Yup, you guessed right, I was back in Ipoh for Chinese New Year last week, that’s why I couldn’t have any updates… 
Before anything, I WANT TO COMPLAIN AGAIN! First, it was the ‘i’ button; now, my whole laptop breaks down on the eve of Valentine’s day!
When I was planning to buy a laptop a few months ago, did my friends not totally warn me that the brand ‘A*er’ was unreliable? I think THEY DID!
ARGH!!
Now I have to go all the way to Low Yat to claim my warranty!
I’m writing this entry with my desktop, which I sort of ‘neglected’ since I bought my laptop…
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Multimedia University is the number 1 university in Malaysia?
Hmm, I don’t think even the President of MMU dares to make such a statement… At least not in public.
After all, making such a statement would make the person who said it seem arrogant, and even ignorant, since there are so many other respected universities such as UM, USM, UKM and many others whose names uniformly begin with ‘U’ and end with ‘M’ in our country that would appear as better candidates for position of ‘number 1′.
Furthermore, students from other universities would probably start flaming the guy who said it.
But, could there be any truth at all to the question I posed above?
Apparently, there is – to a small extent. Recently, a weblink that was forwarded to me caught my attention. It was a list of the ‘Top 200 universities and colleges worldwide‘, ranked by web popularity
It came as no surprise to find that MIT and Stanford University topped the list. Sometimes, I find it ironic that people always mention Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge as being the top universities in the world, and not even knowing what ‘MIT’ stands for!
You know what? Gordon Freeman, the guy that you play in the game Half-Life, is from MIT! (Don’t simply believe me, check Wikipedia!)
By the way, Harvard is in the 4th place, and Cambridge and Oxford goes way down to 24th and 25th.
Closer to us, Hong Kong University and NUS ranked 8th and 20th respectively. (Hey, it has been my long-time dream – but just a dream, I don’t expect it to ever happen – to study in HKU someday…
)
I wondered if our great Universiti Malaya made it into the top 200 list, so I pressed ctrl+f and made a search for the word ‘Malaysia’, and the page went way down to 182nd. Curiously enough, I saw:
Not bad, isn’t it? The only university in Malaysia to make it to the list! 
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Speaking of our university, our dear 11-years-in-office President Prof. Datuk Dr Ghauth Jasmon, made a sudden retirement last month! He is now being replaced by Prof. Dr Zaharin Yusoff.
Maybe I was not updated enough, but I really heard nothing about Prof. Jasmon planning to retire…
Most people that I know didn’t see it coming, many were shocked, some outraged. Moreover, apparently a number of professors, lecturers and staff were so upset with the management that they resigned and left the university.
This includes the great Prof. Dr Chuah Hein Teik, the very respected and cherished Dean of our Faculty of Engineering – gone. 
My friend even told me that he heard some lecturers ‘indirectly’ expressing their dislike and frustration towards the current management in their lecture sessions!
However, there seems to be no official clarification as to what exactly happened that effected in the great change in management. There are many theories and suspicions arising among students, but as long as the university stays silent, we can never be sure.
Indeed, the university made mistakes before, could this change of management be another one?
Just a random photo of water unknowingly being wasted in MMU.
To add to the thought, I notice that it was mentioned in a farewell notice allegedly written by Prof. Jasmon: “...my term as President has been determined to end on 31st December 2007…” Notice the passive voice in present perfect tense – ‘has been determined‘…. Hmm…
A blogger posted a copy of the Prof. Jasmon notice in his blog.
Well, it could have meant nothing, maybe he meant ‘…has been determined (by himself)’… I wouldn’t know…
But anyway, we’re really gonna miss him. Although I’ve never seen him much, he was no doubt a great President; or else we, the university, wouldn’t be having the many achievements that we are so proud of.
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In other news…
Alvin, my housemate, STOLE MY HAIR COLOR, I mean, dyed the same color as mine!!! 
OK, he didn’t really steal… His color is, in fact, slightly more ‘brownish‘ than mine. And actually, the color in the photo is slightly amplified using Photoshop… Because, remember? My uncooperative camera somehow doesn’t capture red-colored hair!
Ah, anyway. My hair is completely black now… Dunno whether I should try a new color anytime soon… Sigh, guys’ short hair really makes coloring an extremely short-term thing.
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Oh ya, before I end, Happy (early) Valentine’s day!
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Hi, happen to drop by at ur blog while searching info of Prof. Dr Chuah Hein Teik, the current president of UTAR (replacing Tan Sri Datuk Dr Ng Lay Swee, the founder president of UTAR). I have met with Prof Ghauth Jasmon a few time during my tenure of service in UTAR Student Council. I think that it’s a big lost for MMU to lost such a great president. Prof Jasmon is someone that always think out of the box. His speech/session in the conference is among the most interesting and humorous that spice up the plenary session most of the time. Anyway, I am graduating from UTAR soon… hmm…. approximately 3 weeks time from now… never noe that MMU is now 182th in the world. Congrats to MMU.. hopefully UTAR which is 6 years old this year will soon catch up with MMU under the leadership of Prof Chuah.
Regards;
Kent
Hi Kent,
Thanks for dropping by! Yup I have to agree with you that Prof. Jasmon was one of the most inspiring people that I’ve seen. I’ve never seen him much in campus, but I’ve listened to his speeches – and I really agree that his humor is his greatest attribute!
I’ve just seen your blog, Kent, and you’re really active in activities – especially music related ones (e-radio, Musical Nite emcee etc.). I have some friends in UTAR too! I think it’s a great uni and I think it certainly does match up with, or perhaps even better than, MMU in certain aspects!
Prof. Chuah was the Dean of my Faculty. He was a really great person and most of the students like him so much… I can’t say how sad we were when we found out he had to leave… But I’m sure he had his reasons…=(
Kent, If you’ve already met Prof. Chuah, I think you’d agree with me=) If you haven’t, I think you’ll find him as one of your favorite Professors in campus! Hehe…
*My God, this reply is looooooong! LOL*
Nice to have you here,
Best of luck!
thanks, very insteresting.
Hi james chow,
I didn’t find MMU in this website ‘Top 200 universities and colleges worldwide‘, ranked by web popularity. In actual fact Harvard, cambridge and oxford universtities are the real best universities in the world. MIT ,stanford and etc are actually ranked by web popularity and not by quality.
Hi all,
sorry but I have some comments ….
First prof Gauth didn’t say that MMU is the best Uni in Malaysia he said it made to be the first private University in Malaysia,, I think everyone knows that most of the government universities are better than MMU that’s if we are talking about all the uni in Malaysia,,, the ranking that you found MMU in is by web popularity not the quality even though it’s not there in the list because it’s impossible to be in the top 200 Uni,,, Please check this website before your post anything http://www.topuniversities.com/university_rankings/results/2008/overall_rankings/fullrankings/ , by the way I am MMU student..
Dear andipool and Hani,
-
Thanks for leaving your insights!
Well, it could be just me, but after reading your comments, I feel accused of having committed the following:
—–
1) That I have somehow reported that the list provided in the linked website are university rankings NOT based on web popularity but something else.
2) That I have somehow denied that Harvard, Cambridge etc. are the leading universities in the world.
3) That I have actually declared as a fact that MMU is the best university in Malaysia over many other government-funded and owned universities.
4)That the list in the linked website have not actually included Multimedia University, Malaysia, and that perhaps I have lied about it and photoshopped the picture…(see post-script)
5) That… um, sorry, but did I ever say that Prof Ghauth (note the spelling) declared that MMU was the best university in Malaysia? I think I just denied that very statement in the blog entry! =)
—–
Dear andipool and Hani, I am replying to you because I feel that those accusations are UNFOUNDED and am compelled to justify myself. I know exactly what I’m writing and I STAND BY my own writing integrity – every word of it.
I challenge you to read my blog article again, if you will, this time carefully and making sure you understand every phrase and sentence — and prove me wrong by quoting which sentences exactly (or words), with which I have made those statements that you have accused me of making.
I look forward to your reply, and I am prepared to remove any unintended misinformation in the article with your kind help. But you can also choose not to reply – if you agree, on re-reading the article, 1) that I have made none of the claims above and 2) there is no false information in the article.
-
Thank you.
-
P.S. My response to claim no. 4: if you look at the linked website again, you might notice that the list is constantly being updated, the last being on 20/11/2008 (refer to bottom of the page), and notice that this entry was written on 13/02/2008. You may ask the site owner for the February archive if you still think I made it all up.
I wold like to know more information about MMU university,and also I like to know how can I rejester in university .
Hi Ghasemi,
It would be rather unfair to you, and difficult for me to try to give you any detailed information on MMU, it would be very much easier if you could check out their website at http://www.mmu.edu.my/
They have everything you need to know there! Good luck!
i have studied in MMU ,MBA .just wasting time and money .good place to find girl friend .
Bulshit university specially after Prof ghouth left university .good for some agent to make money ,may ask mr mirhashemi
Well, I was a student of MMU and what can i say is that Ghauth was just bullshitting! Masuk bakul, Angkat sendiri. Actually, There are better U than MMu in Malaysia. Ghauth is such a crap and he was thinking of himself as the best of the best. But we know that he’s afoolhardy who falls in love with his own legend.
Take any mangkuk hayun and place him at the helm of any U, he’ll wurely be better! I don’t think such a man like Ghauth is extraordinary. If he’s so good, why must he go back to UM…poodaaaahhhh!
MMU is getting worst, especially all the local lecturers in the MBA class…
It used when i first enrolled, to have all the experience retired professors from reputable universities oversea…may be due to economy crisis they are all retrenched….(but our fees are still the same)…
now i just want to finish it off and just graduate…
i met the worst lecturers in my whole study life (from primary, secondary, undergrade, and all my other MBA courses) in my last semester…they are really sucks….
Dear members,
After reading all ur posts,it raised alarm on me..as i was thinking(actually apllied already) to enroll in MMU MBA in Oct 2009.
All of u seem to have pretty bad impressions after doing or finishing MBA there..
Could anyone please elaborate?
cheers
Dear Cooper,
From the very honest part inside me, I quite agree that the standard in MMU has been dropping like bird shit since last year. Many old-time lecturers have resigned out of better salary-offers from other unis, and apparently the management is rather messed-up too, although it is not publicly shown…
But still, those are their internal management and staffing problems which will probably be fixed-up eventually. As far as I’m concerned, MMU’s curriculum is still rather comprehensive and recognized. I’m not too sure about MBA lecturers but personally I’m quite satisfied with my Engineering lecturers…
I highly recommend that you go ahead and personally step into the MBA office and have some conversation with the staff and students there, it will probably give you a better idea…
All the best!
The universities are ranked by number of research papers they produce. I simply don’t judge which one is better and which one is worse. It is just the person themselves determine their qualities.
Universities outside malaysia have so much exposure and attended by so many students. In malaysia we are just beginning to compete in this area.
As I have done research myself, I dare to spill out that usually for one topic, there are many people who did the same area of study. It is only the matter of changing words, few parameters and so on. So, to those big universities, congratulations for having so many students that you will repeat the same thing over and over again.