An online university of note is Western Governors University (WGU), a private and non-profit variety.

Based in Salt Lake City, it gets its operational funds from many large corporations and foundations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

It was established in 1997 and now has more than 15,000 students.

class, classes, instructor, instructors, easy

In summary:

- only open to students based in the US and some part of Canada, with special exceptions to members of the US military
- offers competency-based degree programs
- all courses are online but exams will have to be taken on-campus
- up to Master’s degrees in IT, business, teacher education and health professions.

1 Harvard University (USA)
2 Cambridge University (United Kingdom)
3 Yale University (USA)
4 University College London (United Kingdom)
5 Imperial College London (United Kingdom) & Oxford University (United Kingdom)
6 University of Chicago (USA)
7 Princeton University (USA)
8 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)
9 California Institute of Technology (USA)
10 Columbia University (USA)

Observations:
- Harvard remains at the pinnacle; it has topped the list ever since the rankings were done
- Cambridge climbed one place to 2nd
- Oxford dropped one place to 5th
- University College London climbed 3 places to 4th
- Seven of the top ten universities are American, 4 are in Great Britain
- The Australian National University is the highest-placed university outside the US and the UK at 17th (dropped a place)
- European representation in the top 100 increased from 36 in 2008 to 39
- North American representation in the top 100 dropped from 42 in 2008 to 36
- Asian representation in the top 100 increased from 14 in 2008 to 16
- Highest ranked Asian uni: The University of Tokyo at 22nd, which dropped 3 places
- Second highest ranked Asian uni: The University of Hong Kong, which climbed 2 places to 24th
- Malaysia returned to the top 200: Universiti Malaya (UM) at 180th place. Last year no Malaysian universities were in the top 200. UM’s highest ever ranking, and the highest ranking ever achieved by a Malaysian university was 89th in 2004. Compare that to the USA’s 54 universities in the top 200, Japan’s 11 universities in the top 200 (6 in the top 100), Australia’s 9 universities in the top 200 (8 in the top 100), China’s 6 in the top 200 (2 in the top 100), Hong Kong’s 5 in the top 200 (3 in the top 50!) and South Korea’s 4 in the top 200.
- Top university for social science: London School of Economics
- Top university for engineering: École normale supérieure of Paris

In compiling the rankings, more than 9,000 academics and 3,000 employers responded to the surveys.

Well, we hope universities whose hostels offer heated mattress pads also get extra marks :-p

The full list

Source
The BBC, 7th Oct 2009

It sells for RM16.50 and can be found in various libraries around the country, not just at UPM.

However, someone later someone found and reported that “a substantial part” of the book was actually copied, almost word-for-word off the websites of a few US universities.

The worst part is they actually profited from the sales.

If this was the work of students, nobody would raise an eyebrow. But professors and PhD holders?

As listed in UPM’s website:
- Professor Dr Turiman Suandi is the Deputy Dean (Student Affairs & QA) of School of Graduate Studies, with a PhD in Extension Education and Youth Development from Ohio State University in 1991. He works in the Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education.

- Dr Zoharah Omar is a senior lecturer and holds a PhD in Psychology specializing in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from UKM. She works in the Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education.

Being the principal writer of the book, let’s look more into her background as displayed in UPM’s website:

Before her appointment as a Lecturer… … in 2003, she worked as the Legal and Human Resource Manager in a multinational manufacturing company for 7 years. She was responsible for the strategic human resource planning and development as well as handling industrial relations matters. She was also actively involved in assisting the Ministry of Human Resource to promote in-house sexual harassment policy to industries. She was also the Industrial Court Panel representing employers. Prior to that, she worked as a lawyer in an advocate and solicitors firm in Kuala Lumpur and has also worked as the Market Supervision Division Executive at the Securities Commission. She was the investigating and prosecuting officer handling securities industry cases and was involved in the development of policy and procedure for licensing under the Securities Industry Act 1983.

Since her appointment as a Lecturer, she has been involved in several researches and paper presentation activities at both national as well as international level. Besides that, she is actively involved in community services such as delivering public speech to graduates on resume writing, job interview and preparation for employment. She is also involved in consultancy work, and she is currently a consultant and a resource person to a multinational company.

Dr Zoharah, who had recently received her PhD, was quoted to have justified her action by saying that “since the source was from the Internet, she thought the information was in the public domain and as such did not cite the article.”

Both authors then apologised for their ignorance.

Ignorance? If that came from a lesser mortal I would’ve not blinked an eye, but this is a university lecturer and PhD holder to boot. What kind of excuse is that???

As Sharon Bakar commented:

No academic can ever make the excuse of ignorance or carelessness, since their whole training is in how to access, use and build on the intellectual property of others.

Professor Turiman also got into trouble because he was the co-author and that “the manuscript looked all right to him, not realising that it was taken from another work.”

They were then given a “stern warning” by UPM to be included in their personal file. That might not be as bad as a suspension, but that means their pace in climbing up the ladder would be curtailed or slowed down.

They are also expected to return any royalty received.

Source
The Star, 15 Sept 2009

Usually these photos are extremely boring, like the following:

Probably the classroom chairs are more interesting to look at?

Another common variety is of this oft-repeated attempts (usually failing) at making the photo more interesting:

But one that managed to stop me in my tracks was when I saw this one:

Bigger size.

I wonder if this is genuine. Anyway, that’s an example of a class photo that definitely will never ever be allowed in any school yearbook, in Malaysia for sure.

He had to become a cabbie in Singapore starting October 2008 because he failed get another job as a researcher after losing his job at the nation’s premier A-Star biomedical research institute.

Most probably he’s the only taxi driver in the world with a PhD from Stanford and a proven track record of scientific accomplishments.

He’s born in China but is now a Singapore citizen.

He has had 16 years of research experience, and specialises in yeast proteins.

Apart from him, other highly qualified taxi drivers in Singapore in recent years, include retrehched managers, stockbrokers and engineer.

This has shocked Singaporeans, with comments like the following:

If he has to drive a taxi, what chances do ordinary people like us have?

In my opinion, PhDs are useless, especially in Singapore. It’s just another certificate and doesn’t mean much.

I won’t want my child to study for years to end up driving a taxi.

The future favours graduates with multiple skills and career flexibility, people who are able to adapt to different types of work

Dr Minnjie runs a blog to document his experiences as a cabbie.

And he’s not the only one. US research-scientist Douglas Prasher just missed the 2008 Chemistry Nobel Prize but ended up being a driver of a courtesy shuttle (minivan) in Alabama!

Source
The Star, 29th August 2009

On 20th September 2006, Li Hengyi, 28, a Chinese history teacher beat up pupil Zhang Yaoyi / Yaoyin, 11, then THREW her body from a fourth-floor classroom window, killing her.

It happened at the No. 12 Middle (secondary) School in Yongzhou city in the central province of Hunan, China.

An unnamed witness said: in front of Zhang’s terrified classmates, he first knocked her head against the desks repeatedly. When she fell, he stomped on her. Then, he picked up a steel bar and beat her up with it. He then picked up the now-motionless Zhang and told the class he was going to to take her to the school clinic, but instead opened a window and threw her out.

In shock, the whole class ran out of the room by the back door. Many of the girls cried.

The state of the classroom after the incident:

News report by Shanghai Oriental Television [WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Li and Zhang had argued in the past and that Li was known to beat his students. Whether it’s over pet supplements, we might never know.

A few days later – as reported in the Beijing News on 9th October 2006 – the police dropped criminal charges against Li Hengyi: he was a schizophrenic. The school reportedly paid USD25,000 to Zhang’s parents as compensation.

The school’s principal had called Li “unsociable”. In 2001 he had shown signs of “mental disorder” and 2 years later spent 2 months being treated for mental illness. Yet, shockingly, he was allowed to continue teaching!

Source
The Mail (UK), 25th Sept 2006
The First Post (UK)
The Observers, 2008

This school is apparently located at Poteau, Oklahoma, USA.

This is not to say that the funny name was chosen in bad faith. It was actually the name of an outstanding teacher, Ms Pansy Ingle Kidd (1890-1978) who taught at the school for 42 years. The school’s original name was then changed to its present name in honour of her.

Someone commented that her middle name should’ve been included as part of the school name. Then it would sound more respectable.

A plaque of Ms Kidd hangs in a school hallway:

He had a a registration office in China for his college but used it instead to recruit China dolls. The women would enter Singapore pretending to be students but in reality would be working as prostitutes in the nightclubs.

As if that was not enough, he also produced fake social passes for the Chinese nationals, so that they can stay longer in Singapore.

He was caught out in March 2006 after more than 30 Chinese nationals were detained during an anti-vice operation. There, Mr Wong was proven to be not so clever as all the women’s social passes had the same numbers.

The colleges have since been closed.

In October 2006, Wong was sentenced to more than 3 years’ imprisonment for his fake social pass offence.

source

Tags: Singapore, education

He managed it without using any of his 3 lifelines, except for the final question, which he didn’t need help at all, but used a lifeline anyway for a totally unexpected purpose.

As mentioned in Wikipedia:

The million-dollar question was “Which of these U.S. Presidents appeared on the television series Laugh-In?” The choices, in order, were Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

Carpenter used his Phone-A-Friend lifeline to call his father:

Philbin: Well, my Gosh. What can I say except: Debbie [Carpenter's wife], you’re going to Paris, so this is the final answer heard all around the world, he’s won a million dollars!

Video : http://youtube.com/watch?v=0BdAdRL_2Wo

Tags: who wants to be a millionaire, millionaire, reality show, game show

Apparently quite a few people achieved this dubious feat and embarrass themselves in the process.

One of them is Chase Sampson from Nashville. He’s not the first Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’s player to go out at USD100 and certainly won’t be the last.

The question:

Homeowners buy surge protectors to protect their possessions from unexpected surges of what?

A: Electric current; B: Water flow; C: Air pressure; D: Buyer’s remorse

Chase said B and then immediately realized his mistake. The expression on his face as he realised what he’d done is simply priceless. Of the correct answer was A.

And as someone commented, the answer was key-in quicker than normal; it seems that the organisers were a little too keen on getting rid of him.

Tags: who wants to be a millionaire, millionaire, reality show