MIRI: With the Movement Control Order (MCO) entering its third phase and little likelihood of face-to-face university marketing events being allowed anytime soon, Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) has taken all its student recruitment activities online.
Applications for its second semester degree and foundation intakes in July and August respectively are now open. To ensure school leavers do not miss out on the opportunity to enrol, Curtin Malaysia has been conducting its Curtin Malaysia Virtual Info Day since April 6 and will be ongoing until the lifting of the MCO.
School leavers and their parents can now engage with staff, academics and student ambassadors from the comfort of their homes by logging in to https://futurestudents.curtin.edu.my/virtual-info-day/, to get relevant information and valuable insights to make informed decisions about joining the university.
They can also learn about available scholarships and student loans, including merit scholarships and fee grants for school leavers with outstanding exam results.
Sarawakian bumiputera students can find out about Yayasan Sarawak’s BP40 Bursary Scheme offering subsidies enabling them to study at Curtin Malaysia at fees equivalent to those at public universities.
For those unsure what career path they would like to pursue, they can take a free personality-career mapping test that will match their personality traits and interests with courses and career options that would suit them best. They can also download brochures for reference.
Additionally, they can take a virtual tour of Curtin Malaysia’s campus from the comfort of their home.
This is, in fact, Curtin Malaysia’s second online recruitment event since the outbreak of Covid-19.
The first was an Online Education Fair from March 9 to 13, 2020 which generated considerable interest, prompting the campus to organise this second event.
“When the coronavirus pandemic spread to Malaysia, we were in the midst of conducting Curtin Info Day events at different locations nationwide, and following these, we continued our recruitment activities online,” said Curtin Malaysia’s pro vice-chancellor, president and chief executive Professor Simon Leunig.
“We knew that many school leavers and parents would be at a loss as to what to do, considering the movement control order and universities going into lockdown. Despite the circumstances, they do not necessarily want to delay their plans for further studies, so we devised online platforms like the Online Education Fair and Virtual Info Day to address their needs,” added Leunig.
As soon as the MCO was announced, Curtin Malaysia responded immediately by moving all lectures online within 24 hours, followed by the transition of tutorials and workshops to online spaces as well within a week.
“Curtin’s education model has always involved a considerable amount of online teaching and much of the course materials were already online. We are continually fine-tuning our online teaching practices to ensure that no student is left behind,” said Leunig.
In addition to the online classes, Professor Leunig added that students have access to Curtin Malaysia’s substantial online resources, including over 150,000 journals, about 420,000 e-books and more than 600 online databases, as well as open access resources.
