Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (referred to as LUCT, LKW or just Limkokwing) is a private international university with a presence across Africa, Europe and Asia. With its main campus in Malaysia, the university has over 30,000 students from more than 150 countries, studying in its 12 other campuses in Botswana, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and the United Kingdom accredited by Accreditation Service for International Colleges and Universities (ASIC). Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr Lim Kok Wing is the founder and president of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.
I am Rawan Saloum, a current student of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology. I am doing my Bachelor’s degree in Mobile Computing in the FICT faculty. Although Limkokwing, with no doubt, is one of the greatest universities I’ve ever been to or heard of, it still needs some tweaks here and there just to make it the perfect university.
To begin with, my major concern with our university is the library resources. The academic resources that the university provides are pretty limited, whether be it books, magazines, journals, researches, or academic articles. We don’t get much access to all these academic resources although they’re extremely needed where when doing a research. Also the library in whole is not very well equipped to help the students, the labs have around twenty-five computers, which is very few in ratio with the student body. Correspondingly, the sockets in the library, most of them, do not work, which is quite inconvenient for a student who wants to work on his/her laptop. Anyhow, for the resources problem, I would suggest an online resource library that would give the students access to the resources anytime, anywhere. The student would log on with his student ID, this is to ensure that the information is only accessible by university students. Also my other suggestion would be to collaborate with other universities and publishing houses to get more access to information.
The second way we can improve Limkokwing to help make it the perfect university is to provide more staff for the Print Shop located on the second floor of the plaza. The Print Shop is there to provide printing necessities for the students. But more often than not, you find only one person working there managing both binding and printing, that it would take hours to print out one assignment. My suggestion would be to hire students to work there. This way you could help some students find a suitable part-time job and also help the Print Shop become a better and faster print shop. Two birds, one stone!
Furthermore, let’s talk about the food in the university. Students have two choices to eat from, either Wings Café or Makan La. Wings Café is a bit too expensive considering it’s a students’ university café, especially if a student wants to have a meal from there. On the other hand, there’s Makan La, which isn’t very expensive but the food there, either takes a lot of time or just is really lacking “food” flavor. The food in Makan La can be improved by hiring cooks or chefs with somewhat of a prior cooking experience. Maybe also consider opening a fast food chain or Subway chain. There also should be constant checks on the kitchens to scrutinize cleanliness and quality.
Transitioning into the management sector of the university, I think the university’s marketing department should be a bit more organized. Currently, the marketing department’s filing system is out of whack, there are constantly missing folders and student’s papers. This becomes a hassle to both the student and the employee. Instead, what they could do is create a database, with back up of course, to organize student files easily. As for the paper filing system, it should be organized all over again, segregated into categories to help with the organization process.
Moving on, the computer labs in the university, not the ones in the library, are extremely old, with old operating systems running. This kind of causes a slow down when giving a lecture, because the computer is too outdated to work on some modern software. One problem we encountered is for a subject, we needed to use MAC computers to work but since the MACs were too old, we were unable to work with the programming language. I would suggest leaving the same computers, if they can’t be replaced, but only updating the operating systems on them.
Speaking of computers, there’s a virus that infiltrated all the university’s computers two years ago, and until now the virus is still there. Every time you connect a storage device to any computer in the university, know that it will be polluted with the virus. This virus leads to hiding or deleting folders off the storage drive. I would suggest formatting all the university’s devices and along with that updating the operating systems.
Let’s talk about the plaza for a moment. My main complain about the plaza is the music. The music being played is too annoying and sometimes too foul for a university vibe. There’s one constant playing being played with about ten to fifteen songs that are on repeat the whole day from 9 to 6. The songs tend to get very repetitive and disturbing sometimes. I think it would be much better if the music being played is according to the time of the day. For instance, jazz and blues in the morning, some classical rock in the afternoon, and along that note.
My other idea to improve Limkokwing is to provide more parking space and also maybe separate them onto staff and students. Right now, to find a parking space it would take about fifteen minutes at least because of how crowded and limited the parking area is. Also, a lot of accidents occur while trying to navigate between the parking and leaving the parking. This fifteen minute search quest causes the students to be late for their classes and staff late for their work.
Last but not least, our university offers a great idea called the Global Classroom. The course is compulsory on all students. Basically, it provides students an opportunity to travel and get experience in another country or city in Malaysia. However, right now only London Global Classroom is available. The dilemma is, a lot of students cannot afford the London Global Classroom as it’s quite pricey, but other than that, a lot of students, due to political reasons, cannot get a visa to England because of their passports. I think the university should try to provide the same course but in a more affordable and accessible countries, for example China, Indonesia, or Cambodia.
All in all, Limkokwing is a great university as it is, providing the students to meet with people from all over the world. The university is a beautiful and fun learning environment, always keeping the students entertained with hosting events, getting the students busy with bazaars, etc. This university might as well be crowned as The Most Entertaining University.
Random Word Association
1) Programs- written by the institution or ministry of education which determines the learning progress of each subject in all the stages of formal education
2) Branches - physically at a distance from the original university or college area. This branch campus may be located in a different city, state, or country, and is often smaller than the main campus of an institution. The separate campuses may be under the same accreditation and share resources or they share administrations but maintain separate budgets, resources, and other governing bodies.
3) Facilities - something such as a building or large piece of equipment that is built for a specific purpose.
4) BICT - Bachelor of Computing Degrees in Software Engineering, Internet Technology, Mobile Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Management, Computer Security, Biometrics and Computing.
5) Computer Labs - A computer lab is a space which provides computer services to a defined community. Computer labs are typically provided by libraries to the public, by academic institutions to students who attend the institution.
6) Skills - Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill encompassing the ability of an individual or organization to "lead" or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations
7) Action - an act that one consciously wills and that may be characterized by physical or mental activity.
8) Commitment - an agreement or pledge to do something in the future, especially an engagement to assume a financial obligation at a future date.
9) Characteristic - a feature or quality belonging typically to a person, place, or thing and serving to identify it.
10) Strategy - a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.
