Our new University the UiTM

Universiti Teknologi MARA is a Malaysian public university.

The institution’s main objective is to provide professional education in various fields including engineering, law, science, medicine, technology, business, arts and humanities as well as being a research university.

UiTM was founded in 1956 and has expanded nationwide with 4 satellite campuses, 12 branch campuses, 9 city campuses and 21 affiliated colleges. With this network and 17,000 staff, the university offers more than 300 academic programmes. It is also home to almost 170,000 students comprising of bumiputeras and international students.

Institut Teknologi MARA’s development could be summed up into three major stages:

1.    From 1967 to 1976, ITM was an autonomous body with its own 300 acre (1.2 km²) campus in Shah Alam, operating under the Ministry of Rural Development.

2.    From 1976 to 1996, ITM advanced as an institution of higher learning and not only a professional training institute, operating directly under the Ministry of Education.

3.    In 1996, an amendment to the ITM Act of 1976 put ITM on a par with all the universities in Malaysia, but its historical name was retained until 1999. Then it became Universiti Teknologi MARA. It is called UiTM to differentiate it from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), which s a different university, based in Johor.

We were impressed and surprised to see Shah Alam’s campus, as it is a nice and huge campus. It is not comparable to the campuses we know in Germany because it is more like a big complex or even a small city. To get to the campus, you have to be aware of the surroundings because the university is quite isolated.

There are two entrances and the distance to travel from one end to the other, is nearly impossible, especially if you have not much time. So, you really have to define your destination to the taxi driver whether you want to go to the gate 1 (front entrance) or gate 2 (back entrance). There are several bus lines inside the campus for you travel to your desired destination. One of the bus lines is provided by UiTM and another, is RapidKL which costs about RM1 (ca. 0,25€). To avoid delay to getting to class, it’s better to take the transport that goes to the nearest gate to your classroom.

Additionally to travel from one place to another, it is important to be aware of the the distance and the slopes as the campus is built on a hilly area. Most importantly, the humidity and the hot climate is a factor to be considered when travelling! Always ask the people around you if you are unsure of how to get to your classroom or, always have the campus map with you!

Based on our experience, the most important location other than the classroom is the international office / Centre (UiC) for the international students. The staffs here are exceptionally friendly and helped to ease the integration for international students who are new to the university.

 

The staffs organized meetings with our responsible lecturers and faculty deans, introduction events and great trips to get to know Malaysia. For example, the UiC organized a trip for us to the famous historical city called Melaka. UiC made us feel that we were never alone as we were able to get help anytime! The main function of UiC is also to report and to stay in contact with our Hometown University, in this case the SRH University of Applied Science. UiC also collects all the information about our achievements and transfers them to Germany. Furthermore, UiC takes care of the student visa, student ID card and acts as a staging area for all upcoming issues.

 Classes are mostly in the late evening, which is different from Germany.  However, after a while you will get more and more familiar with the differences and it would not be a big problem for anybody.

The classes here are held in modern rooms.  Each class consists of a small group of students (up to 30) whom are friendly and mostly English speaking. An English-speaking lecturer makes it absolutely easy to follow the lecture. In most cases, you have to think and act differently as the Lectures here are very practical and interactive based, unlike what we were used to in Germany, which was mainly listening. Almost every week, there will be assignments given which will require a lot of time to write and prepare and the marks obtained will influence the final course mark significantly. Marks will be scaled based on A, B, C or D. These assignments can be either individual or group assignments. In group assignments, it is also an opportunity to get to know the local students. It is crucial to score good grades in these assignments hence, be careful and serious!

The campus offers a great variety of stores and food courts to recharge your batteries and to try the typical Malaysian food for really low prices (around RM2 – RM 4 for a complete meal). Bookstores are also available in UiTM to purchase books recommended by the lecturers.