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Yale-NUS Courses ‘Do Not Match’ Students’ Academic Expectations

As the Republic’s first liberal arts college prepares for its third intake this August, some former Yale-NUS College students have decided to drop out because of a mismatch between the college’s offerings and their academic expectations.

Of the college’s 330 students, about 3 per cent have chosen to leave, some for other top universities and some to pursue specialised degree courses, said the school. Some students who left also told TODAY they felt the courses, in covering a broad range of subjects, did not go into their preferred level of depth.

The college welcomed its first intake in 2013. Ms Lichie Nazirah Nwaozuzu, 22, who enrolled in a double-degree programme in law and liberal arts, later chose to focus only on her law degree.

All first-year students are required to cover a range of Common Curriculum courses such as philosophy, English literature and scientific enquiry, but Ms Nwaozuzu, who was part of the inaugural cohort, said it felt too “touch-and-go” and dropped out after her first semester.

For instance, the course outline for her philosophy class required them to read a book by Plato but students were only assigned to read four chapters in the book that were discussed over two weeks, said Ms Nwaozuzu, now a second-year law student at National University of Singapore (NUS).

“In essence we covered a lot of material but we never really went in depth for each of them and I guess that’s the nature of liberal arts, so to speak. It wasn’t as meaningful for me as it was for a lot of the other students,” said Ms Nwaozuzu.

Responding to queries from TODAY, a Yale-NUS spokesperson said liberal arts education emphasises broad-based, multidisciplinary learning as well as depth of study. In the first two years of college, all students take Common Curriculum courses that provide an introduction to broadly-defined areas of inquiry rather than in-depth coverage.

“In their third year of studies, students can select one of the 14 majors we offer and explore the subject in-depth while adding the knowledge gleaned from the Common Curriculum to augment the learning experience,” the spokesperson said.

Ms Nwaozuzu also said while it might have been the intention of the college to provide broader insights to a subject, for instance, by getting historians or sociologists to teach literature, this approach did not provide the academic expertise and rigour she was looking for.

Similarly, Mr Rocco Hu, 23, who left Yale-NUS after his third semester, said the discussions-based, seminar-style classes did not provide the deep academic expertise he was hoping for. The college’s spokesperson said classes are conducted in the style of an “intimate seminar” to emphasise discussion and debate.

The teething issues typical of new colleges, such as limited staffing and course offerings, were Mr Hu’s other reasons for switching school. For instance, he felt that the professors for his philosophy classes — a compulsory module for all first-years — appeared to be stretched thin.

“On top of that, a lot of them are junior faculty who are on tenure track but have not gotten tenure yet. So, they also need to publish research … go on sabbaticals … go on research leave — it creates a lot of pressure against adequate course offerings for upper-year undergraduates in the first batch,” said Mr Hu, who is starting his first semester at Oxford University in October reading philosophy, politics and economics.

“I can see this issue ironing itself out in subsequent years when everything stabilises, but I didn’t see it happening in the time span I was in the college … I just didn’t feel secure that my academic needs would be met.”

A Yale-NUS spokesperson said the college remains on track in its plans for a full team of 100 faculty members. There are now 70 faculty members although another 20 will be joining next month, she added.

They include key appointments such as Professor Steven L Bernasek, a renowned experimental chemist formerly from Princeton University, who will helm the college’s Division of Science, as well as distinguished anthropologists Prof Joseph S Alter and Prof Nicole Constable who will be joining the Social Sciences division.

The spokesperson also said its faculty-to-student ratio “remains healthy at 1:4”.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 8, 2015
Sabah Quake: Peony Wee Says Bye To Parents In Poignant Video Before Quake

At the end of a video on a blog documenting her Kota Kinabalu expedition, Tanjong Katong Primary School pupil Peony Wee waved at the camera and said “bye” to her parents.

Beside her, a schoolmate said: “We’re safe here in Malaysia lah.”

They laughed and giggled throughout the video, which was uploaded on June 4, as they talked about waking up in the cold on Mount Kinabalu.

In the video, they were asked about their “expectations of the day”.

“Reach Pendant Hut safely, as a group (laughter) we have to motivate each other… see nobody give up along the way,” said Peony’s schoolmate.

Peony interjected: “Help each other.”

That was one day before a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Sabah on Friday (June 5), killing 12-year-old Peony and some of her young friends.

As of Sunday (June 7), six pupils and one teacher from the school are confirmed to have died. The Singaporean adventure guide who was with them also died. Another pupil and a teacher are still unaccounted for.

The victims were part of a group of 29 pupils and eight teachers on an overseas learning journey.

They were starting on Via Ferrata when the quake struck, sending rocks and boulders tumbling down from the mountain top. Via Ferrata, which means Iron Road in Italian, is a route where cables, metal rungs and bridges are set into the rocks to help climbers ascend the steep trail.

The school blog, titled ‘It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves’, documented the group’s progress before that fateful day.

The pupils were in high spirits as they prepared to ascend the 4,095-m high Mount Kinabalu. The expedition, called Omega Challenge, is an annual programme organised by the school for their student leaders and sport leaders.

An entry in mid-May showed the participants training for their trek by climbing steps while wearing backpacks.

When they left on June 3, their flight was delayed. But they updated later: “After the long delay, we are finally here!”

In a subsequent post on the same day titled ‘Dinner at D ‘ Villa Lodge’, pupils and teachers grinned at the camera as they ate dinner.

“What a day! Tomorrow, we will start our hike up to Mount Kinabalu!,” said the post.

The next morning, they were up bright and early to start a roughly 6km hike to Pendant Hut, which is 3,289m above sea level.

The checkpoint is where climbers stay before they attempt the challenging Via Ferrata route.

A blog post on June 4, titled ‘Getting ready…moving off soon… Pendant Hunt, here we come!’, showed several pictures of the group making preparations.

The final entry was “Reached! Pendant Hut” posted on the same day.

“Though it was an exhausting hike to Pendant Hut, step by step, inch by inch, we All made it up!” said the post.

“It wasn’t easy but they all succeeded getting up there. How did they make it up? How did they endure the cold wind and rain? How did they overcome the steepness of the mountain?

“The answer? Each other. They encouraged each other. They hSaelped their friends by retrieving water bottles from their bags when it was hard to reach. They checked in with their friends by asking ‘How are you?’, ‘Are you okay?’ They were effective. They pressed on. They utilised each other to give them strength. Eventually, they reached Pendant Hut. Together.”

The post ended with: “Tomorrow, we will take on the next challenge. VIA FERRATA! Bring it on, I say!”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

June 8, 2015
Sabah Quake: A Geologist’s Perspective

Earthquake tremors are the result of a rapid release of energy where seismic waves move in all directions from the source, known as a focus. A point on the Earth’s surface above the focus is called the earthquake centre. For example, the centre of the Ranau earthquake is near the peak of Mount Kinabalu. This means the focus of the earthquake was underneath its centre; in this case it was 10km below the centre. This is what caused the massive landslides

Tremors usually occur along faults, or longitudinal cracks in the earth that have bent and snapped back in what is called an elastic rebound.

Imagine taking a plastic ruler and bending it. After a certain point it will break and release all the energy put into it from our effort to bend it. When an earthquake happens, the rocks in the earth are behaving in a similar fashion.

Then come the aftershocks, which are smaller tremors that occur while the Earth’s crust settles. So far, 33 aftershocks were recorded by the Meteorological Department of the earthquake yesterday.

Seismic waves refer to the energy that is released after an earthquake during the elastic rebound. There are three types of seismic waves – primary, secondary shear waves and surface waves. Primary waves are the fastest and move forward and backwards like a lurching car. These can make people feel dizzy, as surface waves are also moving from left to right. All three waves can be felt almost at once if one is close to the earthquake’s centre.

About 80% of earthquakes occur in the Pacific Rim due to a collision of tectonic plates in the Earth’s crust. The rest occur outside those regions in areas with active fault lines

When it comes to the Ranau earthquake, it was caused by the presence of active fault lines.

This is because Sabah is still receiving compression forces from the interaction of three main tectonic plates. Sabah is actually located on the southeastern Eurasian Plate which is bordered by the Philippine Plate and the Pacific Plate. The Philippine Plate and Pacific Plate move westward at a rate of about 10cm a year, colliding with the Eurasian Plate.

Additionally, the southern part of the Australian plate is moving north at a speed of 7cm per year, and this plate boundary is the most active and unstable. Although Sabah is 1,000 km away from the collision of the plates, it still receives more compression force than Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia as it is the closest part of Malaysia to the Philippines and Sulawesi in Indonesia.

Also, what occurred in Ranau was not linked to volcanism, which is only possible in Tawau and Semporna, where an explosion occurred several hundred years ago. Volcano craters are still visible in Tawau. Mount Kinabalu will not erupt, as the igneous intrusion that formed Mount Kinabalu is caused by the compression of the three Plates mentioned previously.

This also can explain why the water at the Poring Hot Springs turned murky for a few hours, as the earthquake appears to have disrupted a clay deposit that interrupts the fault gap that heats up the rainwater which enters the earth. The water flowed more smoothly and had access to more heat.

Strong tremors in Ranau will continue to happen whenever the stored energy exceeds the Earth’s ability to store it. This happens on a regular basis. In the case of Ranau, it happens at an approximate rate of every 25 years, with the first being recorded in 1966 at a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale. This was followed with a magnitude 5.2 earthquake in 1991.

Dr Felix Tongkul is a geologist with Universiti Malaysia Sabah

Source:www.thestar.com.my

June 8, 2015
Sabah Quake Aftermath: What I Feel And Why It Is So Important To Us

I know that to many Westerners, to those who claim to live in much civilised societies, and to those who staunchly vouch for a modern and ‘progressive’ mode of thought and action, ancestral beliefs and practices are shunned, dismissed, and laughed off as a marker of backwardness as well as ridiculous superstitions that should not have place in our modern world.

In certain instances, this is true. But in this particular instance, I beg to differ.

Undoubtedly, others have considered the cause of tremors that shook our beloved Sabah from three primary angles – cultural and spiritual; scientific and logical; and religious.

I could – though with much less articulation – convey my thoughts on the last two angles. But, here, I’d like to appeal to the angle that touches the hearts of all Sabahans no matter their creed and colour – the sacredness of Mount Kinabalu.

I am Dusun, though I sometimes jokingly refer to myself as an ‘Orchard’ (the English equivalent that does not capture the essence of who we are as peoples), because I am among those who do not speak the native tongue.

Yet still, though I lack the oral knowledge, my elders made sure that the youngsters in our family would still be connected to our roots, and they do this via storytelling the various myths and legends that surround our mountain.

To us – and Sabahans in general – the mountain is not simply a peak to be conquered.

She is ‘Aki Nabalu’, which means “the revered place of the dead”. But I prefer the description my grandma – a mother widowed at a young age – told a young me as she looked longingly towards the mountain,

“The place where your grandpa has his holidays as he looks down over us to see if we’re okay.”

And this isn’t something we, as a cultural group, and collectively as the peoples of Sabah, consider as merely folktale.

The Dusuns are the ancestral guardians of the mountain, and part of how we still uphold that role, even in times of modernity, is to observe the practices that our ancestors have put in place in order to safeguard Aki’s sanctity.

But we are not selfish people. We want others to be able to bask in pride at her majestic stature, and marvel at her beauty.

So, we allow you in. We allow you to scale towards the top of the mountain.

But in return, we too, ask you to respect her.

Respect her for what she represents, and what she means to those whose lives, histories, and identities are so closely bound to hers.

When you – and I point to the group of ignorant tourists in this photo, and to those in the future who harbour perverse thoughts of ‘raping’ Aki’s dignity – I am going to tell you, that when you chose to perform such a degrading and uncivilised act, you smeared mud and dirt over the faces of not only the Dusuns, but the millions of Sabahans who love Aki as much as her guardians do.

You did not merely offend, but you spat, and you stomped on our faces.

But most insultingly, you mocked our heritage.

You defiled Aki so proudly.

And now, as of today, she is forever deformed.

Disfigured.

Though Aki is ‘broken’, and we are saddened, angry, and frustrated, but we are not broken in spirit.

We won’t give you that satisfaction.

PS: I have always put off climbing the mountain with the excuse that she’s never going anywhere. Even the fact that my father and mother, who’ve climbed the mountain approximately 7 and 5 times respectively, was not enough to spur me on. Now, Aki is still standing, but the fact that her physicality has been altered, I feel that when I do climb her in the future, she won’t be exactly the same. *cries*

PPS: If there are those who think that I am essentially saying the cause of the tremor is caused only by the indecent act, then I have to clarify that that was not my intention. As I mentioned earlier, there are three angles – culture, science, and religion – that people posit to give reason to the tremors. And these three angles can be complementary, they can be exclusive of one another, or they can be in contradiction with one another – depending on the individual. For instance, I relate to all three angles and do not find them in conflict as they appeal to myself:

Culturally: Because I am Dusun and Sabahan.
Scientifically: Because I also follow objective reasoning and logic.
Religious: Because I am Muslim.

But, like I also stated in the post, I chose to appeal to the cultural angle more because that angle I feel is the anchor and tie that bonds Sabahans best in this matter. This is because the scientific does not appeal to our emotional subjectivities that result from our culture, and the religious could exclude those who (do not) believe in certain faiths.

I hope this clears things up.

Source: Farhana Abdul Fatah

June 8, 2015
Loh Kat Teng: Losses Unfortunate, But Omega Challenge Beneficial And Should Not Be Scrapped

It is with a very heavy heart as I write this.

My younger son graduated from Tanjong Katong Primary School last year. And yes, he was among the privileged group of leaders selected for the Omega Challenge Mt K Expedition last year. It is a trip for selected leaders from the various CCAs in school for the graduating batch and the school has been running the programme for years.

It is a simple trip, go to KK, stay a night. Climb Mt K, stay at Pendant Hut. Go Via Ferrata for some fun but challenging activities, go back Pendant Hut to rest. Next morning do summit climb, descend the mountain, stay a night. Home sweet home. No sight seeing, no shopping, no luxurious hotels, no great food. Yet my son had set his heart for the trip for years and actually consciously worked for it by getting into the school prefectorial board.

Prior to the trip, the school scheduled for training sessions which included serious stairs climbing. Students were also encouraged to do their own training daily which many enthusiastically did.

What did the students learned from such a trip? They learned to be prepared by building up their physical. They learned to look out for each other and cheered each other on when the going gets tough. They learned that they could have an enjoyable afternoon without mobile phones, iPads and other electronic gadgets by just chilling and playing board games with friends. They learned to make their own decisions, my boy did not feel too well when he reached Pendant Hut and he decided to forgo the next morning’s Via Ferrata’s activity so that he could be fully rested and ready for the summit climb the following day. He made the decision on his own, we only knew about it when he came back and recounted to us. They learned to accept setbacks, the whole team did not make it to the summit as the weather was unfavourable and the teacher made a decision to halt the climb. Some cried at the moment. So did they come back depressed and disappointed? No, they came back in high spirits for they had been through a valuable experience.

Does the school have the full support of parents for this programme? I can’t speak for others, but they have mine.

Would the school have the courage to continue with programmes that is beneficial for students after this incident? I do hope so.

Why am I writing this now? I just feel that at times like this when many families are still anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones, if we cannot say or do anything positive, let’s at least not make things worse.

Source: Loh Kat Teng

June 7, 2015