Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Decide Wisely
    Decide Wisely
    Decide Wisely
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    Decide Wisely

    By K.M. Tiong

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In Decide Wisely, Tiong highlights mistakes that parents and students make when choosing a university and degree and explains how to avoid these mistakes. With fresh and unconventional insights - through an insider's angle - he shares secrets and hacks in refining the decision-making mindsets of students, and their parents, who are trying their best to choose a university and degree. Caution! The thoughts presented here will significantly change how parents and students look at universities and degrees.

    Parents and students will discover:

    • How to ask detailed and focused questions to the right people at the right time
    • How to use open/information days and study fairs to gain useful and reliable information
    • How to know if the university is representing facts or half-truths
    • How university rankings is merely a numbers game
    • How to really recognise the quality of academic staff and the university/degree
    • How to know if the student experience will be good
    • How to decide wisely on which university and degree that is the best fit
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherK.M. Tiong
    Release dateJun 10, 2019
    ISBN9781393952374
    Decide Wisely
    Author

    K.M. Tiong

    K.M. Tiong is a Certified Analytics Professional and has more than 15 years of experience in higher education, teaching at foundation and undergraduate levels. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at a UK university branch campus in Malaysia. He trained as a data scientist at The Center of Applied Data Science (CADS). In his spare time, he plays the diabolo and yo-yo.

    Related to Decide Wisely

    Related ebooks

    Teaching Methods & Materials For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Covid Generation

      Aug 1, 2020

      The Covid Generation
      11 min read

    • Article

      Competitiveness Is Good For You

      Oct 21, 2019

      Competitiveness Is Good For You
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Right Kind of Motivation Comes From You

      Jun 23, 2017

      What motivates us? Fear and punishment? Or money, fame, and power? One train of thought, called self-determination theory, starts from the idea that all humans have the natural—or intrinsic—tendency to behave in effective and healthful ways. Central

      4 min read

    • Article

      Escape Burnout

      Mar 10, 2021

      Escape Burnout
      3 min read

    • Article

      Once Upon A Pandemic

      Feb 4, 2022

      Once Upon A Pandemic
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Forgiveness

      May 18, 2022

      The Art Of Forgiveness
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Winning Formula

      Sep 10, 2019

      The Winning Formula
      4 min read

    • Article

      How To Play The Property Game

      Apr 28, 2022

      One way to save some serious money is to live in the right catchment area for a good, highly ranked public school. Schooling can often dictate where families buy or rent property. This means that if you plan to move into the school zone, you need to

      2 min read

    • Article

      Why Incentives Are a Must For Your Business

      Aug 9, 2018

      To be at the cutting edge of incentive programme design and execution, Uwin Iwin International, one of the incentive leaders on the African continent keeps a close eye on the incentive industry, thereby ensuring that we offer the very best in incenti

      2 min read

    • Article

      Early Years Science

      Mar 3, 2021

      Early Years Science
      4 min read

    • Article

      9 Essential Practices to Make College Pay Off

      Nov 4, 2019

      Many parents and students wading through college applications this fall are experiencing sticker shock. Couple that with 44 million Americans owing $1.5 trillion in student loan debt and anyone can see why there are growing concerns about the cost an

      4 min read

    • Article

      Good Foundation

      Apr 2, 2023

      Good Foundation
      4 min read

    • Article

      Never Too Late

      Dec 19, 2023

      Never Too Late
      3 min read

    • Article

      Making a Difference

      Jul 1, 2022

      Making a Difference
      4 min read

    • Article

      Back to SCHOOL?

      Aug 26, 2021

      Back to SCHOOL?
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Decide Wisely

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Decide Wisely - K.M. Tiong

      Contents

      ––––––––

      Introduction

      Decision-making factors

      Rankings and reputation

      Academic staff

      Teaching and research

      Linkages and collaboration

      Degree fees

      Facilities

      Student and staff activities

      Location

      Degree title, content, and flexibility

      What next after SPM/O-level

      How to get better value and insights

      Open/information days and study fairs

      Career or job fair

      Prospectus, brochure, and website

      Social media

      Other factors that may apply to you

      What if you don’t qualify, yet

      Exchange, transfer, or split arrangement

      Young people’s concerns

      Probably important to you

      Filling forms

      Taking prospectuses/brochures

      Conclusion

      Decide Wisely easy guide

      Acknowledgements

      Introduction

      ––––––––

      Choosing a university and degree is a life changing decision and a daunting task for any prospective university student. Being young, and inexperienced, making a good decision on what and where to study is therefore a huge challenge.

      Over the years, I have had the opportunity to observe, interact, and deal with students, and their parents, in search of the best university and degree for their, and their children’s, study. I have come across a range of different characteristics and behaviours of both students and their parents when they look for a university and degree. Some are pretty knowledgeable in some aspects; some have rough ideas; some know only a little; and some are rather clueless.

      On university open/information days, there are parents and their children who walk around aimlessly; who are unsure what to see; who see things superficially; who do not know what to ask at all; who follow campus tours without asking many questions; who ask the wrong questions; and, who ask the correct questions, but to the wrong people.

      At study fairs, similar situations also happen: not knowing what to ask; asking simple, non-probing questions; asking the wrong questions; and, asking the correct questions, but to the wrong people. Many students, and parents, also take university prospectuses/brochures without any plan, and do not use these in the correct way.

      There are various factors (as described in many studies that investigate what students consider when making their choices) that affect the choice of university and degree. In particular, rankings and reputation of the university and degree play a pivotal role. This book, however, is not a treatise on this, and other various factors.

      This book is designed to let students - and their parents - think and realise what or how to see; what is it that they are seeing (the insights); questions that need to be asked, and to whom, where, when, and why those questions need to be asked. It contains secrets that are there to be seen, but which many probably couldn’t see; and, hacks that can be applied, to assist in the decision-making. However, this book is not meant to be a complete definitive guide. It is meant to inspire thoughts as well as to provide a fresh and unconventional mindset and approach to make a more informed choice when choosing a university and degree.

      This book is written for students who are deciding which private university in Malaysia to choose for their university studies. The ideas, however, are also applicable to a large extent for any student who are going to any other university/university college/college.

      Most importantly, I wish all students the best of luck in choosing the best university and degree for yourself, and I hope this book, in some ways, helps shape this luck.

      June 2019

      K.M. Tiong

      Decision-making factors

      Rankings and reputation

      – Numbers and stories that make, or break, a university

      ––––––––

      Rankings and reputation are the two most important considerations when choosing a university or particular degree to study. When you are thinking of getting into a university or degree you would most probably be concerned with the ranking and reputation of the university – globally, regionally, or nationally. There are various agencies that look into these – the Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) world university rankings (topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings), Times Higher Education (THE) world university rankings (timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings), Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) rankings (shanghairanking.com), and the Rating System for Malaysian Higher Education Institutions (SETARA) ratings (mohe.gov.my).

      Ranking issues, and its controversies, are complex and can by itself cover a whole book. For you, what’s important is, whenever you look at these rankings, you should strive to know what the rankings are about and don’t take the placings at face or numerical value. Learn about how these rankings are developed and calculated – this will give you some ideas of what these rankings represent and how they are important (or not important) in your consideration.

      Which should you look at? The university or degree ranking? Or should you look at both? Which ranking is more important? Is it the university’s or degree’s ranking?

      Like it or not, the rankings of a university is a mark of its reputation. And reputation is important to

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1