Extra curricular studies for our students?

The blogger’s note: Reproduced below are a few interesting email exchanges in respect of the above subject among ‘the Great Sifu’ Dr. JB Lim, ‘the Chief High Priest of the Evolution Temple’ Ir. Tan Seng Khoon and the blogger in respect of the above subject.

From: lim juboo

When I was studying at the Muslim University of Aligrah in India in the early 1960, the university there have already implemented Moral Studies, History and Indian Civilizations, Fine Arts, Languages, and a few other arts subjects to all students pursuing Science, Medical and Engineering degrees. Although the medium of instruction was English, basic Hindi was also taught to us.

Likewise, all art students must study basic and natural Sciences as part of their Arts degrees. The university there wanted all their graduates to be well-balanced in their education, be articulate, knowledgeable and able to communicate in all fields of knowledge by the time they graduate or look for jobs, or pursue on for their higher degrees. The university did not want their graduates to be mono-vision and was only knowledgeable in the subjects they major in.

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I understand from the newspapers, the National University of Singapore has only just a few years ago did the same thing as the University of Aligrah, making it compulsory for their arts students to study a bit of science, and science students read a little about moral and arts subjects, maybe about 30 % of the other half, just like they do in China for medical studies,

In China, a student who reads western medicine must learn 30 % about TCM. Likewise, a TCM student must learn 30 % on conventional medicine so that by the time they graduate as doctors, either of them must understand about 30 % of each system of medicine. They try to integrate the best components taken from each system of medicine.

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This only shows the University of Aligrah was light years ahead of even the National University of Singapore by introducing moral and arts for science students, and natural science for arts students.

When will they implement such wide scope of education in our almost 100 universities in this country? Our graduates from public universities (500 down the line in world universities ranking) are not marketable at all. They can't even speak a sentence of proper English, let alone communicate with you in a wide variety of subjects - from music, languages, fine arts, etc, down to science, medicine and genetics. What moral studies do they learn?

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The papers our postgraduate students here present at scientific conferences are not different from a student doing his "A-Levels" I felt very sleepy to hear them present papers where I sometimes was the Chairman for the scientific sessions, especially after my lunch in the afternoon sessions.

Their academic standards in this 21st Century are light years behind those students from British universities in the 1960s.

jb

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From: Tai Onn Lau

Sent: Friday, July 26, 2013 7:40 AM

Dear Great Sifu Dr JB Lim,

(Pic 2nd from left is the blogger)

Your email reminded me of a certain courses I studied when I was an undergraduate of the bachelor's degree in engineering in the University of Singapore back in 1976/77 till 1979/80.

Among the non-science subjects I studied were: "Government & Society in Southeast Asia" in the First Year and "Applied Economics" in the Second Year. But there weren't any other moral or arts subjects.

During my time, all engineering students had to study common courses for the first two years before branching out to specialise in Civil, Mechanical or Electrical Engineering from Third Year onwards. Most Singaporeans preferred to do Mechanical or Electrical Engineering then and only Malaysians were interested in Civil (so majority of my coursemates were my countrymen).

Thank you.

Regards,

Lau

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(Pic left: Khoon, right: Dr Lim)

From: Tan Seng Khoon

Sent:   Friday,  26 Jul 2013 9:58 AM

Lau,

When I did my Engineering degree in University of Malaya in 1971 - 74, I did not study any arts subject.

Not a single one.

But plenty of more practical subjects.

Can apply in the commercial world.

Eg. 1. Management - Maaslow hierarchy of needs.

2. Law - Law of Torts, commercial law.

3. Work Study. -Critical path analysis.

Rgds

Khoon

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From: lim juboo

Sent: Friday, 26 July 2013 5:35 PM

Dear Great Sifu Lau (note: the blogger has told Dr Lim not to address him this way a thousand times before but to no avail),

It is good to know that at least you studied some non-engineering subjects during your engineering course at the University of Singapore. If you have not done that, today you will not be a Great Sifu in other fields. Your mind will just be as stiff as the concrete structure you build and nothing more. It is not necessary that it should be arts subjects like painting, music, history, civilization and culture etc, so long it is something less mechanical than engineering.

So you see now why you, as a Great Sifu, is now able to write interesting non-mechanical articles inside your great blog. But if you were just taught engineering and nothing more, then all you can write today are all about bridges, buildings, tunnels, MRT structures, roads and highways.

And I do not think anybody is going to read all that, except another engineer. So now you can see how colourful your blog is with lots of photos, graphics, pictures, diagrams, etc.

Compared this to my boring, boring boring (bogus, bogus bogus) "scientific logic" blog. After just glancing at my own bland and colourless blog, I think there is NO logic in it at all, because Confucius taught "a picture is better than a 1000 words".  

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Unfortunately although my previous University of Aligrah teaches some arts subjects to all its science, medical and engineering students to make them better and all-rounded graduates, the university did not teach me in particular, photography, painting and music (which are my non-technical pet subjects), but instead we were taught Indian history, civilization, moral, culture, Hindi, economics and sociology.

The most surprising thing was, although the University of Aligrah is a Muslim university, they did not teach us a single world about Islam. In fact that university follows the same British system of education, and was fashioned along the same line as Cambridge with English as the medium of instruction. They taught us only subjects we enrolled for, and not about Islam or about religion. This was left out completely. Thus the university was able to lure students from all over the world.

http://www.amu.ac.in/department.jsp

When I was there, there were even Thai monks from Thailand and Hindu students from Bernaras Hindu University and myself, a Christian studying there even though it was a Muslim university. The university did not force Islam into us. All it wanted was to give all its students a all-rounded university education.

Years later when I went to Queen Elizabeth College (part of King's College), University of London for my postgraduate we too have to study sociology, economics, anthropology, cultural beliefs - all arts subjects even though it was supposed to be a medical and nutrition postgraduate programme.

But this comes in very useful years later during our work when we need to deal with people and patients with all types of cultural background, religious and traditional beliefs, and their beliefs about health, medicine, and nutrition.

We couldn't escape studying a bit of arts subjects whether as a student in Aligrah or in England. Arts makes our mind beautiful, science (including engineering and medicine and food technology) make our mind stiff and mechanical. That's why we need a blend in education.

The only time arts subjects have to be left behind was when I went further to Cambridge, and onwards to the University of Reading and back again to London for my Masters and Doctorate. By then I already have to specialize on a technical-medical area, and not deal with arts anymore.

But I am so glad all these universities, both in Commonwealth India, and in England gave me an all-rounded education so that I can be articulate and be very comfortable talking with people in other fields of expertise during any social events or gatherings. I will not be shy, and feel left out.



(Pic left: High Priest of  Evolution Temple's photoshopped masterpiece)

But of course one can learn all these on their own too without having to go through formal lectures in a university. A good example is our High Priest of Evolution Temple. He taught himself. He said he was not taught art subjects in his engineering course at the University of Malaya, and yet today, he can write all kinds of non-engineering articles, ideas, thoughts, and everything that evolved through the temple of his mind (including BOGUS ones) and send them out for us to digest (which is sometimes very hard for me to digest and understand). Still, he did not write engineering stuff to bore us, which would also be very difficult for me.

I think all jobs are boring after some time. I think the best and most enjoyable "jobs" are our hobbies during our retirement. We can sleep very late, and wake up very late without any boss troubling us to do this, and to do that.

jb lim