PhD Scholarships for Local Universities

This is an overdue follow up from Tony's posting here. I've been emailing some of my non-bumi friends who are currently or have been sponsored to do their Masters / PhDs overseas by local universities and asking them to clarify the differences between SLAB, ASHES and ACTS. Here are some of my initial findings.

Firstly, all of them confirmed that the SLAB scheme is only open to bumiputeras. No surprise there. But one of my friends noted that funding for the SLAB scheme comes from JPA, which is more readily available compared to a university's internal funding resources. What this means is that lecturers who apply for the SLAB scheme, in all likelihood, will have to wait a shorter period of time before being sent overseas to do their PhDs. As long as the time discrepancy between those "SLAB"ers and non-"SLAB"ers is not too great, I don't really see this as a big problem.

Secondly, all of them (a small sample from 3 local universities) did not know about ASHES and / or ACTS. The official name of their scholarship is something like "Skim Hadiah Latihan Cuti Belajar". Their funding comes from the sending university and it includes tuition fees (as well as living expenses and salary), which Tony and I initially thought wasn't included. If, for all intents and purposes, the funding terms for SLABers and non-SLABers are the same, then why have the distinction? Are SLABers more likely to obtain approval for funding to go overseas than non-SLABers? I have a feeling that the answer to this question is in the affirmative.

Thirdly, there is some uncertainty in regards to the distribution of PhD funding among the different local universities. Some have the impression that some of the older and bigger universities (UM, USM and UKM) have more internal funding available courtesy of them being, well, older and bigger. Others have the impression that newer universities such as UNIMAS and UUM have more funding available because of their need to build up their faculties. These two views might not be mutually exclusive. Older and bigger universities might have more funding (in absolute terms) but also more lecturers to sponsor while newer universities might have more funding (in % terms) so the chances for a lecturer to be sponsored is greater in these universities. I guess that's one of the ways in which newer universities are able to attract potential PhD candidates who might otherwise have wanted to go to one of the older, more established universities.

While I welcome the 1.2RM billion allocation for PhD studies, I still have questions in regards to the distribution mechanism both between and within our local universities. How does the Ministry decide the amount a university should be allocated? How do universities decide on who gets sponsorship internally? Which departments and who within these departments should be sponsored? Maybe I need to send out more emails to get my answers.

Of course, I need to put in my usual gripe about how the local universities don't distinguish between the process to obtain US versus non-US PhDs. PhDs in the US usually take upwards of 5 years while those in the UK and Australia take upwards of only 3 years. The reason is that coursework is a required component in the US system while this is not so in the UK and Australia (although this is beginning to change for selected courses in selected universities). The PhD scholarships from the local universities are only for 3 years with a 6 month extension possible upon request. This makes life very difficult for those pursuing their PhDs in the US (which is why many lecturers opt to go to the UK and Australia instead) and they usually have to scrounge for alternative sources of funding for the remaining 1 1/2 to 2 years.

Finally, I also welcome the decision by the Ministry to have more joint post-grad programs (like the one recently established with Nottingham) because it is a way to expose our lecturers to the research environment in a reputable foreign institution of higher learning and at the same time, minimize the cost of doing so. Look for more of these partnerships to be signed in the future.