Taking PHD is just like u are looking for a job. Can you see ur future in PHD/job? if yes, y not continue?
If plan to stay in the acdemic field, of course PHD is very important.
To me, u are a person who should take PHD. Because, money is the last thing in ur mind. Some ppl who are pursuing PHD give up half way because of peer pressure. In 5-6 years of study for PHD, ur friends might be earning alot ady. buy cars and buy house. If you are not affected by that, i think its okie.
Correct me if i'm wrong, i think ur research experiences can consider as working experiences. =) and ur salary won't be the same as a degree holder.
Go for PHD, get ur satisfaction and go ahead with ur dreams. just to inspire you, i have a lecturer who built a research centre from nth to millions of research fund in 5 years after he get his PHD.

That must be SLAB/SLAI scheme, not a scholarship for student. The lecturer with masters degree has a paid study leave to further study overseas. Once PhD is completed, the lecturer need to go back to UM to teach for at least several years based on the SLAB/SLAI contract. Many lecturers in my faculty already sent to study overseas under this scheme.

By the way, u know how much phd student will get from the Skim Biasiswa University Malaya?

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Added on August 26, 2011, 1:17 am

Thanks bro for your encouragement. To say that I'm totally not affected by friends is a lie. Sometimes I did compared myself to my close friend, who is now working after completed bachelor degree. He got a stable job, car and house already and in the near future he will build his own family. I know it's not a wise thing to always compare this and that but it's a human nature to do that.   If I do PhD, I can get a scholarship that can cover my study and daily expenses.

Today (technically yesterday), my supervisor asked me if I got plan to do PhD or not and he offered to supervise me for phd. He has very good working attitude and punctual. Will discuss further with him next month.

If I remembered correctly SBUM for PhD student is RM2000 per month while Master student is RM1500 per month

MyBrain scholarship give RM2300 per month but you need to stay in Malaysia for 5 years, however you are free to work with any Malaysia company or institute.

Each scholarship have its pros and cons, it's a No Pain No Gain situation

This is really a great topic, and i have gained so much from reading this thread.

By the way, i am wondering whether would it be possible to proceed to master degree which is completely different from our degree?

Exp: By proceeding to Master in Education, from a BSc science degree.

I think it is possible to do masters degree which is different from your bachelor degree. But better you ask the uni or faculty that you want to apply to see if they accept such thing or not. The decision is in their hand.

Research can be done by your own or through the people that are under you (like my lecturers that are pursuing PHD, they delegates their research paper for us to do), so researching cannot be considered as work experience because there are chances the work is not by your own. Except that, working experience includes everything or most things where it cannot be found in the research, it is all about survivability in the community.

ya, that is the only way i think, however has anyone try before? i guess you need to convinced them with some of your STRONG reason and expertise.

SO in this case, any advices?

Is this the way things work in Malaysia? If this is the case, then Malaysia's postgraduate education is indeed in a very sorry state of affairs.

PhD is about independent research, and the candidate is ought to make significant contributions to the project/paper. I never know you can let other people to do the work for you! (Also I wouldn't trust anyone else's data except my own or someone I really trust)

I'm interested to know what do you mean by "survivability in the community"?