I often receive questions on the scope of works for academicians, especially from friends. Recently, I found a pie chart that summarises the academician scope of works :D. It is for New Zealand higher institutions, but it is quite similar with us in Malaysia.
In UTM, the scope of works is known as 7P:
1) Pengajaran (Teaching): undergraduate and postgraduate courses including final project supervision
2) Penyelidikan (Research): research grant (local, international, industry)
3) Penerbitan/Penulisan (Publications): journal publications, book chapters, original books, etc.
4) Penyeliaan (Supervision): postgraduate supervision
5) Perundingan (Consultancy): consultation works & industrial collaborations.
6) Perkhidmatan kepada masyarakat (Services): community services, services to faculty/UTM
7) Perkomersialan (Commercialization): IP, copyright, patent.
All these 7P is interconnected. Each one has its own challenges. The amount of document preparation is quite a lot. Taking the teaching aspect as an example, I do take “out of office” time to do other tasks such as marking an assignment/test, reading and discussing the subject matter, slide preparation to make the lecture lively & easy to follow, and many more. Well-developed content & well-prepared lectures require good effort from lecturers. At the end of the semester, we need to prepare and compile all the teaching-related documents in the course file of subjects.
We do lots of document preparation and submission for research grant applications, publications, and consultation proposals. Rejection is also part of the process 😀 and part of academic life. Just imagine, after spending a massive amount of effort in manuscript preparation, the next day I received the rejection. Perghhh…pedih dalam hati!!! Cuba lagi ya! :D. A similar situation in the grant application. I value rejection as feedback for future improvement (provided it comes with a review or reason for the rejection).
My stance: improve it! Never give up! Just do it! Slow but steady.
Itu sajalah untuk kali ini. Next time tulis lagi 😀
