A Night at the German Embassy

Today the Head of HEU, Ck. Pg. Hjh. Mashayu as well as Ck. Nur Adyani and Senior Mistress Mdm Joanna Lim were invited to the German Embassy for a briefing by the Managing Director of the Karlsruhe University, Michael Kurth. The briefing was held at 5.30pm at the official residence of the German Ambassador to Brunei.




The main topic of the briefing was about the availibility of a Mechanical Engineering course which will be taught in English at the University. Maktab Duli's HEU were very fortunate to be there because we were able to learn more about the first Engineering course to be taught in English in a well established University. Universitat Karlsruhe (TH) is one of the oldest universities in Europe, established in 1825 and is one of the top three Universities in Germany. The course in itself is very prestigious as Germany is very well known for its' superiority in Engineering, especially in the automotive industry. (The creator of Mercedez Benz went to this Uni! The school of Engineering is named after him!)



Among those present at the briefing were Hj Daud, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Ck Hj Abd Aziz, Head of Scholarship Section, representatives from Ministry of Foriegn Affairs, lecturers from Faculty of Science UBD and counsellors from different institutions. It was indeed a privelege to be invited because they are keen on seeing students of Maktab Duli study Engineering at their University as they have heard we have some very promising, bright students!

Click here to know a bit more about the course. The requirements to do this course are

- very good grades in Mathematics and Physics plus another science subject

- must have keen interest and enthusiasm for Engineering as the course is very rigorous, demanding but rewarding as it includes a 16 week internship during the summer and lectures 6 days a week!

Some of the goodies we were presented with at the end of the night

For more information, please make an appointment and visit us as we have the information in the HEU resource library.

HEU Presentation for the New Lower Sixth

Today, the Higher Education Unit was introduced to the new BE's during a briefing session led by the HEU for the Lower Sixth Introduction Week. The briefing was held at the Auditorium at 10am and was presented by the Head of HEU, Ck. Pg. Hjh. Mashayu.

Main contents of the briefing included a video presentation and followed with an introduction of the 7 members of the HEU, a brief summary of our aims and objectives, an overview of the activities and programmes held by HEU and lastly what are the HEU's expectations for the lower sixth. This was then followed by a Q&A session where one brave student , Md.Farhan was able to gain an exclusive one-on-one special career counselling session with HEU for taking the initiative to ask a question to us. It is hoped that the new BE's will be able to benefit from the briefing and we hope that we left them inspired with the motivation to have a VISION!

A snapshot of our newest members of the College. Welcome to Maktab Duli! :)

Important Reminder to this years' UCAS applicants

This is to remind all of this year's UCAS applicants that they are only able to register with UCAS after obtaining a buzzword from HEU.

In order to get a buzzword you must first see your HEU counsellor and show a satisfying personal statement. This is because the personal statement differentiates your from other students and will be a big factor in the university selection process. Remember, our aim is to make sure you get into the BEST universities possible,thus it will be of a competitive nature!

Why we have all these procedures is to ensure that you have done ALL your research and have fully assessed and editted your personal statement so that you are fully prepared and present yourself in the best way to the universities that you have applied for.

If you have obtained the buzzword WITHOUT seeing your counsellor (i.e. you've gotten it from your friends) then we have the right to DELETE your application.

Choosing to disregard our advice could also lead to us sending your application form WITHOUT CHECKING and CORRECTING THE MISTAKES YOU'VE MADE. This would surely affect your chances of getting into your desired universities.

Bottom line is, If you can't be bothered to see us, then you can't really expect us to put much effort into you can we? Think about it ;)

Study at UBD 2008

This is your chance to see for yourself the courses and programmes that are available at UBD for the academic year 2008/2009.

Date: Saturday 16th February and Sunday 17th February
Time: 8.30am - 5.00pm
Venue: Chancellor's Hall, UBD

Please bring your forms with you and prepare whatever questions you may want to ask to the registrar and admissions committee.

UNISSA Open Day

Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA) will be holding an Open Day to introduce to the public and applicants the courses and programmes avaiable at the Uni for the year 2008/2009.

Details of the event are as follows,
Date: Sunday, 10th February 2008
Time: 8am - 4.30pm
Place: Multi Purpose Hall, Staff Student Affairs Building, UBD

Details of courses and application forms can be found HERE.
To see UNISSA's press release about the English courses available click here

Maktab Sains UK Universities Fair

Ck Pg Hjh Mashayu, Cikgu Adyani and Cikgu Siti took the opportunity to visit the MS UK Universities Fair with three of our students.

We met Mr.Ray George who was kind enough to welcome us and also show us their Careers Centre! The visit was a good way to enhance professional ties between HEU and the MS Careers Dept, plus we were also able to benefit from talking to a few of the university representatives who were present at the event.

The Maktab Duli HEU would like to extend our grattitude and appreciation to the MS careers Centre for inviting us to their event and welcoming our presence in their school. Thank you!

HEU at the Scholarship Exhibition

Guest of Honour, Deputy Secretary of the MOE Awg Hj Md Daud Bin Haji Mahmud, giving his inspiring speech.


Cikgu Adyani, Cikgu Siti and Ck. Pg Hjh Mashayu (not in picture) were the HEU counsellors who went to the launching of the exhibition.


The three HEU student cadets that came along and greatly benefitted from seing what the exhibiiton had to offer.

A list of the those that participated in the exhibition is as follows,

Scholarship Section, MOE
Accreditation Centre, MOE
Technical Education Department, MOE
Ministry Of Health
Ministry of Defence
Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam
Sultan's Scholar, Yayasan SHHB
Brunei Shell Petroleum
Royal Brunei Airlines
British Council
HRD, B.Lau, James Hon
HSBC, BIBD and Standard Chartered Bank

What was new this year was that they were also receiving scholarship appplications during the exhibition, where students were interviewed briefly and applications were taken in.



This was definitely a worthwhile experience as a lot of questions were able to be answered, connections made and we also had the opprtunity to update the information we had at HEU.

BREAKING NEWS! MOE Scholarship

We would like to announce that the issue of not being able to apply to local institutions if you are applying for a scholarship has now been cleared.

If you refer to page 7 of the official MOE document it says that under the section of "Permohonan yang tidak dipertimbangkan", one of the factors that makes you ineligible to apply for scholarship is "Mereka yang diterima/ditawarkan tempat di instituti pendidikan tinggi dalam negeri".

The scholarship section at the MOE has clarified that what they mean by the above statement is, those that CURRENTLY STUDYING in UBD or ITB are not eligible for the MOE scholarship.

Therefore,
YOU CAN APPLY FOR MOE SCHOLARSHIP AND UBD/ITB AT THE SAME TIME.

We very much regret the any confusion and inconvenience caused.

Another point that we cleared up was that if you want to apply for the MOE scholarship but hope to boost your exam grades by taking the June exams then the scholarship section will only take your exam grades taken in ONE SITTING. i.e. you can NOT use the best grades from both November and June exams. Therefore if you are not satisfied with your grades and want to take June exams, you'd need to sit for all THREE A level core subjects!

MOE Scholarship Exhibition

The Scholarship Section under the Ministry of Education will be holding an exhibition on,
Saturday, 9th February 2008, at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Jalan Berakas.

The launching of the event will be at 8.30am, hence it should be open to the public after that. We strongly suggest all our students, present and leavers, to come to the above event to have a more comprehensive knowledge about the different types of scholarships available, courses offered and the entry requirements! Plus, you cna also ask them directly about any queries you might have regarding the scholarships.

Maktab Sains UK Universities Exhibition

Details for the above event are as follows,

Date: Saturday, 9th February 2008
Time: 9am - 4pm
Place: Maktab Sains Auditorium, Jalan Muara

The event is organised by the Maktab Sains Careers Centre and is open to the public. There will be several respresentatives from prestigious UK universities available at the above event so it's well worth checking it out!

MOE Scholarship Application

The final date of submission for the above application is
Monday, 11th February 2008

The plan of study is what we also call the scholarship essay. Basically it's a 200 word statement that you have to write concerning your course. A rough guideline to do this is as follows,

Break it into 3 paragraphs.
First paragraph - WHY do you want to do the course
Second Paragraph - WHAT does the course include i.e. a brief description of the course and topics covered.
Third Paragraph - FUTURE PLANS, especially in terms of how you'd be able to help the Government with a degree in the course applied for.

Please make sure you show a rough draft of the plan of study to your HEU counsellor to make sure that we'd be able to tweak out any grammar mistake or irrelevant material.

The confidential report (laporan sulit) should be handed in to your HEU counsellor who will then forward it to MOE with your reference attached.
Please make sure that you've filled in your name, IC number and course applied for in the relevant boxes and on the top right hand corner, write, in pencil, your AE and your A level grades.

Apart from that remember to have your certificates chopped and endorsed by the registrar and you've made a copy of the course content by photocopying or downloading from the University's prospectus.

Your UCAS Application - Things you need to know (Part Two)

Once you've registered with UCAS and entered through the school system you can then go on to fill in the different parts of the form.

Things to note

Personal Info Page

1. When you fill in your address make sure that you don't include 'DARUSSALAM'. Brunei will suffice.
2. Tel. No: Begin with +6732.. or +6738....
3. Nominated Access: YOUR COUNSELLORS FULL NAME
Relationship: HIGHER EDUCATION COUNSELLOR
4. Residential Category: Other
5. Fee Code: Overseas Agency (if you're applying for a scholarship)

Make sure you click SAVE before proceeding to the next page!

Education Page
1. Date of Attendance in school:
For your secondary school - January 2001 - January 2006
For Maktab Duli - February 2006- January 2008

The dates above are in accordance to your leaving certificate.

2. Entering 'O' level qualifications: Subject name/ Grade/ Date/ Awarding Body
e.g. GEOGRAPHY B 01/06 CAM

The date that you put down is the date of when you obtained your result, NOT when you sat for the exam.

The same rule above applies for your A level qualifications.

3. Entering AS level qualifications : You only enter your language support modules
e.g. General Paper, English AS, English Language and Lit, Literature AS, Thinking Skills.

Please note General STUDIES is NOT the same as General Paper!

Personal Statement Page
Enter your personal statement only AFTER is has been checked by your counsellor!
Please note that this is the most crucial part of the application so be prepared to revise your personal statement over and over again! If you choose to put in your personal statement without having it checked by your counsellor that we will take NO responsibility of any mistakes in style, technicality and accuracy of your statement resulting in the rejection of your application.

Once everything is all checked and ready, make the payment using a credit card and then send to referee (MD HEU).

Applications sent to referee will be sent to UCAS 2-3 weeks from date sent to referee. You should receive a Welcome Letter from UCAS 1-2 weeks later.

Your UCAS Application - Things you need to know (Part One)

What is UCAS exactly?

Well to put it simply, it's an application form that enables you to apply to a maximum of 5 universities for the price of 15 pounds sterling. One application form - 5 universities max. As opposed to the system here in Brunei where you have to fill out different forms for each institution.

Those who do not want to use UCAS are those who definitely know which university they want to go to and have no intention at all for any other Universities. In this case, going to an education consultant or agent would definitely suit you. However it is important to keep in mind though, we offer our services for free and we get no profit from your admission to University hence we can ensure you that our advice would be totally unbiased.

So now that you know what exactly is UCAS and want to apply using this service what do you do now?

First, you have to REGISTER WITH HEU - Only!

Registering with us means that we would be able to keep track of your application, write your reference, and give you advice on how to write your personal statement.

In order to register with HEU, make sure that you have prepared the following for you HEU counsellor
- Form A and B (this was done during VISION last year!)
- a draft of your personal statement

We will only give you the BUZZWORD (which is the password you need to register with UCAS under us) once you've done the above.

Once you've obtained the buzzword, you can then log on to http://www.ucas.com/ and click on APPLY.

It is important to note that those who enter MD UCAS database without prior registration with MD HEU shall be deleted from the system so please, come and see your counsellor first!

Useful links to visit

One of the most important sections in the UCAS application form is the PERSONAL STATEMENT section. Here are a few links to help you get started,

- http://www.ucas.com/students/startapplication/apply/personalstatement
Official advice from UCAS

- http://www.studential.com/guide/write_personal_statement.htm
Quite comprehensive and useful, with a section on how to organise your personal statements into manageable paragraphs.

- http://www.ucas.co.uk/ucascard/student5/content/ucasapplication/statement.html
Some do's and don'ts to keep in mind. Excellent advice from the people at UCAS

- http://www.ucas.co.uk/ucascard/student5/content/ucasapplication/statement/example.html
An example of a stduent's personal statement with commentary.

Please bear in mind that your personal statement has to be PERSONAL i.e. YOURS!! This year UCAS have already installed a software to detect plagiarism (stealing other people's ideas and work) so please make sure that your statement is yours and yours alone!

Before you put in your PS in your UCAS application please make sure that you have it checked first by your HEU counsellors. Things to remember,

- Have it TYPED! Maximum 4000 characters.
- Include your Name, AE, Grades, Phone No. at the bottoms so we can track you down.

As you know all the counsellors have teaching responsibilities as well so please be patient and bear with us. Take note of your counsellors duty blocks so you know when we'll be around to serve you! :)

BE/AE 1 - 4 : Pg Hjh Mashayu Pg Hj Yusof (English Dept) BLOCK 1
BE/AE 5 - 8 : Ong Hui Lan (Physics Dept) BLOCK 3
BE/AE 9 - 12: Jenny Toh (Mathematics Dept) BLOCK 2
BE/AE 13-16: Pg Siti Mu'izzah Pg Hj Suhaimi (English Dept) BLOCK 5
BE/AE 17-20: Siti Fatimahwati PD Hj Musa (Biology Dept) BLOCK 3
BE/AE 21-24: Nur Adyani Hj Yusop (English Dept) BLOCK 4

Engineering at Loughborough University

Representatives from Loughborough University, namely Mr Charlie Carter (International Office), Prof Steve Rothberg (Dean, Engineering Faculty) and Dr Andy Stapley (Chemical Engineering) will give a presentation on general study in the UK and at Loughborough University in particular.

Those interested in coming to one of the best universities for Sports Science and Engineering should come check it out...

They will also be available afterwards for individual student counselling.

Date: WEDNESDAY, 6 February 2008
Venue: Sheraton Utama Hotel
Time: 7.30 p.m.

HRD Study in UK Exhibition

Calling all students!

Date: TUESDAY, 5th February
Time: 1pm-6pm
Venue: Empire Hotel and Country Club

Check out the poster outside HEU and this link for more details. Please note though that transport will not be provided so it's best you try to find your own way there. Make sure you prepare what questions you want to ask!

/editted/

Here's the poster that's outside HEU

(source)

Study in UK Education Exhibition (before and after)

Mark your calendars!

Date: Friday, February 8th 2008
Time: 11am - 7pm
Venue: Songket Ballroom, Level 4, Rizqun International Hotel, The Mall, Gadong

There will be several representatives from different universities there so if you have the chance, do come by to visit. What questions to ask and details of participating universities are available on the poster outside HEU!

At the Exhibition

Pg Hjh Mashayu was there to attend the exhibition with our students. Students took the opportunity to enquire with their counsellor on the status of their UCAS application.

With Mdm Cecile Dasal, The British Council Academic Representative

HEU at Admissions Week

Starting on Tuesday 29th January with the last day being on Monday 4th February, all the counsellors at HEU have been hard at work doing admissions consultations at the auditorium for prospective L6th students. This is one of the biggest activities of the college so each department had to work hand in hand in ensuring that everything runs smoothly.


Counsellors at HEU area hard at work doing one-on-one counselling


Our clients waiting to get education consultation and advice



The main job of the HEU during admissions is to help students to explore their options and opportunities for further education and to make sure that the combination of subjects that they intend to pursue would be suitable for higher education. More importantly it was important to establish what they were going to do AFTER leaving Maktab Duli rather than just thinking short term.



For students who did not have any idea what to do, the counsellors helped to find their personality and interests using Holland's personality theory where students were to identify which of these characteristics best described them


source


Click HERE to check out the Career Interests Game. Once you've identify which personality trait you are, click on the headings and explore further types of careers that suits your personality (tip: click on the career profession that interests you to find out more about the job description!)


We also tried to make sure that the students know that pursuing 'A' level is not the only option, as there are other ways to get into further education as can be seen here



Thus it was important to point out that 'A' level was not the only option after 'O'levels. For details of entry requirements for Technical College click here and for Nursing College, here.


We are available from 8.00-12.00pm and 1.30pm-4.30 pm at the AUDITORIUM on Saturday and on Monday (last day of admissions) so please do come by and see us and we'll try to help to the best of our capabilities :)