TPM

The last two weeks have proven to be busy ones for me. I started a new teaching gig at TPM (Technology Park Malaysia). Where do I even start? Hah! For once I don't even know where to start. Well, I guess I can start by explaining the stupid system by which the instution runs. For those of you who know of TPM are familiar with its deserted campus. Big spacious buildings spaced out over a big campus, but no students in sight. When an image of a school is conjured in my mind, I always think of a bustling campus but TPM defies the rule--a ghost school.

With the lack of students, you'd think TPM is running at a loss. TPM is very dependent on the foreign students that get pulled in somehow. This is where my Chinese students fall into the picture. Since the school is very dependent on their money, they insist on doing anything to make the students happy. The students even dictate what they want to learn by giving lecturers a list of modules they want to learn.

For us lecturers, the happiness of the student in our classroom is a given but how far is too far? In TPM, lecturers are dependant on the students happiness or not we're out of a job. That would be understandable in the real world if the student complaint was reasonable. But in this case, the professionalism that is supposed to define a institution of education has somehow gone down the toilet. Politics and money are the forerunners, waving on under the false banner of education.

I'm not sure if I made any sense but I just wanted to put my thoughts out into the void...