Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments
In recent years, Limkokwing university has come under much public scrutiny.
Many netizens have taken to Reddit, Twitter and the blogosphere to voice their displeasure with the way the university has been run, citing mismanagement, poor teaching quality, non-accreditation of degrees, and allegations of racism.
In 2020, the university came under fire for a poster that portrayed Lim Kok Wing as the “King of Africa”. More recently, in May 2021, it has been alleged that up to 800 Master’s students’ degrees have not been accredited. And now in September, 10 former students are seeking RM5 million in damages after their degree accreditations have been revoked.
In Real Life reached out to various Limkokwing University students to find out more
In August, we interviewed 5 Masters programme students from Limkokwing University. Fatin* is a local student, whereas Ahmed*, Zac* Alex* and Rafiq* are international students.
We also interviewed Tasya*, an international student from the PhD programme.
*Names have been changed to protect their privacy
Taken on 17th May 2021
Picture posted on Limkokwing University’s Instagram on 11 June 2020
“They market it so well but when you get there, there are nothing but posters.”
“It is just a whole let down. There are no clubs or activities for students,” said Fatin, who is in her final year of a Master’s in Project Management.
Alex, who is Fatin’s batchmate, shared how he had looked forward to an exciting Master’s degree experience and a great career path afterwards, but the moment he entered those lecture halls, it all went downhill.
Tasya joined the university 10 years ago, when she was only 18. She did her foundations, degree, and masters all in Limkokwing University, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Management.
“I started my PhD in 2017 and was told that I had 3-5 years to finish my research, so each of us could go at our own pace,” she explained.
“But when I started, they were so understaffed that each of the supervisors were advising 50 PhD students at a time. We had to beg our supervisor to take us in.”
In March 2021, the Master’s students found out that their degrees were not accredited
Picture: The MQA accreditation list. Highlighted in red are the expiry dates of the accreditation period, set in 2020.
“One of our classmates went to the MQA website and found out that our accreditation expired last year, in September 2020,” Fatin shared.
Usually, it takes only one month to reapply, so the students emailed the university for clarification. However, the university did not respond to any of their emails.
When the students brought this issue up in the lecturer-student group chats, their messages were left on ‘seen’.
“All of us wondered the same thing: Why are they ignoring us?” Alex said.
The master’s meeting in April 2021
In April 2021, the university invited all the master’s students, including Ahmed, Fatin, Alex and Rafiq, to a meeting.
During the meeting, they introduced a new programme: the General Master’s Degree Programme, which would start in August 2021.
“The whole time, I was just thinking, what does this have to do with us? We are graduating in July 2021, which is before that,” Ahmed expressed. Ahmed is a master’s student, studying a Master’s in Project Management.
There were originally 8 master’s programmes in total, spanning disciplines in computer science, engineering, and various business-related degrees. Now, as the faculty head explained, they were all to be combined into one, which was to be called a General Master’s Programme.
The students understood the subtext — the university was attempting to circumvent this expired accreditation fiasco by transferring all current Master’s students to this new programme.
During the Q&A, the students immediately bombarded them with questions
“What is going on with our accreditation?”
“Why is no one informing us of anything?”
“Are we wasting time on our master’s?”
In response, the faculty head tried to diffuse the situation, but was drowned out by the crowd’s questions. At one point, which was recorded by a student who was taking a video, he appeared to have lost his cool.
Fatin said, “When one of the girls chimed in during the conversation, she was told to ‘shut up’ by the faculty head. I’d never seen a lecturer speak so rudely to a student before.”
Frustrated with being stonewalled, the students left the meeting. After that, they created a group chat to discuss their plans moving forward.
To add to the confusion, the students still received email reminders to do their final year project even though their degrees were not being accredited.
The students tried to email their lecturers for more information but they did not get a response.
Finally, the students lodged a complaint with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA).
“We visited the MQA office ourselves and lodged a complaint. They told us that they would investigate,” Zac told us.
Later on, the MQA staff member informed the students that the university actually had submitted an application — but they failed the minimum requirements for accreditation.
Some of the requirements that were flagged by MQA were: Having qualified lecturers, good quality classrooms, and a high-quality syllabus.
“It’s true. These are 3 of the criterias the university does not meet,” Ahmed explained. “We don’t have qualified lecturers, the classes are in disrepair, and the syllabus is surface-level.”
The only solution the university offered was for these students to continue on with a master’s, even promising a discount.
This is what happened to Rafiq and Zac who graduated from the Bachelor in Computer Science course in 2018.
When they found out in 2017 that their bachelor’s degree didn’t have accreditation from the very beginning of our first semester, they were offered no solution until they were about to graduate in 2018.
They had no choice but to continue with their master’s because their bachelor’s degree was not recognised. By the way, they did not get the promised discount.
Now, it’s 2021, and they still don’t have their bachelor’s degree nor our master’s degree accredited.
“Why don’t they just transfer out to another university?”
“I wanted to transfer long before this issue, but whenever I asked them for my transcripts, they refused to provide it, citing that it would only be available in May 2021 when I graduate,” lamented Ahmed.
“But it’s my right to collect my transcripts — those are my results. It’s like they are keeping me hostage, ” Ahmed continued, alarmed.
“We earned it, it’s ours,” Zac pointed out.
In June 2021, Ahmed and Fatin graduated and contacted the university for their transcripts.
“They said that due to MCO, we cannot collect it,” Ahmed explained. “We asked them to send it to us digitally but they said that we would have to pay RM 10 for that.”
“We still have no idea about our certificate and accreditation though,” Fatin added.
In late May, Limkokwing University released a press statement, promising to ensure that the students’ accreditation issues are resolved.
It is now September, and 10 former students of the university are seeking RM5 million in damages after their degree accreditations have been revoked.
The case is still ongoing.
Editor’s note: We have provided anonymity to these students and to the staff members of the university to protect their privacy. For any inquiries, please reach out to us at https://www.facebook.com/inreallifemy.
For more stories like this, read My Boyfriend Quit His College Because They Didn’t Teach Him Anything – Here’s His Story and I Made These Mistakes During My College Years – and Here’s Why You Shouldn’t
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