The establishment of a new entity which merges the National Accreditation Board (LAN) and the Quality Assurance Division, Ministry of Higher Education (QAD) was approved by the Government on 21 December 2005. This entity is responsible for quality assurance of higher education for both the public and the private sectors.

The new entity, the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), was established on 1 November 2007 with the coming in force of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency Act 2007. The MQA was officially launched by the Honourable Minister of Higher Education, Dato’ Mustapa Mohamed, on 2 November 2007.

The main role of the MQA is to implement the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) as a basis for quality assurance of higher education and as the reference point for the criteria and standards for national qualifications. The MQA is responsible for monitoring and overseeing the quality assurance practices and accreditation of national higher education.

With the vision to be a credible and internationally recognised higher education quality assurance body and the mission to inspire the confidence of its stakeholders through best practices, the MQA is set to chart new boundaries in higher education quality assurance.Functions
As a quality assurance body, the functions of MQA are:

• To implement MQF as a reference point for Malaysian qualifications;
• To develop standards and credits and all other relevant instruments as national references for the conferment of awards with the cooperation of stakeholders;
• To quality assure higher education institutions and programmes;
• To accredit courses that fulfil the set criteria and standards;
• To facilitate the recognition and articulation of qualifications; and
• To maintain the Malaysian Qualifications Register (MQR).

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Goals of Time Management

• To be able to have control over your life – manage your time, don’t let it manage you!
• To be healthier and happier (less stress).

Seven Suggestions for Effectively Managing Your Time

Be Organized

• Use time saving tools: appointment calendars, “to do” lists, e-mail, answering machines, file folders, etc.
• Have an organized workplace (don’t waste time constantly looking for your work).
• Use your appointment calendar for everything, including listing study time.
• Use “to do” lists for both long-term and for each day/week.

Plan Ahead (Schedule it and it will happen!)

• Determine how long your tasks will take (do this before agreeing to take on a task!)
• Consider whether any activities can be combined.
• Determine if big tasks can be broken down into smaller tasks that may be easier to schedule (such as studying for exams and visiting the library as part of an assignment to write a term paper).

Prioritize Your Tasks

• Use an A-B-C rating system for items on your “to do” lists with A items being highest priority.
• Set goals for both the short term and long term as to what you want to accomplish.
• Look at all of your “to do”s to gauge the time requirement and whether additional resources will be needed to accomplish them (if yes, schedule time to obtain those resources). Don’t postpone the small tasks (a sense of accomplishment is good and overlooked small tasks can become larger tasks.)

Avoid Overload

• Include time for rest, relaxation, sleep, eating, exercise, and socializing in your schedule.
• Take short breaks during study and work periods.
• Don’t put everything off until the last minute (for example, don’t cram for exams).
• Learn to say “no” when appropriate and to negotiate better deadlines when appropriate.

Practice Effective Study Techniques

• Have an appropriate study environment.
• Split

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If you’re heading off to college or university, the chances are you’re living away from home for the first time. It’s now up to you to make sure you don’t waste away.

And what’s worse, you’re expected to do it with only a fiver, a two-ring hob and a toaster. If up till now you’ve avoided the kitchen on a matter of principle, here are a few tips on how you can avoid the hunger pangs and eat healthily on the tightest of budgets.

How to make your ringgit go further

Plan your budget – Work out how much you’re going to spend on food each week and stick to it. Otherwise, you could be eating like a king at the start of term and recycling your teabags by the end.

Get back to basics – Processed food is a pricey option because you’re paying for the processing. It’s much cheaper and often more nutritious to buy basic ingredients and make your own meals.

Compare prices – Remember to shop around. Find out whether your local greengrocer or market stall is better value than the supermarket. And you’ll often save a few cents by buying a supermarket’s own products, rather than the big brands.

Don’t be seduced by special offers – Getting 20 cents off, three for the price of two, or 15% extra is great if it’s something useful. But don’t fill the cupboards with Battenberg cake just because it’s on special offer!

Cook batches – It can be expensive buying a different set of ingredients for every meal, so it’s a good idea to cook up a batch of food. After cooking, cool the food quickly (within one to two hours), then freeze in serving-sized portions. Make sure you reheat the food until it’s steaming hot all the …

For down-to-earth, hands-on revision help, read these top 10 tips from students who have been through what you’re going through now:

• Create a revision timetable with sensible work slots and breaks and then show it to your parents to get their agreement. Keep to this timetable! Then when your parent finds you ‘not working’, provided you are following your agreed timetable, no-one is going to hassle you. Parents only hassle and worry when they are not sure what you are doing, or if you do not seem to have a plan. Organize yourself well and it will help you to fulfill your potential.
   
• Know where your exams are and when they start, how long they are, what equipment you are allowed to take in (for example calculators) and what you are not allowed to take in (mobiles, notes, etc).
   
• Make sure you have one weekend day when you don’t do revision or think about exams – you’ll come back to it refreshed.
   
• Tell your family about your revision time – and ask them for help if you need it – it may help make them feel useful to you!
   
• Keep bullet points on crib cards highlighting main subject theories. Use these for quick revision and for reading during ‘dead’ times – for example, when you’re waiting for a bus. Use mnemonics – using initials of a word helps your memory.
   
• Some people revise well by listening, so you could try ‘talking’ your revision and recording it onto your iPod or onto tapes. Listen to these while lying in bed, while travelling in a car, or walking to the shops. This also takes the guilt out of being out and about rather than in front of your books!
   
• Ensure you eat and sleep properly. Now

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Between exams, papers and maintaining an active social life, many college students feel they can’t really find the time to keep up on their personal health and wellness until an illness catches hold and stops them in their tracks. With most colleges providing health care and endless physical activities for students, staying healthy in college is about as easy as it will ever get. Here are a few tips to help students make the most of the resources at their fingertips and to ensure they stay healthy and illness free throughout their education.

Diet

Without careful attention to your diet, you could end on putting on the freshman 15 and more. Follow these tips to help keep your diet healthy and beneficial.

1. Learn proper portion size. To avoid eating too much of even the healthiest foods, keep track of how much you’re eating. For most people, meat servings should be about the size of a deck of cards and other servings vary by the type of food.
2. Vary your meals. When the cafeteria has your favorite foods daily it can be easy to return to those old favorites every day. Changing up your diet from day to day is an important part of good nutrition so take advantage of the variety of selections available to you.
3. Eat breakfast. Start your day off right with a good meal when you get up. Whether you’re rolling out of bed at noon or up at the crack of dawn for class, make sure you start your day with a balanced, healthy meal.
4. Keep healthy snacks around. It’s easy to eat healthy if you keep the Cheetos at bay and stock your dorm room with fruits and other healthy snacks. You’ll be more likely to reach for these than junk food if you keep

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Choosing a career/choosing a major

Security vs. adventure. Accountant, Peace Corps volunteer, journalist, college professor. Ultimately, your son or daughter should make the choice. Of course, you may want to mention factors to consider, such as job market demand, salary ranges, long-range opportunities, skills required, etc. Just because an occupation is “hot” now does not mean it will be equally in demand in 10 years or that your child has the aptitude or motivation for it.

Choosing to double major/choosing a major and minor

Most employers do not place a premium on a double major. It usually requires an extra one or two semesters to obtain a second major and does not particularly enhance a student’s marketability. Exceptions would be a second major or a major and minor chosen for a specific career, such as English and chemistry for technical writing, or a health policy major and business minor for hospital administration. Of course, some students may choose to double major primarily for academic/intellectual purposes.

Grade point average (GPA)

Some students who get off to a rocky start eventually pull up their grades; however, this can be very difficult to do. Advanced placement credits and study abroad courses generally do not count in the computation of a student’s GPA Some employers use GPA cutoffs in considering applicants. Other employers stress the student’s overall background: experience, number of hours worked during the school year to finance college, leadership activities, etc. Encourage your son or daughter to make academics a high priority beginning with his or her freshman year. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that it may take him or her a while to adjust to the rigorous academic demands of college.

Obtaining marketable skills

Most employers today put more emphasis on graduates’ skills than on their academic majors. Encourage your …

Making effective classroom presentations takes practice, but with a few tips up your sleeve, you are ready to take on the challenge. These presentation tips refer to PowerPoint slides (all versions), but all of these tips in general, can be applied to any presentation.

Know Your Topic

Students usually want to charge right in and start using the presentation software immediately. Do the research first and know your material. Think through what you will present before beginning the project on the computer. Creating the slide show is the easy part. The best classroom presentations are created by people who are comfortable with what they are going to talk about.

Use Key Phrases About Your Topic

Good presenters use key phrases and include only the most important information. Your topic may be vast, but choose only the top three or four points and make them several times throughout the presentation in the classroom.

Avoid Using Too Much Text on the Slide

One of the biggest mistakes students make in classroom presentations, is in writing their whole speech on the slides. The slide show is meant to accompany your oral presentation. Write in the form of jot notes, called bullet points, on slides. Use simple language and limit the number of bullets to three or four per slide. The surrounding space will make it easier to read.

Limit the Number of Slides

Too many slides in a presentation will cause you to be rushing to get through them, and your audience might end up paying more attention to the changing slide than to what you are saying. On average, one slide per minute is about right in a classroom presentation.

Layout of Your Slide is Important

Make your slides easy to follow. Put the title at the top where your audience expects …

It is that time of the semester – the time where looming final tests and projects become reality for students eager to finish their classes and become that much closer to earning their degree.

When you are faced with a number of priorities, how do you even begin to prepare for exams? Here are some study tips to help you make the best of your study time.

Set aside time.

This one’s a given, but it is important to determine how you will fit all of your studying in and schedule it in a planner. If you work 8 hours a day, you know what hours those are. If you have class or a seminar, you know not to schedule other meetings or activities at that time. Do the same by scheduling your study time into your day.

If you are an adult learner, it is even more important to set these schedules and expectations with your friends and family. You’ve taken the step to back to college and improve your life – be sure to keep others in the loop on your progress and success, and they should be able to understand your need for uninterrupted study time. The good thing to know is that a series of shorter study sessions distributed over several days is preferable to fewer but longer study sessions. This is especially important for those students who juggle work, family, and school.

Don’t try to learn it all.

Select a reasonable amount of material to study. Make a list of topics that are likely to be on the exam and prioritize these subjects based on how important they are and how much more you need to learn about them. Spend the majority of your time familiarizing yourself with the subjects you are less confident about, …

Consult the financial aid office: The largest amount of financial aid comes from federal, state, and institutional grants. Your financial aid office can help you find information on available scholarships, grants, and loans according to your needs and background.

Contact your academic department: If you have already decided on a major, your academic department may be aware of awards designated for students in your area of study. The student aid office does not always have information on these highly specific programs, so be sure to check both.

Use a free scholarship search engine: Ask the student aid office to recommend free scholarship search sites other students have found useful. Online searches let you focus on scholarships that fit your personal characteristics, helping you target your search to only those scholarships for which you are most likely to qualify.

Never assume: Don’t believe that because you don’t have straight A’s and can’t shoot a 4 pointer, there’s nothing available to you. There are scholarships available based on hobbies, interests, background, financial need, etc. Seek out local and national organizations and associations in your areas of interest to see whether any scholarship opportunities exist.

Stack up the small scholarships: Studies show that families often overlook scholarships that are less than $1000. You may be thinking that these awards won’t even make a dent in your college costs, but adding up multiple small awards can prove to be a benefit in your scholarship quest.

Apply early: The best time to apply is NOW! Waiting too long will result in missed deadlines. Don’t wait to be accepted to a college to research and apply for private scholarships. If you don’t receive a scholarship the first time around, don’t get discouraged. Most scholarships are not limited to freshmen; you may have better luck the following …

Paying for College

Financial aid for college or university always been a hot topic in Malaysia.

The reality about paying for college is that there is usually no one chunk of financial assistance that will cover all your education costs. For many students, the money required for tuition, fees, books, a computer, and other education-related charges will have to come from a combination of financial aid sources.

Federal and State Loans and Scholarships

You may qualify for PSD Scholarship from the federal government if you meet the requirements. Apart from that most states offer need-based and merit-based scholarships and study loans, be sure to find out this from the state government office.

Talk to Your School’s Financial Aid Office

The primary job of your college’s financial aid office is to provide you with suggestions for how to find loans and scholarships best suited to your qualifications and needs. In addition to local, state, or national award competitions to recommend, your college may have its own grant and scholarship programs.

Trade or Professional Associations

Sometimes it pays to look for college grants and scholarships right in your own back yard. Many industry trade associations offer scholarships to students wanting to advance in a relevant career and to workers who have put in many years of dedicated service. Or, if your employer has a tuition reimbursement program, talk to your Human Resources department about your eligibility and what kinds of college and career advancement programs qualify for reimbursement.

Grants and Scholarships Databases

There are a number of free online databases for students wondering how to find grants and scholarships. The grants and scholarships listed in this database are offered primarily by individual schools, private for-profit and nonprofit companies, charitable foundations, and similar institutions.…