Why splash out tens of thousands of dollars and spend two years getting a degree in a foreign land when accredited foreign bachelor degrees are available locally? Career Central finds out more from two degree students studying at the Technology, Management and Communications (TMC) Educational Group.

By Edwin Tam

Gevelle Cheng, 26, is a man with a goal.

“I want to have my own shop. I always have ideas on starting businesses, from online gaming companies to retail outlets,” he confessed. However, he had naively thought that to start a business, one simply needs to import goods and sell them, with not much else to worry about.

Nowadays, Gevelle is wiser and he knows that there are many factors to consider when running a business. He credits his new-found knowledge to his studies in International Business—one of four modules under the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Business Administration from the University of Greenwich—which he studies part-time at TMC.

“Through the module, I got more insights on the types of plans, surveys and marketing that I need to do in order to start a business,” he said. “For example, if I’m bringing in shoes, I should find out how many women like a particular type of shoes. Also, is it profitable to bring it here? Should I expand into the region? What is the exchange rate [because it can affect sales revenues and production costs]?”

TMC started offering degree programmes from foreign universities in 1991, the first of which was the Bachelor of Applied Science (Computing) programme from Monash University, Australia. Since then, TMC has collaborated with nine more foreign universities—Deakin University, Southern New Hampshire University, University of Greenwich, and University of Newcastle, amongst others—to expand their degree programmes into other disciplines. Today, TMC offers programmes on accounting, business, hospitality and tourism, property, mass communication, information technology, law, etc.

To Ng Tze Hwa, 25, it is important that the education provider is reputable. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computing under University of Greenwich. “It was a reputable school and it offered a variety of courses. I did some research and found that it had received awards such as the ISO 9001:2000 and the Singapore Quality Class (for Private Education Organisations),” he said, on how TMC had attracted him.

Although Gevelle joined the course for its relevance, what really caught his eye was the fact that holders of relevant diplomas can gain direct entry into the final year of related programmes. That meant that as a part-time student, he would just need 18 months (full-time students require only 12 months) to get a BA (Hons) in Business Administration!

Classes just aren’t the same
Classes at TMC begin with two-hour lectures, followed by a 15-minute break and an hour of tutorials. Typically, the lecturer would go through his presentation slides—“A shorter version of the textbook,” said Gevelle—before discussing the main points with the class.

Also, instead of hundreds of students packed in one lecture hall, each lecture-cum-tutorial has on average 20 students.

Tze Hwa likes the small class size where he gets close attention from lecturers and benefits from their prompt response to any queries he might have. This sentiment is echoed by Gevelle, “I like to have a personal feel with the lecturers. I like to ask questions. It might be stupid questions. But here I know that when I ask a question, the lecturer will respond immediately.”

On the flipside, lecturers keep students on their toes by asking them thought-provoking questions.

Gevelle said, “The lecturer doesn’t just say, ‘This is how economics works.’ Once he has explained the points, he’ll ask questions such as, ‘How do you think it will affect Singaporean businesses?’ These questions make me think and apply those new topics. And because it’s such a small class, the lecturer can see who is paying attention and who is not!”

This lays to rest students’ concerns that lecturers are too detached or simply regurgitate from textbooks. But how about apprehensions that courses that are overly theoretical and not applicable to the real world?

Gevelle had this worry until he discovered that his course used a lot of examples, practicals and simulations in teaching. “Once, we had a virtual simulation where we ran a car company for six weeks. We were given funds and marketing tools. After the six weeks, we’d know if the company was run properly. And we analysed in class what went right and wrong. I made some wrong decisions that caused my company to lose money, but I learnt a lot while doing the simulation and I didn’t have to fork out real money!” he said appreciatively.

Likewise, Tze Hwa had the opportunity to work on purposeful, semi-large-scale projects. “I designed and coded a java-based program on monitoring animals in the zoo. I had to build a database and write a programme to track the animals’ current location and health status,” he shared.

Choose wisely
Chris Anderson mentioned in his book The Long Tail that every person has a unique set of interests. Likewise, degree-seekers should be cognizant of what they want from a degree programme. For instance, Gevelle and Tze Hwa have very different needs.

Gevelle’s decision rested on whether the degree is accredited, its duration of study and cost incurred. “[The BA from] Greenwich University conducted by TMC fits my needs. I could opt for on-campus education in Australia but it would have cost AUD70,000 [SGD82,900] for two years of study,” he said.

It took some balancing of needs for Tze Hwa before he decided to study computing at TMC. The aspiring software engineer chose the school because it focuses on modules that are practical, relevant and are on par with other institutions.

Ultimately, Gevelle’s advice to new students is, “Ask yourself what is important to you. Is university prestige important? Is duration is important? Is cost important? Categorise them. Then look at the degree programmes. Do they fit your criteria? If they do, go for it!”

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