TAR UC quality and affordability lauded
Graduates credit university college for being the stepping stone to a bright future
KUALA LUMPUR: Graduates of Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) say they have benefited greatly from the affordable and quality education at the institution.
G.K. Prabhaharan, who is now corporate head of a bank here, recalled that it was a burden for his father to support all six schoolgoing children and the affordable fees at TARC (Tunku Abdul Rahman College), as the university college was then known, helped.
He took a diploma in commerce (financial accounting) leading to ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) qualification. He studied at the Setapak main campus for three years and graduated in 1983.
“The fees were heavily subsidised by MCA,” he said.
Prabhaharan hailed the quality of education at TARC, with its dedicated lecturers and tutors.
“The world was my oasis then, as an ACCA qualification was a passport to jobs,” he said.
He made many friends there, some of whom are now captains of industry.
For SPM school-leavers, he said TARC had always emphasised producing employable graduates.
TARC, named after the country’s first prime minister, was set up in 1969 by MCA to complement and supplement the Government’s efforts to meet the current and future manpower needs of the nation.
It was upgraded to university college on May 2, 2013.
Apart from its main campus in Kuala Lumpur, TAR UC now has five branches in Penang, Perak, Johor, Pahang and Sabah, where more than 100 programmes at preuniversity, diploma and degree levels are offered.
An auditing and financial consulting company’s country tax and business tax leader Yee Wing Peng said TARC emphasised not only academic excellence but also extra curriculum activities for leadership development.
Yee, who studied at TARC from 1990 to 1993, received a diploma in commerce and ACCA qualification.
His most memorable experience was leading the Business School team to win the 1992 inter-school football competition.
“Participating actively in sports helped me appreciate the importance of team spirit and giving my best in everything I do,” said Yee, who was listed in the 2016 Guide to the World’s Leading Tax Advisers and is a regular speaker at interna- tional tax and leadership conferences.
Jobstreet country manager Chook Yuh Yng said TAR UC generally has a good reputation, especially in producing accounting and finance, IT and computer studies graduates.
Another alumnus, Cheong Soon Hock, first came in contact with the world of computers when he did his three-year diploma in 1981.
“We were exposed to micropro- cessors and microcomputers,” he said.
In his second year, Cheong was one of four students selected to join an industrial training programme run by TARC in cooperation with IBM Malaysia, which hired him a week after his final exams.
After about 10 years in IBM, Cheong went on to start his own Information and Communications Technology business.