Letter to Centre for Postgraduate Studies, IIUM

I got a letter from the Centre for Postgraduate Studies, asking me to submit few documents that were not attached in order for my application to be processed. Ironically, one of them was the full transcript.

Alah... Malas nak cerita panjang la. Baca je la my reply letter to the office.

I have decided that I will do my postgraduate programme in other university since I have got a permanent job and have started working since early of this month. I changed my mind from doing master programme in IIUM since the application for July intake was delayed to November which I cannot wait for and which I was not informed by the office until I came on early of July. I understand and admit that I sent the application after the due date on 31st May 2009 but that happened due to some unavoidable problems including the closing of CPS office on 3rd and 4th June 2009. However, I was informed that for ex-students of IIUM, the procedure is easier. But to my disappointment, my application was not touched nor sent to Kulliyyah of Pharmacy just because I didn’t submit the full transcript together with the application. I did attach my partial transcript with the application but obviously it didn’t help anything.

For your information, we, students from IIUM Kuantan campus can only get the full transcript starting on 10th August 2009. That means we cannot apply for any postgraduate programme anywhere since the full transcript is crucial for the procedural sake. However, in case of registration with CPS of IIUM, can’t it be made easier for ex-students of IIUM by having some exceptions? It has to be known that willingness and interest for students to further their study in the same university is mostly based on their belief and confidence that the university can provide some proper settings and capacity for their postgraduate studies. Therefore, I think it should be made easier and more lenient for students from the university to register for postgraduate programme without concern too much with the transcript because sooner or later they will eventually submit the transcript which as far as I know do not has much effect on the application.

Therefore, I would like to forward these suggestions to the CPS of IIUM:

1. Allow application to be sent and processed without the full transcript. Usually, students apply for postgraduate programme because they believe they can finish their undergraduate programme successfully within the expected time. They do not want to waste time and they want to start the postgraduate programme immediately.
2. Establish a branch office in IIUM Kuantan campus for students can reach the office easily without having to go to IIUM Gombak. Therefore, they can get and send the application even before they finish their undergraduate programme. It is not convenient to go to IIUM Gombak to get the application form since usually final year students are busy with their Final Year Project (FYP) and not to mention academic classes. They usually extend the semester up to May even.
3. Set up online application for postgraduate programme as what done in University of Malaya (UM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
4. Allow students to apply directly to the kulliyyah at which they will do the postgraduate programme. This might need some rearrangements with the current procedure. This is especially advantageous for students and kulliyyahs in IIUM Kuantan Campus since they stay there and no branch office for CPS has been established yet there. Each kulliyyah has its own Deputy Dean of Research and Postgraduate and therefore I think registration could be made from the office.

I hope they'll do something to ease the procedure in the future. Takpe la. Zaman aku, aku mengalah. Asalkan junior-junior nanti terbela nasib mereka.

:)

Update: Thanks to Hafizah Reh for the information about the online application. With that, I think point no. 3 has been answered.