Finally, I’m here to explain what is UPMKB and DKHP. Took me long enough :P
Picture taken during the last Chemistry class of Sem 2 :D This is only like half of our class. We have a total of 52 students!
SPM results are out! It’s time for registering courses! How excitingly frustrating. I’m guessing majority of you would be aiming to land your feet in certain private universities (some of you may have already started), so this blog, would be for the people who’s still giving local universities a chance!
In this blog, I will try my best to explain what the campus life is like, here in UPMKB and maybe give some insiders note to those of you who are really interested to study in any of the courses available here.
One thing I knew when I applied for universities is that I wanted to study something that is related to animals. (Even though I enrolled in A-Levels, my goal was to eventually study animal health) I knew my options were limited and of course, DKHP was one of them. It took me some time and effort to find more information about the course and finally I found some on the internet. UNFORTUNATELY, only a few were helpful. I eventually had to reach out to seniors that I didn’t even know, to learn about the course and roughly get a picture of it.
I know there are people out there, wishing to study about animal health and not knowing if DKHP is worth the try. SO, I’m here to try and explain what I know about the course and hopefully be helpful.
Just a disclaimer, this blog is going to be a VERY long one. :D
Lets begin with DKHP! (Scroll down if you’re only interested in UPMKB and not DKHP)
So the course that I’m taking is Diploma in Animal Health and Production (DKHP), in malay it stands for Diploma Kesihatan Haiwan dan Penternakan. If you have the ambition to become a vet, vet assistant or zoologist (basically the field of animals), this is ONE WAY to do it. But of course, you can still study in other fields even after you complete this diploma. It is not specifically for VET students only.
But do remember, in order to be shortlisted to get a place in DVM (Degree in Veterinary Science), you’ll have to really work hard and be among the top students. Allegedly, you’re required to have a CGPA of at least 3.8 and above to be qualified for the interview. Afterwards, how you perform in the interview will determine if you’re qualified to continue the degree and be a Vet student.
The diploma course takes place in the University Putra Malaysia campus which is situated in Bintulu. Diploma courses offered by UPM are all here in Bintulu and they (UPM) are planning to increase the courses available here. Anyway, the diploma is 3 years long, in which you will have to study for 5 semesters and start your industrial training in the last semester (Sem 6). Before this, DKHP used to have 7 semesters where students are required to study for 3 and a half years. (longest diploma course in UPM) Thanks to the changes, now students only need to be in Bintulu to study for 5 semesters and in the last semester, they can choose a place of their choice to do their industrial training. (LI = Latihan Industri) A lot of my seniors chose to do their internship in Sabah and Sarawak. Some also chose to go back to semenanjung to complete their LI. It’s really up to you. But we will be given a list to choose from and if the place you want to go happens to be on the list, then you better be quick! (They only allow limited students at one location) If not, you’ll have to write letters to the specific companies or locations that you want to go and get the paper works done.
EDIT: I'm updating some information in the year 2022 now. For our internship, we were given the opportunity to choose where we want to undergo it due to Covid-19 restrictions. I am not sure if they will go back to the old system after this or they will maintain the system now though. My classmates and I got to choose where we wanted to go and to contact the places ourselves. I think I will be updating all the details in a separate blog.
Just like any other courses offered in public universities, all students are required to take a few common subjects such as Kenegaraan and Hubungan Etnik. When we enter the second semester (where I am now), we study more about subjects like anatomy and physiology of animals. I’ll insert a picture of our syllabus outline below.
According to the seniors, we will learn more about cows and even milk the cows in sem 3. Other than that, we will rear chickens during Sem 4. Well it may seem like a very fun experience to be able to interact with animals while studying, but there are the cons that you must bear if you decide to enroll here. I’ll explain more in detail later.
As you can see, we only have to take the compulsory subjects in the first semester, so don’t worry too much about having to restudy your Sejarah HAHA
In the future semesters, DKHP students will have more exposure to animals that are available in the Bintulu campus. We have chickens, goats, cows and even deers! The last picture is a rabbit that escaped and my classmates manage to catch it hahaha.
I don't have pictures with the other animals yet :P
Moving on..
You might be wondering what subject is “BUKU HIJAU” on the list. No, you’re not studying a green colour book HAHAHA well, it might be one of your most hated subjects on the list. (or maybe not)
Buku Hijau is a subject where we have once a week but is 3 hours long (on paper). Why do I say on paper? Because the activities we are required to do during that particular time doesn’t have a time set to when you can go back. For my two semesters of buku hijau, our class had fish and agriculture class. For the first semester, we were required to go to the kolam every Friday to learn about the species of the fish, the ways to rear them, take care of them, feed them, maintain the water pH, and so on. For some, it will be a fun experience because you’ll get the chance to go in the pond and measure the water levels, fix the nets and barrels, and etc. For the people like me, HAHA, we kinda did the other stuff that did not require us to get wet. Lol. (eventually you will get wet maybe just a bit) We did work like cleaning the barrels, attaching the nets, weighing the feed and so on. Before that, our whole class had to clean and prep a kolam.
I don't think you can see it clearly, but basically that's the empty kolam and it was full with grass and weeds. We cleared it up manually. I'm not in the pic HAHAHA
The pictures below are taken during our kolam days.
For the second semester, we’re currently required to plant vegetables. Its not the easy put seeds in and wait for them to grow type of planting. You’ll basically be farmers on Friday for the entire semester. We start from scratch. You’ll have to get rid of the weeds, then form your batas, and then the parit, then you’ll prepare your batas according to the requirements of the vegetable given to you. My group was given long beans (Kacang Panjang) so we had to tie strings for the shoots to grow on to and yeah that’s extra work compared to the other groups that had to plant jagung, tomato, sawi or kangkong. They of course, have their challenges as well. The tomato group had to redo their whole thing because the tomato shoots wasn’t doing well and were all starting to wilt. So they decided to change to planting kangkong in the end.
Swipe to see the original plot of land!! Can you even believe that I took part in this??!! HAHAHA sense of accomplishment :))))
I’m not sure how you’re picturing buku hijau at the moment, but it’s a totally different experience if you’ve never really did these kind of stuff hands on.
I think the buku hijau subject is compulsory for all the students in UPM. I heard that it’s a special subject that only UPM has and they’re kinda proud of it. Even if you study in other courses, you will still have to experience this kind of classes and maybe even more if the course requires of you. One of the things to know about this subject is that it can either be a pain in the ass or it can be the most fun experience for you. Truth be told, it is VERY far from the dorms and there are somedays that the bus does not show up and you’ll have to walk there. Usually there will be a bus, just make sure you wake up on time and not miss it. TRUST ME, don’t underestimate the distance. You might need a motor or bicycle if you don’t fancy walking so much.
I can’t really think of anything else to say about DKHP at the moment but I’ll gladly help if any of you have questions about this course. Leave a comment down below, or just message me for a quicker reply! I’ll try my best to help.
Now lets move on to the second part of the blog, which is studying in UPMKB.
Lecturers here are ok but it still depends on which lecturer you’ll get. *obviously* Some of them teach in English and some in Malay. Some prefer to mix both languages during lectures. Butttt truth be told, you can still do well even if you don’t really listen to their lectures HAHAH just make sure you study for your exams and you’re fine. We don’t have textbooks or any reference book that we need to buy and that’s a good thing I suppose. But then there will be times when you don’t understand something, and you only have the lecture slides to save your ass. Refer to the internet if that is the case.
But then again, there will be one or two smarty pants in your class that’ll be able to help you. ( I Suggest that you be the smarty pants that help others HAHA) The test and exams are also quite ok and easy compared to others like STPM and Matriculation. I’d like to believe the diploma level is more laid back and chill comparing to them because they’re grinding 24/7. Well, you’ll still have to grind hard to excel in your studies and to be able to have a great time, the good thing is, if you study in a diploma course, you’ll most probably get more hands on experience than the people studying in matriculation and STPM. If you are the type to sit in your room and just read books and do notes, Diploma courses in UPM might not be the choice for you.
Dorm life here is extremely active and a lot of the students will join the activities in hopes to collect enough merits to stay in the dorms for future semesters. We basically have activities for every celebration and it’s like some sort of competition between the blocks. They’ll have different activities where you can participate in and then compete with other participants from other blocks. A few examples of the activities are musical theatre, creating awareness posters, singing competitions and even marching (kawad kaki) for some events. The people here take their training seriously and will basically train until they get it done right. (my Blok trains until 1 or 2 am in the morning, no joke) I don’t have much to say about this part because everyone has different opinions on matters like this. If you’re the type to be actively involved in these kinds of activities and enjoy the time spent bonding with other students, then you may enjoy this part very much. But do bear in mind that you must gather at least 56 merits per semester to be able to continue to stay in the dorms. If you have less than that, you can apply for rayuan and mayb they’ll still accept you. You're good for the first year (2 sems) because they’ll let you stay even if you don’t have merits. But from the 3rd sem onwards, you’ll have to gather the merits.
There are a lot rumors going around that the system for the merits will be changing because the courses here will be increased. So, I’m not sure if everything that I’m describing will remain the same. EDIT: There has been some changes in the dorm situation! Now they have so called "gold rooms' that you can rent where no merits will be required :) So, for introverted people or just generally people that are lazy to gather merits (like me), you can opt for this option instead!
One thing you should know is, you’ll do a lot of walking here in UPMKB. It’s not the walk to your neighbors’ house kind of walk. To me, it is quite a distance and my friends, and I complain about how tiring it is every day. Imagine semi climbing a hill to go to class. Sometimes, when one of us forgets something in the dorms, we rather leave it (if it’s not too important) because its way to tiring to turn back HAHAHA. It might not be a difficult walk if it was just a straight road, but there are slight slopes to climb and its tiring if you don’t like it at all. But I guess you’ll get used to it sooner or later. Why can’t I ride a bike or a motorcycle you ask? Yes, you can own a certain type of transportation, but you can only have a bicycle during sem 1. You are only allowed to own a motorcycle in sem 2 and you’ll have to register it at the college office. UNLESS you use a senior’s name to register it during sem 1. (hacks HAHAHA) For car wise, if I’m not mistaken, you can only register for a car during sem5 (unless you move out of the dorms, then you can own a car. Obviously)
OH, almost forgot, the food here. WELL, this is a very hard topic because personally, I absolutely hate the food here HAHAHA (I’m a picky eater so ya) The canteen food here is basically the same EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR 365 DAYS IN A YEAR. Not even kidding. Hopefully by the time you start studying here, you’ll see some improvements. Their food is basically fried chicken, fried nuggets, thick soy sauce chicken sometimes vegetables, curry chicken, dry fish, and hot dogs. There is a stall that kinda cook by order and they have dishes like tomyam fried rice, egg fried rice, fried mee, and probably mee soup. (not very appetizing for me) You’ll sometimes see cow’s heart, chicken heart and even chicken butt. But! what’s good about the canteen is that the prices are definitely cheaper than eating out. It depends if you like the food anyway. For me, not much. Thankfully, grab food and food panda services have recently expanded to Bintulu and THANK GOD I have outside food to save me HAHAHA. There’s the usual KFC, McD, Pizza hut, and some other local stores as well.
Dorm life is basically the same as other local universities I think. You can read my other blog to get more details about the dorms here.
That’s about everything I can think of about DKHP and UPMKB at the moment. Feel free to ask me any questions you have about DKHP! I know I might have missed out some information in the blog.
Who knows? I might write another DKHP blog in the future as I go through more semesters and have more information about it. (if I’m not too lazy)
Do check out my other blogs if you haven't seen them!
That’s all for this blog, see you in the next! Ciao! :)
You can contact me through my instagram DMs @_jw.mel or email me at hau.melissa@yahoo.com
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