• Faculty home
• About the Faculty
• Study with us
• Departments
  • Architecture and Built Environment
  • Chemical and Environmental
    • About the Department
    • Undergraduate
      • Undergraduate videos
      • Student profiles
      • How to apply
    • Postgraduate
    • Facilities
    • People
  • Civil
  • Electrical and Electronic
  • Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing
• Research
• People
• Scholarships and fees
• Research placements
• Links with industry
• Outreach
• News and events
• FAQs
• Alumni
• Contact us

Student Profile

 

10th March 2008 | Results in...

The new semester is well under way now, and at last we have our exams results back, frustratingly a full month after the UK campus students received theirs. Although I managed to gain a reasonable grade I felt that it didn't reflect the work I had put into preparing for the exams.

Unfortunately this was the case with the majority of the mobility students from all departments, who generally performed quite a lot lower than the previous year. Although we were told when we came that mobility students generally drop 5-10% of what they could achieve in the UK it was still a shame and perhaps something that people wanting to spend time here should consider. While we all went travelling quite frequently during our time off, I think this only stimulated us to work harder when on campus. Since the majority of the coursework I submitted months ago has still not been returned it also makes it difficult to see where I've gone wrong.

On the positive side since I last wrote I've taken the opportunity to go to some pretty incredible places since we have Fridays off and the coursework load is light at the beginning of the semester.

Over the Chinese New Year holiday I visited Macau and Hong Kong which was a great experience seeing how the Chinese spend their major annual holiday. The following week myself and a group of mobility students went on a scuba diving trip to the island of Sipadan off the coast of Borneo. It is rated as one of the top places in the world to dive and after seeing all the turtles, sharks and vast amounts of fish I can certainly believe it!

Other weekend trips included going to Perhentian Island on the east coast of Malaysia and recently to Singapore where we splashed out on a Singapore sling at the world famous Raffles hotel and also visited the zoo. Now that the work is beginning to build up its one long slog until the end of the summer exams and for once I'm jealous of my friends back in the UK, getting a holiday for Easter!

 

24th January 2008 | Exams are over!

Finally the exams are over, and I have a chance to give an update on the latest goings on at Nottingham Malaysia campus.

Over the Christmas holidays I visited Phuket in Thailand and Bali in Indonesia. Phuket was great fun but not one for people who enjoy a bit of peace and quiet, to say the least! After a short stop back on campus we headed off to Bali which was also very nice but unfortunately it rained most of the time we were there turning to roads into mini rivers. Christmas day was a strange experience being so far from home but staying in a nice hotel with friends turned out to be just as fun, with typical English rainy weather included. After that we came back and spent New Year’s in KL and partied the night away.

Since then it’s been all work and no play, spending most of my days in the library 10am-11pm revising. The exams generally went worse than I expected, mostly due to a horrendous maths paper everyone found difficult. One aspect I was disappointed with was the fact that even though I’ve submitted over 10 pieces of coursework, none have been returned, whereas in the UK it’s returned shortly after being handed in. This makes it a lot more difficult to gauge how well you need to do in each exam and where your attention should be focused. Also you’re unable to see where you’ve gone wrong with your coursework so it can be corrected for the exam.

The new semester has started now and newcomers from the UK have arrived. Next week we have 5 days off for Chinese New Year and I’m going to visit Macau and Hong Kong and the week after that a diving adventure in Borneo, so plenty of things to look forward to, apart from thermodynamics and accounting...

 

30th November 2007 | Mount Kinabalu

In the last month the work load has really stepped up a level with several coursework deadlines every week. Unfortunately that has meant fewer excursions although there have been opportunities to get away for a day or two.

In early November myself and 3 other students went to climb Mount Kinabalu on Borneo. While we thought it would be easy, it turned out that climbing a 4000 metre mountain wasn’t a walkover after all! Nevertheless we reached t he summit after 2 days of climbing at 4:30AM only to be stuck in the clouds for sunrise. Still a brilliant weekend away and very rewarding.

The weekend after that we went to an island in Malaysia called Penang, it’s one of the biggest tourist resorts in the country. Because it is quite near we were able to get a luxury coach there which only cost £4, rather than a flight. In the end we had to cut our three day trip short because two of my friends were ill from the food they had the previous night.

Last weekend several of us mobility students went to Shah Alam to a huge indoor tennis area to watch Pete Sampras play Roger Federer in an exhibition match. It was a nail biting match but in the end ‘old man Pete’ couldn’t keep up with Federer’s pace. On the Sunday I went to Sepang race circuit to watch the A1GP world cup of motorsport. This was a great day out and a thrilling race although the 3 teams I was supporting, Malaysia, Germany and Great Britain all came in the last 5 positions.

The campus is seemingly becoming more isolated and getting out is a pain when you have to rely on taxi drivers that run on “Malaysian time” which is at least a good half hour behind. Time does seem to race by here and I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas holidays, speaking of which I’m going to be spending 6 days in Thailand , 8 days in Bali and back in KL for New Year. Suddenly it all seems worth it !

 

29th October 2007 | Weekend in Malacca

It's been a month since my monkey collision and I'm finally getting better enough to play sports again, ...well that was until 2 days ago when I got my other foot run over by a taxi but that was nothing after the ordeal I've been though!! Should be good as new in a couple of days.

We've definitely hit the rainy season. It tends to rain every day but it's still hot and humid. I've decided to stay here for a year rather than the semester I was originally staying because I'm enjoying myself here and it seemed to make sense to stay the extra four months.

My recent trips have included going to the Moto GP race at Sepang circuit near us which was a great day out. I've also just come back from a place called Malacca where we spent a weekend doing touristy stuff and went to global gathering dance music festival on the Saturday night which was amazing but really muddy, think Glastonbury.

Since I've only written about the positives here I thought I should mention some of the negatives. The campus is very isolated and nowhere is within walking distance so we're totally reliant on taxis or getting a lift. Also food is becoming a bit of an issue since the food in the canteen is pretty vile, no takeaways deliver here, eating out is relatively expensive and time consuming and there's only so much you can cook with the hob in the kitchen. Also in the halls here there is generally a lot of noise at all hours with people shouting and playing loud music at 5AM.

Not to worry, I'm off to Borneo in a couple of days!

 

16th October 2007 | Hospitalised in first month!

I've been here for 4 weeks now and finally getting used to the humidity and the fact we're in October and its 30 degrees outside! At first it was all a bit surreal, the familiar green Nottingham signs set in an oil palm plantation. The campus itself is stunning; everything is new and well maintained. The sports facilities are excellent, all sports are offered for free and it's pretty easy to get a court/pitch without even booking.

Although the campus is generally advertised as being in Kuala Lumpur it really isn't. It is in a small town called Semenyih. The nearest large town is called Kajang and will take about 20 minutes to get to. There is a free campus bus that runs regularly that takes us there. From there you can get the train to KL Sentral which will take about 40 minutes and costs 40p. Alternatively a taxi direct into KL from campus which takes about 45 minutes will cost £8.

The people here are all very friendly and the food is excellent. Because of the many cultures here almost any food is available and with a sit down meal costing between 50p and £2 it doesn't cost a fortune either.

In terms of our course it is almost identical to that of at the UK campus. The lecturers are all friendly and willing to spend time helping with any problems.

Our third weekend here took us to an island on the Thai border called Langkawi. While staying out there some of us decided to rent out mopeds to get around the island easier. Unfortunately on one of our rides out, a rouge monkey decided to jump out in front of my moped sending me flying across the tarmac at 30mph. I had several cuts but fortunately no broken bones or damage to my head.

It wasn't until a few days after when we had returned that my foot began to swell up to twice its original size and I was immediately hospitalised with an infection. I ended up staying in hospital on an IV for 5 days but thankfully the hospital was nice and the staff were friendly so time seemed to pass by very fast.

We are now half way through the hari raya holiday for which we have a week off. All the Malaysian students have gone back to their home towns and all the UK mobility students have gone off on exciting adventures, leaving me and my dodgy foot behind to catch up on work, probably for the best!