Pros and Cons about Malaysian Universities

It is about one year that I have started my PhD at Malaysia. I am pretty sure that many other students in developing countries are thinking to Malaysia as a option for higher education. So, lets speak about it.

Pros:

• Studying at Malaysia is cheaper than others foreign countries. like Australia, US and Canada.
• You can continue your education in English language.
• Malaysia is a multicultural country. So, you never have problem about racial discrimination.
• Ranking of Malaysian Universities are getting better everyday. The best ranking belong to University of Malaya among them (I am studying here). Based on Webometrics.com classification its rank for 2012 has been 435 in the world. you can check others here.
• They are investing well on research.
• Technical facilities of universities like having equipments, access to academic database and so on is acceptable in public universities like (UM, UTM, UPM and etc).
• You can see meet every person in university hierarchy from vice canceller to dean in public universities easily.  

Cons:

• In some feilds finding a good supervisor is very difficult.
• Most of the universities in Malaysia only concentrate on publishing papers to promote their world ranking. Not on producing new practical and applicable projects.
• Student facilities inside campus are awful especially in public universities like UM. Its dormitory is dirty, without any facilities, crowded and expensive in proportion to somewhere outside university.
• Scholarships and grants are very limited. You cannot count on it at all. And if they give you only with producing ISI paper. They make a contract with you for this!
• Universities do not have any exact plan and schedule. Complaining will not work. They do not listen.
• They change their rules repeatedly and suddenly.
• You cannot compare Malaysian universities with high level universities in developed countries. 
• You even have very very limited work permission. Students only can work on holidays and summer time and only in hotels, gas station and restaurants. It is suck. Isn't it?
• Student insurance does not support your family at all and this insurance is very limited.

Final word, if you want to come to Malaysia for studying think to these features very well and make real your expectation from Malaysia. Here is developing country at last and you should not search for a miracle here. But if you are hard working person. Your place is not big issue for progressing. Good Luck.