I joined the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia on 1 July 2018 with excitement and open mind. It is still the long vacation before the start of the academic year in September. This is not the first time that I teach in a Bachelor level curriculum, but a first for me teaching in Malaysia. I have relatives in this country and have visited it many times, but it is different to working in a new country, let alone shaping minds of the youth of the nation. I was a tutor before for the Geographic Information Systems subject at the University of Melbourne in 2001, and the Ecological Planning subject for the Master of Science (Environmental Management) course at the National University of Singapore in 2012 and 2013. I also taught and manage several subjects for the Diploma in Landscape Architecture at the Singapore Polytechnic between 2007 and 2009.

Soon after joining, the Director of the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) programme, Dr Sapura, asked me if I would like to join the Curriculum Review Task Force. I gladly said yes since this will be a great opportunity to manage the curriculum of a Bachelor degree course in landscape architecture. The University opens the door for the various programmes to review their curriculum every five years. I joined the University just in time for such a review. I felt honoured to be asked so fast, because this would mean that I will have a hand in reviewing and re-crafting the whole curriculum for the BLA programme. True enough, I coordinated and edited the Course Information for all the subjects of this programme for the past week, once the lecturers had given me the draft. I felt needed and trusted to being given such a big task.

The University has directed the faculties to increase the credits of general subjects taken by the students, which means that the profession related subjects needs to be consolidated or merged such that the total credits remain about the same. This took several discussions with all the lecturers for the BLA programme. I learnt a lot from this process in terms of what to keep and what to merge. It is tricky because the programme is accredited with the Institute of Landscape Architecture Malaysia (ILAM), hence core subjects need to be maintained to ensure that the programme is relevant to the industry and profession, yet broad enough to ensure that the students get a holistic education through general subjects.

I attended the meeting and presentation to the University Curriculum Committee today to support my colleague who presented the curriculum review. The presentation went well and we have to prepare the presentation to the Senate next.