Learning in line with interests
SCHOOL-leavers who enrol in Taylor’s University will now have the liberty to customise a curriculum that would suit their interests and goals in life.
The private university has launched the Taylor’s Curriculum Framework (TCF).
This will give students the flexibility of combining their passion with fields of study like business, communications, law, architecture among other areas.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh commended Taylor’s University on a job welldone.
The framework, he added, is in line with the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education).
Idris said education must be “redesigned” to prepare the young for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“A broad-based, personalised, flexible and holistic curriculum such as TCF will be able to produce graduates who are entrepreneurial, holistic and balanced,” he said after launching the framework at the varsity’s lakeside campus last Tuesday.
He noted that the ministry has programmes such as the 2u2i programme that requires undergraduates to study on campus for two years and intern at industries for another two years; the integrated cumulative grade point average (iCGPA) where students will graduate with a “complete report card” that details not just their performance in tests and their scores, but also other skills and knowledge; and the CEO@Faculty programme where industry movers and shakers conduct lectures at public universities.
Describing the launch of the Taylor’s Curriculum Framework as a “landmark event”, Taylor’s University deputy vice-chancellor and chief academic officer Prof Dr Pradeep Nair said the new curriculum framework will break the conventional, rigid curriculum structure.
“The Taylor’s Curriculum Framework aligns well with the ministry’s 2018 Mandate to make the university curriculum more fluid and organic, to prepare graduates for jobs that do not yet exist in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said.
TCF, said Prof Pradeep, has four key features - broad-based learning; personalised learning; flexible learning; and holistic learning - which enables students to co-curate their degree according to their passions, strengths and career goals.
“This allows them to explore different combinations and develop an understanding of modules from across different disciplines.
“They can choose from 21 extensions, 53 minors, 11 second majors and an option of 203 free electives,” he said.
He noted that students will first have to do the university core, which focuses on the development of the individual and how they interact with others.
“A student who’s enrolled in the Bachelor of Business (Honours) programme can specialise in Marketing or Human Resources or Finance or Banking, and have a minor in Psychology.
“If they feel that they want to go even deeper into Marketing, they can opt to enrol in the Bachelor of Business (Honours) programme, choose to specialise in Marketing, and do an extension in Digital Marketing or Multimedia Studies.
“Alternatively, if they want to study two fields, they can do a Bachelor of Business (Honours), specialise in Marketing, and do a double major in Law.
“They could opt to do a Bachelor of Mass Communication (Honours), specialising in Advertising and do a minor in Events Management or choose Psychology, which makes for a very powerful combination, to complete their degree,” said Prof Pradeep.
The possibilities are limitless, he added.
Idris said there will probably be 200,000 foreign students studying in the country by this year or the next,” There are currently about 170,000 foreign students in Malaysia presently.