.MARA2012.

Assalamualaikum.

Yesterday, MARA has announced their sponsorship scheme for the year of 2012. The scheme includes overseas programs (PILN), local programs (PIDN) and also programs in MARA Education Institutes (IPMa). The applications for the scheme starts this Monday (16th of April 2012). What makes this year's scheme more interesting is that students can apply specifically on what program that they are really interested in. What I meant specific is they can actually choose the place and program of study as listed by MARA, not like the previous years, in which students can only choose the course of studies. It is a long list by the way. The link is as follows:

http://www.mara.gov.my/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=20943f6f-1c06-479b-a85c-12669c2633ef&groupId=30564

The next interesting thing of this year's scheme is regarding my current program of study. They are still offering my program which is the UniKL Transfer Degree Program United Kingdom (TDP UK), a (1+1+3) program conducted by UniKL with the collaboration of some universities in the UK.

As stated in the figure above, the program of study is Engineering. Students who are undergoing this program will first go to Kolej MARA Kuala Nerang for 1 year, to study UniKL Foundation in Science. The main subjects for this foundation are Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry and English, and the syllabus is more or less similar to Malaysian Matriculation. During the second semester of the foundation studies, students are required to choose any one of the three engineering branches offered for this program, particularly Electrical, Mechanical and Chemical. Besides that, students can also suggest their preferred university from the list given by UniKL. Students are needed to achieve at least a CGPA of 3.50 before they can be offered to proceed to any one of the three branches.

For the second part of the program, which is 1 year in any one of the three UniKL campuses, namely British Malaysian Institute (BMI) for Electrical; Institute of Product Design and Manufacturing (IPROM) for Mechanical; Malaysian Institute of Chemical and Bioengineering Technology (MICET) for Chemical. The 1 year in UniKL is actually the first year of the bachelor's degree studies. Meaning that, students have already entered to the degree level or no longer in the 'preparation' phase. Therefore, the modules or subjects being taught in these campuses are towards the field of engineering the students are in. Meanwhile, the syllabus of the programs in these campuses mostly follows the syllabus of a university in the UK, which is The University of Sheffield (TUoS). This is because the program itself start off with the agreement of TUoS and UniKL to conduct this program.

As for the placement in the UK, UniKL and MARA will decide which university the students will go. This decision will be made basically based on the students achievements and the rest is confidential. However, the students preferences during foundation studies will also being taken into account. Currently, UK universities which have done MoA with UniKL are TUoS, Brunel University, Cardiff University, Queen's University of Belfast, University of Strathclyde and University of Leeds. These are the universities where the students will continue their bachelor's degree, which are Second Year, Third Year and Fourth Year (M.Eng Year). As MARA sponsored students, completion up till M.Eng Year is compulsory and as stated in the offer letter.

However, in order to proceed to the Second Year and above, students are required to pass a minimum CGPA of 3.00 or 70% during their study in the UniKL campuses. In addition, students also need to meet up the IELTS requirement provided by MARA and the universities they were offered. For MARA, the minimum overall band is 6.5.

I think that's about it regarding the program. I hope it will give a little preview to the SPM 2011 leavers who are going to apply for MARA this coming Monday. Thank you.

Wailalliqa' maasalamah.