IIUM Bloggers

I think it’s still not too late to wish Ramadhan Kareem to everyone who visit this community.  Insya Allah, if God willing this will be my final semester at IIUM if I’m able to finish my part time study (yes, working, being a mother and a wife somehow can mess your mind a bit) – I’ll graduating from this university finally. It had been almost three years of attending lectures, doing assignments, sacrificing weekends and leaving my kids to my dear husband. I started my MBA journey when my youngest was only 6 months and now he’s a full grown toddler at the age of 3!

Last semester is always the toughest, due to lack of study commitment from students and we breezed through the class without ever thinking on how the result will come out. The lecturers will ask questions, but we aren’t able to answer it due to most of us are already thinking ahead of finishing our study.   We could not care less about the grades anymore.

There are lots of happenings that occurred including being warded twice during my masters is a self discovery event, I realise that somehow you may need to take a break and rest from studying. Somehow, as much as I committed myself to my part time study, it is truly a rewarding experience indeed.  Meeting new people – including engineers, doctors (? I don’t know what medical doctors are doing in MBA classes), and a lot of bankers, had been an enriching experience indeed.

I’d done both Msc and MBA – I only did my MSc halfway through. I was unable to cope with the burden, since classes were conducted during weekdays and after office hours. There were moments of catching trains, running from the office to the university and I was always the last person to arrive since classes started at 6 pm and I only finished working by 5 pm during that time (I chose IIUM because it was near to my house, even though it’s quite far from my office). Lots of commitments are needed, in my case, I was the only who works full time and study part time during the MSc.  The others are full time students or working lecturers. I wasn’t quite satisfied with the assignments that I’ve done during MSc – I was only half heartedly doing it – there wasn’t much time left to read lengthy journals. I was already flat out from working during daytime.   Truthfully, Msc are mostly tailored towards people who are thinking of switching to academic line or being lecturers since it consisted lots of academic research.

With MBA, it’s a different story altogether because all my classmates are working and most are professionals. We know the burden that we have to shoulder between work and assignments.  The most interesting part in MBA classes are that most people came from different backgrounds altogether and the classes are livelier than Msc – lots of simulation, observations and knowledge sharing came from the students and not from lecturers’ observations only.

MBA assignments are much more related to the corporate world i.e. the working environment. I’ve learnt a lot regarding the Islamic banking industry from my classmates who are mostly bankers (e.g. from Maybank, RHB, Hong Leong, Bank Rakyat etc.) – even though I’m totally from a different background altogether. There are lots of things to be shared, and MBA classes are happening lots compared to MSc. Sometimes the lecturers weren’t able to answer the questions posed by MBA students since most of us are working and we know that certain theories are not even used in the working world. In other words, lecturers also learn from us and it became two way interactions between lecturers & students.

If any undergraduates out there are considering of taking Masters either full time/part time, please do look into options available and most of all, tailor your needs according to what sort of specialisation you’re thinking of doing in the long run.

If you’re thinking of being an academician in the long run, do take MSc. But, if you’re interested in taking Masters that suit your needs as students and assignments much more tailored to the corporate world, please do consider taking MBA in the long run.

Just my two-cent opinion.