Instant Academician?

Lately there has been sudden move by the gov, to spend large amount of money on sponsoring students to continue their postgrad studies up to the PhD level. Well, I shouldn't bitch bout this, as I did benefit from it, Thank You.

I just found bout the latest method of hiring academician from TonyP, Education in Malaysia. Below is the extract of the hiring advert from MOHE.

Putrajaya — Temuduga pengambilan tenaga akademik secara berpusat bagi calon-calon yang memiliki ijazah Doktor Falsafah (PhD) akan diadakan pada 26-28 Mei 2007 mulai jam 9.00 pagi hingga 4.00 petang di Aras 2, Stesen Sentral, Kuala Lumpur.
Bagi calon-calon yang berminat terutamanya pemegang ijazah PhD yang mempunyai pengalaman kerja di sektor kerajaan atau industri amat dialu-alukan terutamanya di kalangan bukan bumiputra.
Program ni dilaksanakan oleh Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi (KPT) selaras dengan dasar untuk meningkatkan bilangan tenaga akademik yang berkelayakan PhD atau setaraf denganya sehingga 60% menjelang 2010 di PTA.
Pada masa yang sama temuduga bagi penajaan Biasiswa KPT ke peringkat PhD dan Sarjana serta pameran IPTAjuga diadakan. Selain datang sendiri ke lokasi temuduga in pemohon juga boleh mengemukakan permohonan melalui laman web IPTA berkenaan. Pemohon yang datang sendiri dikehendaki membawa bersama-sama kad pengenalan asal, sijil asal SPM, ljazah Sarjana Muda/Sarjana/PhD, biodata peribadi dan gambar berukuran passport berserta dua salman setiap satu.

I didnt feel the sudden need for hiring more PhD holders as I graduated from a local institution with the largest amount of PhD holders, all my lecturers have the title Dr.
Alhamdulillah, I personally believe that I got my 1st degree and master at&from the best here.

But I do realise, its rare for majority of other institution to have such dynamic academicians, its not that Im dissing lecturers with no PhDs, but it is a need, to have Dr. to supervise student's project, not lecturer's with masters degree supervising masters student? Or a bachelor degree lect teach first degree students, right? like what happened with most other institution.

So, in this pandemic shortage, MOHE had come up with this new method of hiring.
Its a walk-in interview at the central station (yes, the train station), bring yr biodata (erk, what is biodata?) and what intrigue me to write is not the method but the result of the interview written in the Star today. Full news here.

KUALA LUMPUR: Universities hired more than 200 academic staff on the first day of a centralised recruitment fair organised by the Higher Education Ministry.

Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed described the initial response to the three-day event as “beyond expectation” and said that police had to be called in on Saturday, the first day of the fair, to help control the crowd.

A total of 38 PhD holders were hired while 106 master’s holders will be sponsored to do their PhD by the universities, and 63 first-degree holders their master’s.

Alright, its stated that more than 200 were hired in the first day. Thats a lot of people for a day.

And 38 of them are PhD holders, erk, who are these peoples? Are they from the industry that suddenly wanna switch to academic? I dont think so, common sense, money is the main decision factor, people wont switch carrier unless they got higher pay, which is not that high. Is PhD in this country not worthed? Scary to think about this. But then who am I to judge these people, probably they have the purest intention towards our public uni progress, not bcos of desperation for job.

Another thing is, why it (the hiring) need to be centralised? There are already mechanism for each university to hire their own academician, through direct hiring or scholarship scheme. Or is MOHE doesnt like the way each university conduct it? Some peoples do make a good point that, centralised hiring does make the process more translucent.

No matter how, I always hope for the best outcome, if through this we can hire the best, let it done this way then, or any way much better.
The most important thing is, Education need to be free! Not just monetary but also politically.