By Hazimin Sulaiman and Ihsan Mohd. Trudin

Strolling through the lush greenery of Technology Park Malaysia (TPM), one would notice the abundance of international and local students going about from the eateries to classes and engaged in activities throughout the year. Before there was APIIT and now landing TPM more academic prestige is TPM College, a subsidiary of TPM itself.

With its vision and mission to become an effective catalyst for innovation and growth in a knowledge-driven Malaysian economy and to promote the development of creative and innovative human capital with the capacity to harness knowledge for technology development, TPM College is poised to make its mark internationally.

Technology Park Malaysia is one of the world's most advanced and comprehensive centres for research and development in knowledge-based industries – leveraging on its access to almost 150 companies located in the park. The range of activities for these companies range from biotechnology, information technology, communications, cyber-security, pharmaceuticals, engineering, manufacturing, research and development and many more. All this access comes off to TPM College’s advantage as it sets a backdrop for better industrial or practical training for its students.

The main idea for TPM College is to support the Malaysian government's move towards increasing the number of qualified and professional technopreneurs in the country. TPM College is committed to be in tune with the country's growth and development in advanced technology. For example, TPM College is focusing on biotechnology-related programmes to support the government in its effort to create jobs in this industry. The college has maintained an edge as the premier choice for biotechnology and engineering programs.

Currently there are four schools at TPM College. These are the school of Life Sciences, School of Engineering, School of Business Administration and School of Languages and Communication.

TPM College offers diploma programmes, including twinning degree programmes (2+2 and 4+0) with universities in the United States such as the prestigious California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) where the first batch of 28 students have just graduated in June, 2008 (see our Events@TPM section for more).

According to TPM Corporation chairman, Raja Datuk Zaharaton Raja Zainal, currently the college has 500 students at the TPM, Bukit Jalil campus, which 250 are undergoing twinning degree programs in biotechnology, mechanical engineering and business administration.

“The twinning degree programs have fast expanded in terms of enrolments and also contributed to the formation of in-house diploma programs within the same fields. At the moment the total of TPM College students studying at Cal Poly is about 100 students, a sizeable number for foreign student populations in any university. We sincerely hope through our collaboration with Cal Poly, we can open a new chapter in terms of giving options for our students to transfer to other California State Universities,” said Raja Datuk Zaharaton.

TPM College caters to the various needs of students aspiring to obtain quality education. The curricula are designed to equip students with hands-on experience in their respective fields and also to expose them to various disciplines within the respective fields.

HOW DIFFERENT IS TPM COLLEGE?

Biotechnology is the most popular course for TPM College. A majority of students choose this course as their major studies. These students have definitely made the right choice: TPM College’s laboratories come fully equipped with sophisticated instruments and machines for student research and experiments.

There are three main laboratories in TPM College. The first lab has hi-tech equipment for molecular biology. The second lab is for tissue culture where students can prepare various types of mediums for their experiments. It also comes complete with a growth chamber. The third lab for analytical bio-chemistry, will allow students to learn the different types of compounds through four types of equipment: Gas Chromatography (GC), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Ultra Violet-Visible Spectrophotometer (UVVIS) and Orbital Shaker.

The first class facilities in TPM College are powerful tools to aid biotechnology students to get a better grasp on the subject. This helps cultivate research professionalism once they leave college.

“The main reason why I fell in love with TPM College is the facilities in TPM College. It gives us a lot of advantages especially for our course, diploma in biotech. There are three huge labs for us to do our biotech experiments freely,” says Syed Eswandi Syed Nor Azmi, 23, third year, biotech diploma student.

Mohamad Shahrul Anwar, 22, second year bachelor of engineering student says that “what I like about TPM College, is the collaboration twinning program with California State Polytechnic University. This gives me the golden opportunity to broaden my studies in the United States of America. Furthermore I will get the opportunity to do my internship there and study the American working culture.”

For Mohamad Muzahid Talib, 21, second year student for diploma in Computer Numerical Control (CNC): “My program course is more related to engineering software. The reason that I like this program is because all of my CNC lectures are very dedicated to teach us. The majority of TPM lecturers have solid teaching backgrounds and have master degrees.”