MSD Get Together

Today, instead of heading to Melbourne Uni for a talk & joining the Fair Fares Rally, I decided to stay back at Latrobe for a meeting with the Director of Malaysian Students Department in Australia, Dr Mohd Nasir Abu Hassan. About 20 - 30 students were there, in one of the meeting room near the VC's office. For most of us, this was our first time meeting Dr Nasir and also the first time 'jejak kaki' at the VC's place. Cantikkkk...all over dgn red carpet. He..he..he..sikit lagi nak p tangkap gambaq ngan VC.

Anyway, the meeting ran for over an hour. Dr Nasir basically stressed the importance of registering online with the MSD in case an emergency occurs, such as the case with the death of a Malaysian student from RMIT, Sharon last few weeks. He also shared some of the latest 'delicate dealings' that he encountered involving Malaysians here in Australia.

In term of academics, especially in completing our PhD, he emphasized that our study plan should be focused on a 3 year plan. So if there's any delay at all, it won't exceed the 4 years maximum limit, especially for sponsored student. Based on his own experience doing his PhD, he pointed out the fact that it's our PhD, so we have to steer it our way & make it happen, instead of blaming others (such as SV) & the environments (such as cold weather, perhaps?! - it was 9 degrees...) for all the problems that we faced in our PhD journey. Well, point taken ;-)

Some of those present...