Skip Your Bachelor’s and Do Your Master’s
If you have a diploma, you must obtain a bachelor’s degree first and then only can you do your master’s, right? Wrong! It is possible to skip bachelor’s studies entirely.
How is this possible? The answer lies in your working experience.
As you may know, there are two kinds of knowledge – book smarts and street smarts. Book smart people gain knowledge from other people’s experiences, documented in books, lectures, courses, and so forth. Street smart people gain knowledge from their own experiences.
If you are a diploma holder with plenty of working experience (a.k.a. street smarts), there will be concepts that students typically learn in a master’s programme that you may have already experienced in your career. You just might not be aware of them as theories taught in class.
Having seen those concepts in action gives you great value. Without undertaking bachelor’s studies, you might already know as much or more than a bachelor’s degree holder. If you have experience in a field, be it business, finance, sales or education, those years are valuable and can be acknowledged in a university application. It doesn’t matter whether you are or were working for others or self-employed.
You might be interested to know that OUM accepts diploma holders into master’s programmes through the APEL.A pathway. APEL.A, which stands for Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (Access), focuses on enabling university admission for working adults who do not fulfil conventional requirements.
Intrigued but unsure you qualify? Check out the criteria for APEL.A:
- Malaysian citizen
- Be at least 30 years old
- Possess a diploma recognised by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA)
- Possess relevant working experience
Is the APEL.A process to enrol in a master’s programme difficult? Let’s look at the steps:
- Apply online at oum.edu.my
(The MQA advises candidates to apply 3 months ahead of the last day for their chosen programme.)
- Register for APEL.A assessment at mqa.gov.my/apel_a
- Fill in the details required through a link provided by e-mail.
- Settle the required payment and submit the payment slip for confirmation.
- Sit for an aptitude test.
- Prepare and submit a portfolio.
- Undergo a 30-minute structured interview.
- Once successful, you’ll be registered and can make a first-time login within 3 days.
That’s not as difficult as undertaking bachelor’s degree studies for 4 years, is it?
But as one Malaysian diva might say: Why bother?
Well, by obtaining a master’s degree, you can look forward to a much higher income potential. A bigger salary means better quality of life and certainly more cash to spend on what truly matters to you. Plus, if you have a master’s degree, employers are more likely to look upon you favourably. They might think you:
- are a low-risk, high-yield employee;
- have proven your professional capability;
- have all the skills needed to provide positive results for their company;
- are a reliable employee who doesn’t need further capacity building; and
- can be placed in a higher position.
Now, wouldn’t that be nice?
