Challenges in pursuing Master degree (Cabaran sambung belajar Master) | Master Journey #19

Assalamualaikum

I have completed this journey..or maybe not. Not until I get onto that stage and receive my scroll with a genuine smile painted on my face ⁽ⁿᵒ ᵍʳᵉᵉⁿ ˢᶜʳᵉᵉⁿ⁾. 

Throwback, I remember a couple of people who approach me with a presumption on postgraduate life. I was also bombarded with the question - "buat Master susah tak? (Is it hard doing Master?)". 

What is your thought on Master and PhD life from the muggle perspective?

I have successfully completed my Master degree in Malaysia doing full-time research for two and a half year. So, let me tell you some of the difficulties and challenges that my friends and I have experienced to complete our studies in a short and simple post (lies).

This will be a lengthy post. You have been warned.

Challenges

Fɪɴᴀɴᴄɪᴀʟ ᴘʀᴏʙʟᴇᴍ

Money, money, money. The fundamental requirement to pursue our studies is to secure fundings, both for our living expenses and research project. 

First is the fund for living cost. Student can be sponsored, acquired student loan or survive with self-finance. We were fortunate to obtain sponsorship from our University. The tuition fee was waived for RM700 (that is half the price of my tuition fee) and we got allowance up to RM 1 300 per month. 

Of course, it was a give and take. The university provides allowance and tuition "discount", while my friends and I have to be in the university during office hour, teach 4 hours a week in the lab session and finish our study within 2 years.

However, the monthly allowance does not cover all the expenses especially when you are studying in one of the country top research universities located in an urban city. Malaysian students spend around RM300 - RM600 per month just for daily needs, excluding other expenses such as stationeries, accommodation, entertainment, transportation, cosmetic products and medical bills. 

I even attended the MyBrain15 interview in hope to cover my tuition fee.....the programme got demolished after General Election 14. Luckily, I was able to stay at my brother's house. Just 50 km drive, back and forth everyday, Alhamdulillah, no toll and heavy traffic. I managed to save half of my allowances on food and accommodation to pay for my tuitions fees. There are others who took a part-time job, because they are not fully sponsored, for additional supports. Beware, choose a part-time job that does not hinder your research schedule.

The second one is research funding. Most of us started with a secured grant project. It is indeed merit and a boost to start our research. However, we were on a tight budget to buy laboratories supplies. We recycled consumables that can be recycled. Chlorox is a must item for my microbiology work. Once, I bought bunsen burner gases from Lazada with my own money because of supplies shortage and late supplier delivery. Luckily, we can make a claim.

What happens when we ran out of money? Either we apply for a new research grant or terminate our research project (assuming our research data is sufficient for us to graduate).

Iɴᴅɪᴠɪᴅᴜᴀʟ ᴘʀᴏʙʟᴇᴍ

Self-discipline, mental well-being, self-motivation, and attitude. These are some of the inner conflicts students have to struggle personally. It's pretty much what postgraduate students have to maintain and endure every day. 

We have our own stories, experiencing pressures. Laboratory work frenzy, meeting deadlines, crazy workloads, repetitive daily routines, mistreatment, teaching sessions, discouraging experimental results, corrupted laptop or data lost, guiding final year undergraduate students, writing manuscripts for Journal, rejection for publications etc. 

People have told you and now I am telling this again. Undergraduate research and studies are not similar to Postgraduate research. The former life is where you are nourished with basic knowledge, where the latter one is where you polish and implement this knowledge with the touch of independency.

Postgraduate life requires us to be independent and self-driven with the close supervision of our supervisors. They did not give a "what-to-do" list for us to complete our tasks. At the same time, we have to balance life as a student, with family and friends. My friend has to support her single mother and her siblings using her scholarship money, simultaneously, has to take an extra job to support her extended research. Alhamdulillah, she managed to graduate with me this year. 

Our personal life could take a toll on our postgraduate life and vice versa. I have to highlight the importance of mental health and the overall psychological well-being of students. Honestly, postgraduate life can create a stressful environment. According to Nature, 45% of PhD students worldwide who experienced anxiety and stress had sought help.  What happened to the rest of 55%?

 

At one point in our studies, we have those tear shedding moments. The loneliest time felt so loud that I had to stop and take a different road. I feel demotivated and decided to entangle myself with my favourite hobbies. It went on for a month before I rediscover my motivation to continue. Because I am a very introvert person, I opt to be self-motivated or reach out to my closest friend for a getaway.

Sᴜᴘᴇʀᴠɪsᴏʀ

Relationship with a supervisor is built upon mutualism. A student can develop a healthy start with the supervisor but a few mishaps can make this relationship rather complicated. Conflict may arise along the way such as disagreement, misunderstanding or dislike. 

Supervisor wants a student who is committed with their studies, vice versa, a student also need a supervisor who can guide them. Both parties have expectations at their sides. But not all relationship bound to be perfect. Sometimes we don't agree with our supervisor comment or suggestions. The best way is to talk the way through and justify. Unless one party is stubborn, close-minded and inconsiderate.  

I will address the student-supervisor issue based on the student point of view (POV) because the supervisor also having trouble handling problematic postgraduate student. I have read a few cases of toxic supervisors and I am very grateful mine is nothing near it. Some Malaysian lecturers are friendly, supportive and humble, as what International students perceived.

Again, my supervisor is not perfect, so was I. We had a rough start during my SV sabbatical leave. I faced conflict and stuck in the discord between my SV and the faculty staffs.  I was not accustomed to working as a researcher and with the University protocols, so I had to learn it in a bitter way. I feared that I have built a bad reputation for myself. I was an amateur researcher but that experience taught me a good deal.

Alhamdulillah, I manage to survive afterwards with the help of my co-supervisor and my colleague support. We don't want to end that in a bad note. The worst outcome was to find a new supervisor. 

Few of my supervisor strengths are the ability to provide positive feedback and praises where needed, make sure I have a stable financial life, always conduct meeting monthly, always ask for weekly progress and help to expand my research network. Some of the shortcomings were very late replies and feedbacks, poor review competency and not an expert in a research area. These limitations were covered up by my co-supervisor participation.

Just remember, supervisor job is not to cater to your need 24/7. It is a required trait for Postgraduate student to be very independent. 90% of our life revolves around our postgraduate research, but it could only be 5% or less of our supervisor's concern. The point is, the supervisor has other priority needs to be focused on such as supervising his/her other postgraduate and undergraduate students, marking exam paper and assignments, planning and attending lectures,  family matters and etc. 

Therefore, we plan and present our research planning and framework, we ran our apparatus and machine ⁽ʷᶦᵗʰ ᵗʰᵉ ʰᵉˡᵖ ᵒᶠ ᵗᵉᶜʰⁿᶦᶜᶦᵃⁿ ˢᵗᵃᶠᶠ⁾, we have to directly deal with the suppliers and start writing our own thesis. The supervisor helps to share knowledge, assist in research development, provide network, provide mental support and give comment and positive feedback to improve our research quality.

  

Rᴇsᴇᴀʀᴄʜ ᴍᴇᴛʜᴏᴅᴏʟᴏɢʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴀᴛᴀ ᴄᴏʟʟᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ

Personally, I struggle this a lot in the beginning. Experimenting requires a lot of patience and preservations. Collectively, we all suffer from negative results almost all the time. Sometimes, we obtained unreliable and inconsistent data. Even after countless repetitions, we still observe the same negative results. You felt like it is the time to "flip the table".

When we experienced faulty results, we have to to do troubleshooting. Detect the possible sources of error. If the results remain unchanged, we have to look for an alternate way to achieve our objectives. Worse, we have to change the course of our research methodology. We do witness our colleagues who had to spend months in the laboratory, failing in data acquisition.

This led to a race against time. It can be frustrating. We have to work within the proposed time frame to achieve status GoT (Graduate on time). Sponsored students are tied to a contract, required us to complete our Master studies in 2 years time. We have to provide a reason for incompletion within the stipulated time and could face "penalty" from the sponsors.

The worst-case scenario for fail experimentation is to scratch everything, all your efforts for months to a year go down the drain and you have to go back to square one. Create a new research project from the bottom.

Aᴄᴀᴅᴇᴍɪᴄ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ

According to a study by UiTM, the writing process was the most gruelling part. Difficulties arise when the student can't relay their message through writing, restructuring sentences to avoid plagiarism, create an argument, or the lack of writing skills as a whole.

English is not the Malaysia national language. We speak Bahasa in everyday life with the influence of dialects at every corner of land. We do receive reviewer feedbacks such as our English writing sounds 'Malay'. I even was told to send my research article for proofreading when I already did! I used Grammarly, my English teacher who tells me never to forget to put the article "A"/"The" before nouns or scold me when I switched up American or British spelling. 

We just stuck on our chair and locked up in our room a whole day and the outcomes could be little.  No, we are not watching drama, anime or play video games whatsoever all the time. The writing process requires critical thinking ability. Writing a sentence or luckily, a paragraph a day, are considered an achievement!

Writing a thesis is always the favourite part of my study. That doesn't mean I glide my way through it. It was not a walk in the park without experiencing thunderstorm. Sometimes it just hours of staring contest between me and the laptop screen. It was tiring, but I enjoy my way through that hardship.

Postgraduate life often relates to self-isolation. They are a time we "disconnected" with the outside world. I remember Dr. Nik Salida PhD experience as told in her book, how her child despised her study desk because it took away her time with them. I don't deny, I even got salty comments from my family members because most of my writing period was occupied in my room. However, I always remind myself to make time for my niece and nephew ⁽ʳᵉᵐᵉᵐᵇᵉʳ ᵍᵘʸˢ, ᴵ ˡᶦᵛᵉ ʷᶦᵗʰ ᵐʸ ᵇʳᵒᵗʰᵉʳ'ˢ ᶠᵃᵐᶦˡʸ⁾ and take meal on time.

Solution

These are some of the challenges experienced by my friends and I, not to be generalized to all postgraduate students. Though, it still happens commonly in this community. Not meant to scare off future students but as a preparation of what may come. Prepare yourself and if you are in a slump, seeks help from friends, family, colleague or from professionals.

The University offers help, support and guidance to reduce students burden, by giving financial to mental and emotional support. University or NGO organizes seminar and workshop every month to assist the student in writing skills, polishing inter- and intrapersonal skills as well as managing self problems.

The next attempt might not be perfect, but the second is better than the first, and the third is even better than the second. And that is the moment I decide, ‘I’m glad I chose not to give up.’