natwest's step account and a savings account. my wife's using hsbc.

quite comparable laa the two. but lately natwest has been promoting lots of free goodies for students. not sure if applicable to international students or not.

really? haaa didnt know that. but i did open my natwest account with UCL back in 2003, which was done within 10 minutes. change of policy perhaps. when i moved to sheffield, they gave me a savings account, which entitles me for all the student offers. bear in mind i dont hold a PR or anything that changes my international student status.

computers, electronics and its family (except mobile phones) are cheaper in msia. except when there are special deals like orange broadband's "subscribe for 1 year, get a laptop free!". crazy huh? hahhahaha.

anyways, i brought my desktop from msia. my suggestion:

i. take out the motherboard, harddisk, ram, display card and any other cards and put it in ur hand luggage.
ii. stuff ur empty casing with baju and all that to save space in ur main baggage.
iii. put the rest of ur desktop in the main baggage.

my first trip here, i fried my harddrive. second trip, i fried my mother board. after that, i meticulously separate the important peripherals and put it in my hand luggage. apparently the whole "strong x-ray could damage ur pc components" is no joke...

well, i was told (though i had no proof) that the x-ray machine for the hand luggage has different intensity (?) than the one they use for ur checked-in baggage. i dunno much about x-rays, but after a motherboard and harddrive down, i dont gamble anymore. i avoided all my electronics from going in the cargo.

yup, HSBC in the UK has no relation whatsoever with msian HSBC. it's like two different bank that happens to share the same name, despite their tagline "the world's local bank". yeah right. my wife couldnt even manage her account or pay her HSBC credit card from msia. she gotta do all that online.

so if u still wanna open HSBC account, just wait till u're here.

oh yeah, another thing. it's also good to have easy access to an account in msia, especially if u desperately need some money from ur parents, or ur friends asking u to buy something for them etc.

i have CIMBank account, but unfortunately they have weak international support. their bankcard is also useless abroad, despite all the logos on the card. the services arent activated. u can manage ur account online, but u cant transfer money bcoz it uses that PIN number system that they send to ur mobile phone. and only to msian mobile phones. a hassle, isnt it?

my wife is using maybank. u can use maybank's bankcard here in the UK to withdraw money directly from msian account. they'll charge RM12 everytime u withdraw, but when u withdraw RM2000, RM12 is chicken feed laa. dont withdraw small amounts though... rugi. owh, u gotta activate the card for use in overseas first. goto maybank to do this.

before u start into any transfer programmes, u should know that msian authority in the architecture profession, lembaga akitek malaysia (LAM) does not recognize any transfer or twinning programmes.

taylor's does not "transfer" to melbourne, but rather, they have a partnership programmes that allow their students to finish their degree in melbourne. LAM however does not recognize this, meaning they'll not be automatically accredited once they've graduated and come back to practice. meaning they're are not certified to become architects UNLESS they seek recognition individually with LAM.



anyways, if u're looking for architecture in london, the best in the world would be the bartlett (UCL)and the AA. westminster, metropolitan and royal college of art are good too. bear in mind though, bartlett and AA is easy to get in, but have an extremely high failure rate.

if u're talking about A4, u may be able to get the small printers and bring it to the UK. but i use A3 (for architectural dwg), so even if it's cheaper to buy in msia, it's not even worth it to ship it to the UK. not even worth the cheap inks . like those that have mentioned before, it might be a good idea to survey the printer that u want to buy, get the inks from msia, and buy the printer in the UK.

yes, i believe u can get ur deposit back. remember, deposits are meant to be handed back to u at the end of the contract. since the contract have not even begun, u should be able to get ur money back.

which ironically, if a lecturer in msia do not spoonfeed, he/she will be labeled incompetent and incapable of teaching. believe me, i've tasted that end of the stick

depends on when ur flight is, liew. MAS is notoriously being NOT the cheapest airline to msia. most of the time, i'd go for emirates or a few other middle eastern airlines. sri lankan airlines is quite cheap too, but they have crappy services which my friend dubbed as "standard bas ekspres kat malaysia" hahaha. but it IS quite cheap though.

try these sites:

http://www.cheapflights.co.uk
http://www.flightcomparison.co.uk
http://www.travelsupermarket.com

these are my top three sites to find flights...

STA Travel (M) Sdn Bhd.
Lot 506, 5th Floor, Magnum Plaza, 128 , Jalan Pudu
Kuala Lumpur 55100

Phone (603) 2148 9800
Fax (603) 2143 3046
E-mail sales@statravel.com.my

http://www.statravel.com.my

what do u mean "class of honour"? or do u mean classification of degrees? (eg 1st class, 2nd upper etc)

classification of degree is based on individual universities. in sheffield generally, it's based on 2nd year (30%) and 3rd year (70%) only. 1st year is not counted.

the sheffield system is quite now and have not been adapted by the general academic community. heck, i came to realize that it's not even entirely used in sheffield, just on certain courses that have different emphasize on education. the system is conducted for courses that require experience and vocational rather than reading.

other courses not using this system uses the standard CGPA system which u accumulate from 1st year to the final year.

architecture education...

ok... this is an entirely unique problem. i have NEVER seen a problem like this

worse comes to worst, they'll detain u at the immigration detention centre and release u on the 14th at the stroke at midnight

Y E S.

the announcement was exactly about the JPA/MARA/KPT scholars.

although i have no idea how much exactly are we gonna get. it could be anywhere between 1% to 97%, which does not tell us very much .

usually, intakes for masters is in september/october, the same intake for the undergraduate courses. research based masters may have open intake (all year round).

usually, yes. but do check on each university via their website.

the reason is, masters by taught course doesnt have as many students as undergraduates. so it would make sense to have intakes once a year and pile everyone together. however, popular courses like MBA might have bigger number of students, hence might have more than one intake per year.

masters by research is more of an individual learning. so u dont really attend classes or what not. so they could start anytime they want.

malaysian universities still got bullying meh? u've watched waaaay too much TV

there's very little cases of senior-junior bullying in the UK, and mostly are limited to the british themselves. actually, it's quite hard to find any these days bcoz of how they plan their campus. most of the universities in the UK are city campuses, meaning the universities doesnt have a real compound, but rather integrated in the city itself. so it's very, very hard for bullying to occur bcoz u're not in confined places. it's hard enough to bump with people u know in the city, let alone to fine bullying seniors .

orientation week are just to get u familiar with the facilities and how to use it, as well as activities and what not. first u will register ur subjects and classes, then register for computing services, library and health. then they'll bring u around the campus to show whatever facilities they have. then u'll be shown the student clubs, sports or activities that u could join. and lastly they'll show the places where students hangout, shop, party and so on. very simple, basic stuff. u dont have to join if u dont want to, coz u can just do it urself the hardway.

in malaysia, the possibility of bullying is a wee bit higher simply bcoz they're in confined places. campuses have been designed to "isolate and incubate" the students in a small area. since u live and study in campus, it is problem waiting to happen. but i havent heard of bullying cases in a very long time, simply bcoz the rules are "if u bully, u'll get kicked out instantly". no tolerance in that.

format? just use normal formal letter format ler.

there's no other format to use...

broadband in the UK varies. i'm using virgin media 2 in 1 service - 2mb unlimited broadband (cable) + cable TV for GBP20 a month. quite ok laa, very stable line and about 30 channels TV. cables broadband doesnt need BT phone line, so i dont have phone (i use skype anyways).

previously i used bulldog 8mb unlimited broadband + phone line for GBP40 a month.

basically bedsit, shared house and room in house are basically referring to the same thing: renting a room in a house.

bedsit are what they traditionally call when the house owner rents a room to somebody else. usually it includes bedroom and bathroom, but u dont really get to use the kitchen. nowadays bedsit just means u'll share the house with the house owners themselves.

shared house / room in house means the owner rents individual rooms to different tenants occupying each rooms.

but basically all is the same lah.