DBS has a strong relationship with Malaysia and many students have studied successfully there. DBS lecturers James Browne and Sharon Sheehan, have recently returned from a visit there as part of DBS’ transnational programme for the QQI Level 8 BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance. Students in Malaysia study a complete mirror-image of the programme which is delivered in Dublin, including the exact same assessments.
James and Sharon visited the Kolej Polytech (KPTM) campus in Bangi, 30km from Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. James met with 130 final year students and Sharon met with a second year group of 80 students. They also met with a number of faculty staff involved in the programme as well as senior management and DBS employed personnel who are based in Kuala Lumpur permanently.
We met with James to find out about the trip…
What was the purpose of the trip?
The primary purpose was delivering 30 hours over two weeks of content from our final year module in Financial Reporting. Sharon delivered 15 hours of content in one week from our second year module Business & Company Law.
I also did a number of staff training sessions covering Moodle operations and sharing western teaching styles and best practice in lecture delivery.
There was also a discussion to inform the students about the possibility of coming to Dublin to study the ACCA professional exams following the completion of their degree in Malaysia. This has proved to be a popular follow-on in the past.
Did you notice any differences between students there and here, do they have different types of questions etc?
I teach a lot of different nationalities including Malaysians here in Dublin so there were no real surprises. The noticeable thing here is that the students are all very friendly, polite and respectful. They clearly appreciate the work of the lecturer and there are many “thank you sir” comments at the end of each lecture.
I thought my trip to China had involved a lot of selfies with the students but I stand corrected….the Malaysian students are clearly the selfie champions of my Asian visits! There were at least 4 separate photos sessions during my trip which was all very nice.
Anything else?
I mentioned earlier that the students here are very nice but I was completely surprised to find that a bunch of them came to the airport at 10pm on a Saturday night to bid me farewell. I almost cried! Chuffed and humbled all in one!