Students, the world is in your hands

Hard-won advice for university students beginning their journey into life.

A NEW semester has begun in most public universities, so in today’s column, I would like to share my educational experiences with new students streaming into their campus life stage of adulthood.

I am a most fortunate Malaysian to have experienced a meaningful journey of discipline, knowledge and spirituality during my sojourn at two universities in the United States.

Who I am today, what I stand for, what I hope for in the future, and which values I hold fast to were all “made in the US” as it were, at the universities I attended.

I spent six formative years in the US getting my Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Master of Architecture degrees, and then I spent three years in Edinburgh, Scotland, for my PhD to complete the first part of my education journey (the journey continues, for one never stops learning).

Back home, as a teacher in both public and private universities, I have spent 43 years in academia.

I feel that these experiences may afford me the opportunity to send two simple but important messages to the new mahasiswa (students) trying to make out what university life means or can mean to them.

My first message is that you, the mahasiswa, “own” the university you are in.

My second message is that your “career” begins now. Not when you graduate or even in your final year – it begins now!

Let’s start with my first message: YOU own the university.

Is that right? How can that be so? Well, think about it, who is the university for?

It was established for students first and academicians/teachers second. The university was not made for the vice-chancellor to feel important nor was it made for the Education Minister to get re-elected into their office.

The university is there for the students – and the academicians – to question every aspect of inherited life: your inherited tradition, your religious baggage, and your hand-me-down political and spiritual values.

At university, everything is salah (wrong) until you make sense of your inherited baggage of tradition and values.

Then come new thoughts and new ways of thinking that could – and should – change not only you, but society and even the world.Students and academicians hold the world in their hands and what we as a country and as a planet have become, or will become, depends entirely on how university academicians and students view knowledge and change. If that knowledge – and the university – is merely a follow-up on tradition in disciplines and professions, then rugi lah (our loss) – a meaningless future lies ahead.

You, mahasiswa, must strive to be different and ensure you do not fall into the trap of standardisation and mediocrity.

Standardisation is for shoes and kitchen utensils, not for the human mind.

All the workers, from clerks and officers to the board of governors, serve you, the mahasiswa, they are not there to make students like you the peasant class in a maharaja’s kingdom.

The second message I wish to impart to new students on campus is that your careers begin on day one of your university life.

Many mahasiswa make the fatal mistake of thinking their careers begin just before graduation, but in reality, it begins when you step onto campus grounds for the first time.

On day one, day 100 and day 1,000, each mahasiswa must cultivate the important values of trust, affording dignity to others, helping others and being true to promises.

These are the building blocks of the human persona that are valued most highly by any corporation or government entity.

Some call these values “soft skills”. I hate that term. For me, learning these skills is about striving to be the best human being you can be. So it should be about learning the “best human values”, not “soft skills”.

As your career begins on Day 1, do not say bad words or send derogatory messages over the Internet as anonymity is the friend of Evil Most Extreme.

Your social media will bear witness against you when you graduate and your private persona will be seen by others at interviews and during probation in your careers.

Read, read and read books of worth that can build you up in your discipline, in your social skills, and in your spirituality to be a good, dependable and trustworthy individual.

Do NOT follow your friends! Be your own person and take charge of your own destiny.

Produce a longer CV than your cohort and strive to be the best in whatever assignment, activities and responsibilities you are entrusted with.

Volunteer and look for responsibilities, don’t hide from them. A CV full of headships and leadership speaks more powerfully than a high cumulative grade point average.

Learn to speak well, to speak in structures and forms that communicate clearly and convincingly.

Your trust and faith are the two qualities that employers seek in your body language and speech.

The CV counts very little in comparison, but it is the first thing about you that will be scrutinised, so make sure it is full and filled. And to have a full CV, don’t depend on people to make things happen, you must make things happen for yourself.

After university, the mahasiswa may live to be 100. And these four years at university can determine most significantly who you will become – an asset to humanity or a destructive force.

To all new students on campus, I remind you that tradition is your most dangerous enemy, and silence will be your graveyard.

To the mahasiswa, I say to you that knowledge is your weapon, trust is your friend, and dignity is your business card.

Learn to wield them all and the world will be yours for the taking.

You, the mahasiswa, are the master of your own destiny and that of the world.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is a Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.