Down the Memorable Penny Lane & Red Bricks Ashton Building

Down the Memorable Penny Lane & the red bricks Ashton Building

by Dr. Yan-Goh Ng

Before I decided to enroll at the University of Liverpool, it was a very difficult situation. I was already studying at the University of Malaya that started the term 5 months earlier. The last straw was when I found out the campus life at the University of Malaya was very fun but pressurizing. The seniors were everywhere to remind you that as an engineering undergraduate there would be no time for recreation and entertainment. This was confirmed by the large number of rooms in the residential colleges with the lights on even in the wee hours of the morning. The biggest challenge was to survive the knock-out system where a certain percentage of the undergraduates would not gain the grade to advance to the following year.

I had to make a choice amongst the universities I applied for in England. After a number of sleepless nights, I confirmed my place at the University of Liverpool. It was the industrial revolution, the great port city, as well as The Beatles that prompted me to ignore the other offers.

When I arrived at the Lime Street railway station, I was instantly being reminded that this was a historical city that had seen the better part of the world through the industrial revolution and the uncompromising labour unions. I managed to get a taxi to Rathbone Hall and got a room allocated. The interesting thing was that I was to live right across Penny Lane for my first year. The road sign somehow disappeared almost every weekend, for the very fact that the name of the road became famous because The Beatles sang about it. The Hall of Residence was well maintained and provided the home away from home setting for my university studies. It was very comforting that there were Malaysian and Hong Kong seniors and peers staying there as well, and they were almost always at the same dinner table.

On my first day to the University my senior was asking me whether I was going for First Class Honours degree, and without hesitation I confirmed my ambition because I had made the bold move to study away from home. He thought I was over confident or kind of a snob. Deep inside me I knew it was going to be challenging since I had no clue of what it would take to achieve a first class honours degree. However, that was a goal which provided me the motivation to work towards it.

During my first week at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, I was not too sure that was going to be my chosen career. I wondered to the Department of Engineering Science and Industrial Management at the red bricks Ashton Building to enquire if I was allowed to cross over and the head of department accepted my application. Being one of the pioneering students, it was a great learning experience for the department staff as well as the students being the first year of the programme.

My handicap was the communication skill in English although I can read and write pretty well. Being the only non-White, I knew that I had to work very hard on the conversational and communication skills. Since I was studying engineering management, we had to work in teams for various projects and that was good for me to improve my soft skills. I was also busy writing articles for the Malaysian Students’ Society to encourage the fellow country folks to socialize more, so as to become more rounded and balanced people.

I finished the first year as one of the top students in the continuous assessments as well as the examinations. As I gained confidence in the education system, I was able to balance my academic and social life well. After three long years, I managed to achieve the first class honours degree according to my initial goal. To a large extent, working towards the set goals is very important in life, because it allowed us to keep improving ourselves and learn from the mistakes along the way. Looking back I should conclude that the life at the University of Malaya was very examination-oriented and did not allow time for developing the social and soft skills freely. At the University of Liverpool, the lecturers played their part, but to become top students it was necessary to develop the passion for self learning and continuous improvement in order to excel.

The interesting thing was that when the results were published and I was walking along the famous Brownlow Hill, my friend was shouting across the road and asked whether I had failed my final year and staying on to repeat the course. I was proud to inform him the fact that I got my first class honours. The rest they said is history.

The best advice I can give to anyone striving for first class honours is to manage the time well for studies as well as social activities. It is necessary to synchronise mind, heart and soul to achieve optimum performance in life.

    

Dr. Yan-Goh Ng

Dr Yan-Goh Ng

 the unorthodox man whose personal number is 5 and is blessed with eight 5’s at birth 

Networking is one of the most powerful strategies for the 21^st century, and shall be an important part of our life. In the spirit of association and comradeship, it is fulfilling to be in touch with the people we come to know through the common place of education or social economic platforms. It is good to be able to walk down the memory lane, and review what we could have done better given the additional knowledge and wisdom that we have accumulated over the years.

Dr. Yan-Goh Ng graduated from the University of Liverpool with a first class honours B.Eng. in Engineering Science & Industrial Management. He then continued to pursue his Doctor in Philosophy specialising in industrial management at the same university.

During his studies at the University, he was the President of the Malaysian Students’ Society as well as the International Students Club. He was also the Treasurer of the national Council of the Malaysian Students’ Societies in UK and Eire, and was instrumental in turning around the travel agency that was mismanaged by the previous student leaders.

Upon his return to Asia, he was a Master of Engineering lecturer at the National University of Singapore for less than two years. Thereafter, he was motivated to become a technopreneur involving with operations management education and consulting, as well as turnkey systems solutions provider. He was active in the politics for a number of years in Malaysia before opting it out due to the reluctance in adopting a new culture and way of life.

He was the President of a professional society involving with production and inventory control for a number of years. He was also the chief examiner of a professional society in purchasing and materials management for a number of years.

In the course of developing the business for MPICS/DB Business School, he has a number of strategic alliances with leaders in Manufacturing Planning & Control Systems (MPC), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II), Just In Time (JIT), Total Quality Management (TQM), Agility, Theory of Constraints (TOC), supply chain management (SCM). MPICS/DB Business School is the International Associate of APICS in Malaysia. APICS is The Association for Operations Management. MPICS/DB Business shall leverage and collaborate with other institution of higher learning as well as consulting firms to develop a center of excellence for supply chain management.

He is in the course writing two books, The Pathway to Co-prosperity and The Next Wave Enterprise. It is his goal to pursue his post-doctoral thesis if time and resources permit.

With his extensive and diverse exposure, experience and knowledge, he is willing to share with the alumni of University of Liverpool and the society at large.

He can be contacted at yangoh@pc.jaring.my or info@mpics.org via e-mail or +6017 363 8888 through the mobile phone directly. Websites: www.mpics.org  www.db.com.my  Management blog: www.mpicsdb.blogspot.com.

Welcome to the Malaysian Alumni Association of Liverpool

Dear Alumni,

It is a great pleasure to be officially appointed as the Alumni Ambassador for Malaysia of the University of Liverpool. One of the missions is to establish a permanent organisation for the Malaysian alumni to have the platform to network with one another.

Networking is a powerful social acitivity and can be done in many different ways as a result of the rapid advancement in information technology and Internet. Physical face-to-face is a very powerful traditional form of keeping in touch. In view of the massive changes in the social economic landscape, and unprecendented mobility brought about by globalisation, communication in the virtual environment may become a way of life. This blog is set up to enable the basic capabilites to allow alumni to be able to leave notes. express opinions, develp new treads, voice views and opinions, or just simply saying hello to one another.

The initiative to have the permanent alumni association is primarily to enable the past graduates and postgraduates from Liverpool to be able to have a common platform to interact, communicate, share, care and help one another in any issues or life events publicly or privately. This is in line with the spirit of co-prosperity (Dr. Ng is in the process of writing his book on The Pathway to Co-prosperity).

We want to use this platform to publish and inform the alumni of the achievement of each and everyone. This will give each and everyone the opportunity to share with the others their academic background, career achievements, professional accomplishments, charity deeds and other notable awards as well as recognitions.

If you are interested in being part of the working committee or just member, please contact me to get things up and running.

Dr. Yan-Goh Ng,

Ph.D. (Liverpool), B.Eng.(First Class Honours)(Liverpool)

Alumni Ambassador for Malaysia of the University of Liverpool

Management blog: www.mpicsdb.blogspot.com

Business websites: www.db.com.my

                                  www.mpics.org

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