By Billy Chan Xiang Yuan,
Project Manager of Pathways In The Land Of Grace
I’m a second-year undergraduate students studying for Chemical Engineering in UTP. Including my foundation, I had been studying for 3 years in UTP right now.
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Talking about foundation, UTP foundation is giving a second chance for the students to build a strong foundation for SPM level curricular programs, including some new knowledge essential for undergraduate studies. I find it easy during my foundation studies because I have had a strong knowledge foundation for SPM level. However, most of my friends who are putting effort are also doing great although they have not done well during SPM, it’s just a matter of personal effort. Moving on to undergraduate studies, I personally think that UTP is trying to train us to have more exposure to the industrial life out there, in which we will be having different teammates every semester. The courses are related together with the integrated project (an assignment which requires the knowledge of at least 2 core subjects). In short, the quality of the curricular in UTP is high, it’s not easy to score; but it’s do-able if effort is placed.
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About campus life, there are a lot of events available in UTP, and it really helps the students to develop soft skills. Whether you like it or not, you’ll be involved in at least 3 projects in the curricular (DTE, MPU4, ETP). For me, I never regretted joining any projects here. If the students are active enough, one can always join an event and make friends anywhere in the campus. Facilities like sport complex, parking, internal bus services are free for students. Another thing is the accommodation fees in UTP is very cheap talking about the convenience and the facilities provided. I enjoyed the basketball sessions, badminton sessions with my friends, and the individual night jogging after test, ahhh….relieving.
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For budgetary, I think the expenses in UTP is quite low, in which I spend around RM450 per month (food, transportation, miscellaneous) is enough to have a comfortable life in UTP, which is quite a low amount when compared to other tertiary institutions. If one is doing well in the studies, apply for scholarships. The examples that I can give is PTPTN, YKLK, and YUTP. As the eldest child, I don’t want to spend much of my parents’ money because I have 2 more siblings who are going to take their tertiary education very soon. Thus, I’m taking this opportunity to give my appreciation to PTPTN, YKLK, and YUTP when I am in need, thank you.
By Ng Jia Le,
Asistant Project Manager of Pathways In The Land Of Grace
I’m student taking Chemical Engineering course in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) and currently I’m in the second year third semester. Basically, I have been studying in UTP for 3 year already.
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Based on my past experience when studying in UTP, my life in the UTP for these 3 years actually can be separate into 2 phases. The first phase of my uni life is actually during the foundation time. When I am having my foundation course in UTP, I rarely join any event held by the associations or clubs in UTP and I spend most of my time in my study. Other than that, sometimes I will also play badminton with my friends and participate in some small competition in UTP. During that time, my life is quite relaxing and enjoyable. However, when I think back after I finish my foundation course, I realize that my uni life only has studies only. Therefore, I make up my mind to make some on my lifestyle when I proceed with my degree course.
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During my undergraduate time, I start to participate in club as well as some event organized in the UTP and my life was quite busy during that time compare to my life during foundation. However, I found out that my life is full and more interesting. Besides, I also gain lots of experience and knowledge which cannot obtain in class when participate in the event. However, the curriculum during undergraduate is getting heavier so I only able to join in a few events only. Therefore, I really encourage students who continue with their tertiary studies can cherish their time during foundation and utilize it well in doing some meaningful activity such as joining events and competition.
By Farah Nursyahirah Binti Ismail,
Treasurer of Pathways In The Land Of Grace
Hello and welcome to the tertiary educational phase! My name is Farah Nursyahirah Binti Ismail and I am an undergraduate in Bachelor of Chemical Engineering with Honours and currently in my Second Year Third Semester already in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). Phew, time really flies so fast doesn’t it? :o
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Let me begin my student experience journey starting from the day I applied to UTP to further my studies in Foundation of Engineering. Before that, I would like to emphasize that in my writing, I try to share my student experience as closest to reality that I can, to be able to give readers the maximum understandings of the real-life situation that occurred to me. Therefore, in no means I intend to fabricate and figurate my writings. So, I applied to UTP on January 2018, using my SPM trial results. Apart from UTP, I also applied to various other universities, however, being accepted to UTP was eventually my main goal as I was set on applying to be an undergraduate in Chemical Engineering since I was in my Form 4, and after few research, found that UTP was indeed the best choice for me. Nevertheless, despite being determined to further my studies, I was extremely anxious and afraid of the new life that I will be walking into. This is due to myself never having felt the situation of being far from my family and living alone. Not going to lie, I dreaded this time of my life ever since I was young. Thus, the moment I got accepted into UTP, instead of being happy, I ended up crying my lungs out instead (LOL). Then, the journey of waiting for the time to actually leave for my tertiary education life felt miserable, but it eventually came, and guess what? Tertiary education life is definitely not as bad as I had previously imagined it to be (YAY).
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The journey I went through in UTP was, indeed, beautiful. Although I ended up crying the entire first week because my parents had to leave me and fly back to Sabah (because I am the softy that I am), I already had new friends as well as the Orientation Week’s facilitators (seniors) that supported me and kept me happy, which lifted my spirits up. The lecturers are wonderful and helpful too. Although the workload is quite a lot, this is where your self-discipline and time management skills come in place. If you plan your time wisely, you will definitely have enough time to study, join the plentiful events available in your respective institutions, have some social time with friends and even have leisure time for yourselves. All you need to do is set a goal for yourselves, be disciplined towards it and always come back to that goal at the end of the day. That was what I did, and I ended up my foundation years with a CGPA of 3.90, where I managed to achieve 4 flats for two of my semesters, all the while still enjoying my life in UTP with my friends.
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Did I mention about the sport facilities available in UTP? Besides squash, basketball, tennis, futsal and badminton courts, UTP also has other facilities such as a football field, a gym, martial arts room, a huge park with jogging tracks as well as a lake for kayak activities! There are so many things that you can do here and trust me when I said I had no time to be sad or worried anymore when I finally got here. Besides that, coming from a B40 family and the third child of the family, I did face issues with the tuition fees as UTP is a private university. At first, I tried applying for PETRONAS scholarship and had high hopes in securing it, however, I was so disappointed when I did not get through one of the scholarship stages. I then started worrying on how I was going to be able to pay the tuition fees as I did not want to burden my family. Now, one of the best things being in UTP is that UTP has got many financial aids to offer to their students; they did not limit their financial aid only to PETRONAS scholarship. Here, UTP also offers a variety of financial aids which includes Yayasan Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (YUTP) Scholarship/Bursary/Financial Assistance, MARA Sponsorship Programme as well as Tabung Amanah Zakat UTP. These three foundations have undeniably supported thousands of students to be able to further their studies in UTP. Apart from that, students also have a choice to apply for other financial aids too where the most common ones being Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) Scholarships, Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi National (PTPTN) Loans, and YTL Foundation Scholarship Programme.
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I think that is all that I am able to share about my experience for my tertiary educational phase here in UTP, but I would like to assure readers that life as a student at tertiary institutions are great and not that bad at all as always perceived by certain people. You just have to be determined to stay on the right path. Thank you for reading and good luck to all of you <3.
By See Siew Shan,
Secretary of Pathways In The Land Of Grace
I am a 2nd year 3rd semester Chemical Engineering student of UTP. I have been studying in UTP for 3 years including one year of Foundation program. It is very convenient to study in UTP as we can stay in the campus of UTP. Whenever we need to rush for project, we can just meet at the student common area or Information Resource Centre (IRC) to have meeting until late night because it is safe in the campus. Besides, UTP also has many laboratory facilities. It is great to get to see these facilities and equipments as well as to learn how to handle them when I am still a student.
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Studying in UTP made me realized that university life is not just about studying but also developing soft skills, training myself to be organized and disciplined as well as meeting people from different backgrounds. As UTP has a lot of student organized events, clubs and societies, I get to join a few events which have enabled me to know more people and develop my personal skills.