Dear Public Uni Graduates,

Working for mulit-national corporation (MNC) has been an eye-opening experience for me so far. When I first started working here, I noticed the employees mostly graduated from private universities (from the likes of Monash University, University of Nottingham, UTAR etc.) rather than public universities like UM, UKM or UMP (my uni, God bless) and this makes me ponder on one question - What happened to the ones from public universities? Are graduates there really that incompetent comparatively? Or is it because of their exposure? OK so it is more than one question however, I would pretty much like to know the answers. 

Communications

To me, it was several factors, not only the private varsities has more exposure to better companies but better companies are more willing to hire them as well. Why? One, students at public universities has communication problems. Not only they are bad at speaking up, they are bad in English as well (when I say bad, I mean sucky). As much as I hate to admit it but in public universities, if you are a Malay speaking English, your Malay friends will tease you for being 'glamor' now and forgot about your roots. If you are a Chinese speaking English, first thing your Chinese friends will ask is "Are you a banana?" Banana indicates that you are a Chinese but do not know how to speak Chinese which is similar to banana the fruit - yellow on the outside, white on the inside. If you answer yes, then too bad for you, you have to join other groups of friends and too bad for them as they will not improve on their English. For Indians, everytime you try to speak English to them, somehow one way or another they will change back to Tamil, Hindi or whatever mother tongue they have. While in private universities, everyone is conversing in English - even the janitor talks to you in English!

Exposure

In my 4 years of public uni, I have to say the exposure given by the board of university has been (I would not say 'generous') well. There are mulit-universities society like AIESEC or competitions like IEM Plant Design. If you feel you are not up to that level, there are intra-university level like CITREX where you got the chance to publish your Final Year Project for only university students to see or if you prefer something more artistic, the university was open enough to let students held Cultural events. So what is the problem? Two words - No Interest. Students know about these events. It was their interest that was not there. They rather hang out in the hostels and just does not even bother about it UNLESS merits points are involved.

Competency 

I have compared the work of public universities and private universities for my course and both universities has similar projects, assignments and subjects. Grading was also similar (except for those that has silly bell shape curve diagram - those are insane!). In terms of educational knowledge I do not think it is much of a difference in it. Furthermore, there are various board of accreditation for various subjects and most courses fulfil their criteria. Malaysian parents who are reading this, may consider public universities if you guys is having financial problems and was worried if which one was better. I have to say a job well done to the education minister ensuring the standard of public universities (Although I unapprove of the switch from English to BM for science and maths).

So for students or graduates reading this, I urge you guys to go out and participate, enhance and sharpen your soft skills before you graduate or before getting a job. Trust me, these skills are more important than your subjects. While you are at it, enjoy it along the way and most importantly have fun. I know I had it.