PENANG, 31 August 2015 – For the first time, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is offering an offshore Bachelor of Science Programme (Housing, Building and Planning), with an initial intake of 54 candidates who have completed their Diplomas from Polytechnics throughout the country.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs and Alumni (HEPA), Professor Dato’ Dr. Adnan Hussein said, the introduction of this programme was through an academic collaboration with Politeknik Port Dickson (Port Dickson Polytechnic) and it is fully supported by the Ministry of Higher Education (KPT).

He said, the 54 initial candidates have been selected from a group of students who have excelled in their Diploma in Architecture studies and will be going for the full-time Bachelor of Science programme at Politeknik Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan for three years.

“This programme will be supervised and monitored by USM includes the aspects of academic syllabus, examinations, grading practices and so forth,’’ he said during the interview at the press conference in conjunction with the registration of new students at USM for the academic session 2015/2016 here recently.

Apart from that, he also said that USM has accepted 4,378 candidates who have completed their STPM/Matriculations/Foundation/Diploma/Equivalent and will be registering at the three USM campuses for the full-time Bachelor’s degree programmes.

From the total, USM also offered more than 40 places for students from abroad, including those from Morocco, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Yemen, and India and so forth. A student from Hong Kong, Cheng Tsz Hong said, what has attracted him to continue his studies at USM was the reputation of the second oldest institution in Malaysia, which is well-known internationally.

He said, the peaceful surroundings and the multicultural society which utilises English language in their daily communications resulted in his willingness to come to Malaysia to seek knowledge.

“I enrolled in the English Language for Professionals programme and I was not wrong to choose Malaysia or more specifically USM because by being here, I can improve my English proficiency in speaking, writing and so on.

“The majority whom I’ve met in Malaysia are fluent in the English language and it provides an advantage for me to become proficient,’’ he said.

Other than Cheng Tsz Hong, Salim el-Yabouri from Morocco also shared his thoughts, and said that USM is the right destination to further studies due to the excellent track record especially in the area of academic development.

"I have received encouraging feedback from friends and family members who had studied here before and I was truly excited to follow the same footstep.

“Upon arriving here, I felt it was truly the right choice and I was impressed with the environment and the surrounding areas of the campus with its green and soothing landscape,’’ he said, as he will be joining the Management programme.

Others who attended the media conference were two foreign students from China, Liang Yage who will be registering at the School of Housing, Building and Planning and Xu Yuxiang, who has chosen to study at the School of Biological Sciences.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin/Text: Marziana Mohamed Alias/Photo: Mohd Fairus Md. Isa