Reflection 2: Analyse Students' Needs

What are the students' needs and how will I address their issues?

In our study, we employed two data collection methods. The first one was a virtual open ended interview using Cisco Webex application and the second was a simple survey using Whatsapp application. Our respondents were four postgraduate students in UUM from the School of Busines Management and School of Accounting. We asked questions related to issues faced by postgraduate students using the following questions:

1. What is the main problem you are facing in your study? Can you tell us all the issues you are facing?

2. Do you like what you are doing now? Do you like your topic? Is it your interest or you follow your supervisor’s interest?

3. Can you finish your study within the time given e.g. 3 years for PHD? If not, why so?

4. Do you have any issue with motivation in completing your study?

5. Are you concerned about your future career once you obtain your degree?

6. Do you feel lonely in your study?

7. How about your phd-life balance?

8. If you are a supervisor for a postgraduate student, what advice will you give to the student?

Based on the students’ responses during the interviews, several things can be reflected upon. First, the main and core issue students facing is the level of writing skill. They are not well prepared to write academically and critically for their studies. This is true for my experience as well since English is not our native language and it is hard to produce natural and well written sentences. Although we have a good idea, to transform it on a paper in the most clear and succinct way is a challenge. We tend to write too many words to convey one simple idea. Perhaps it is caused by the nature of Malay language and we tend to directly translate Malay language to English. The students also admitted that they are worry about publication since they are new in writing and do not have experience in publications. As publication is one of the requirements to go for viva voce, the students need to work hard to improve publication skills.

Second issues students face is regarding motivation to consistently work on the thesis. They admitted that sometimes they lost motivation. This is true because PHD study is a lonely journey that we do almost everything on our own. Hence, it is important to ask our students to mingle around with other students from different backgrounds. This will allow them to open their mind with many ideas will be shared with others. There are few other issues raised but I think the key issue is the poor academic writing among them.

As the most important issue raised by the students is the difficulty in mastering academic writing, we aim to organise an event that can enhance their writing skills. We are planning to invite an experience speaker in academic publication to expose students on how to write and publish in renowned journals. This talk will cover many aspects of academic writing starting from thesis writing until writing for publications. This is important for students because most of postgraduate students in Malaysian universities are required to publish before they can have their viva voce. Therefore, it is crucial for them to address this writing issue at the very beginning of their PhD for them to quickly publish a paper before they enter their third year. We hope that our project will benefit students and can fulfil their needs. Addressing this need is our main priority to help students. Other needs such as time management and loneliness will be addressed from time to time within the supervision period such as sharing on workable Gantt Chart, organising group meeting or release or picnic day to improve supervisor -student relationship.