Thursday, January 10, 2008

...of bogus scrolls & outsourcing

Two most recent events, locally and globally attracted my immediate attention and cannot wait to give or make my 2 sen worth of comments! First is the bogus Irish International University. Some hoohaa about it surfaced a few years ago in Malaysia and I know someone, without mentioning his name, was making quick big bucks setting up classes and programs in China. In fact I was at one point invited to teach at one of their MBA programs in China which I politely declined. The BBCWorld report uncovered the scam and found out that the VC was not a Baron the brochure had claimed but just a white Chartered Accountant living in Monaco. And when the BBCWorld crew interviewed him he said something like...' well, I am white, so when I go to these 3rd world countries they would obviously believe that we are genuine'. The 'university' even rented lecture halls from Oxford and Cambridge just to lend credibility. People were willing to pay for that scroll also to lend credibility to themselves! So, I guess its a zero sum game. Its a demand & supply scenario. There was demand so these unscupulous people supplied. Doesn't matter if it was ethical or not. Can you imagine the all-round implications? Hmm your guess is as good as mine....


Closer to home, yes yes the uncovering of blatant outsourcing of assignments. Not that it is something new though. Our students who went abroad many moons ago, especially those whose 'england' was well..horrible, to say the least, was known to have subscribed to the similar 'business model' hahaha. What I just read in Kosmo (Utusan Malaysia) was disgusting! They narrowed down the culprits to teachers (or mahasitua as opposed to mahasiswa...hahaha a term used in those days for mature cikgus who went late to universities). Again, can you imagine the all-round implication? I shall not speculate further. My best wishes for them who will soon be out there in the job market. Salam Ma'al Hijrah folks!

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