Entries from December 2008 ↓

The PMR (Penilaian Menengah Rendah) 2008 gives a positive indication after seeing a wider use of English by the form 3 students who answered the Science paper.

This year, the number of students who used English in Science has more than doubled the figure achieved last year.

Last year, 21.5% candidates answered in English, compared to this year’s 51.2%, which is a majority percentage. 18% used a combination of English and Malay, while the remaining 18% answered in Malay language.

The students are the fourth batch who started using English in their Science subject since form I.

According to the Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, the 2009 PMR next year will remain bilingual, where candidates can opt to choose which language they’re comfortable to answer the exam questions.

This year, 5.96% or 26,378 candidates scored straight As in the PMR examination from a total 472,060 candidates, a slight improvement from last year, which stood at 5.69%.

The THE-QS University Ranking which publishes 200 of the world’s best universities every year is one of the most popular university rankings around.

It is used as a benchmark for millions of students worldwide who either wish to pursue their studies overseas (or locally) or just curious to know how their university ranks compared to other top schools and institutions.

The first of the 200 university list was first produced in 2004, citing Harvard as the world’s best university. For the next 4 years, while the positions of other top universities exhibited shuffles and changes, Harvard continued to stay at number 1.

THE stands for Times Higher Education, a London-based magazine specializing in dissemination of information in higher and tertiary education worldwide. It started as a newspaper format back in 1971 until this year (2008) when it took a step further to publish into a magazine format. Formerly, the Times Higher Education was known as Times Higher Education Supplement (THES).

QS, on the other hand, refers to Quacquarelli Symonds, which is a global firm with specialization in education and tertiary studies and provides guides and services to undergraduates, masters, PhD and MBA students. The firm was established in 1990 by Nunzio Quacquarelli, a former MBA student of Wharton, a renowned business school.

Apart from the THES-QS, other popular university rankings widely used as reference are the US News & World Report (US) and the Good University Guide (UK).

THE-QS ranks the universities based on a number of criteria, namely: peer review score (40%), faculty/student score (20%), citations/faculty score (20%), recruiter review (10%), international faculty score (5%) and international student score (5%). Usually, the THE-QS ranking is published to the public on the final quarter of the year.

The Star Education Fair 2009 will be held between 10 and 11 January 2009 (Saturday and Sunday) at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, KLCC.

It will be the 21st anniversary of the event, which was first introduced to the public in the late 80s.

Prominent higher learning institutions, both from Malaysia and overseas, will be participating in the event and visitors can get the opportunity to get closer to the institutions and find out more information about courses and programs they offer through the college respective representatives.

Career talks and workshops have also been lined up to greet the visitors who can further details about the future prospect of their academic subjects.

There will also be information regarding scholarship opportunities for those wishing to secure sponsorship and funding for their studies. And to add more spices, Faber-Castell, one of the event exhibitors, will be sponsoring free door gifts to the early birds, worth RM6,000 of products.

Details:

Event: The Star Education Fair 2009
Date: 10 – 11 January 2009
Venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, KLCC
Time: 11am – 7pm

Japanese electronic maker Sony has announced an 8,000 job cut in its effort to reduce expenditures and save over $1 billion operational cost, as the corporation is taking the heat of the slowing economy.

The job cut, which represents a 5 percent reduction of its current global workforce, is the largest single layoff announced by an Asian-based company.

Apart from the layoff, it will also defer its investment plan and possibly exit from non-profitable businesses in a few countries. Sources identified Slovakia to be one of the Sony’s operating countries which will be significantly affected by downsizing activities.

Despite consistently achieving record profits during the holiday seasons, particularly Christmas, this year’s season gave the company a bleak outlook as plummeting economy shrank the customers’ pocket size and as a result, sales of Sony products are expected to suffer.

Currently, Sony employs more than 160,000 staff worldwide, with main manufacturing bases in Japan, China, United States and Europe. It is powered by 57 manufacturing plants, which is expected to be reduced by up to 10% within the next few coming months.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony is one of the world’s largest electronic manufacturers, with strong presence in media, entertainment, information technology and professional markets. Despite being the world’s largest economy, Japan succumbed to financial pressure and became the second country in Asia to enter the technical recession after Singapore.

While the 8,000 figure seems a lot and rather unforgiving, analysts predicted that the move may just be the beginning of the worse things to come. Some expected Sony to announce more layoffs soon.