Friends in Bristol

There is this Chinese saying says that : Count on your parents when you are at home , rely on your friends when you are out. I totally agree with this.

 

The immediate thing I did after receiving the news was to browse around Bristol City and the University web pages. I found that there is a uni -representative office in KL. So I contacted this lady named Phenix (cool name) for general enquiries etc.

 

Phenix is very helpful in many ways: she helps in applying visa, chasing letter of offer from the uni and most of all she gave me some contacts who are Malaysian and studying in Bristol.

 

I got hold of this gentleman who is a director of National Sport Council - NSC Malaysia, Mr Pahlawi. He is pursuing his MA in Sport Science under the government sponsorship. He brought his family with him, 7 kids with 1 wife (He is allowed to have 4 wives :-P).

 

We managed to meet in his office, Bukit Jalil Selangor as he happened to come back to see his mum. It was timely as I need first hand information from someone who stay in Bristol now.

 

Mr Pahlawi was kind and generous to help. He gave me a lot of advices like what NOT to buy now and things to prepare before departure. He also gave me the Bristol-Malaysian yahoo group, so that I will be 'welcomed' into the community - story about this in later post.

 

Mr Pahlawi also shared that it is quite a standard arrangement for NSC to sent its staff to further their studies overseas - so 2008 was his turn and he is due completing his study in Oct 2009. Many of his colleagues are now in US etc. 

 

He said he 'envied' me because I got a scholarship for a 4-years study.To be honest, I was 'angry' because why WE are not given the chance so 'automatically' !!!

 

This meeting made me appreciating God's blessing even more... really.

 

 

 

 

 

Chat with my boss - 16 Feb

The next thing I was thinking is to inform my current company about this opportunity. Eileen my close friend cum colleague is the first one to know about this. She was so happy for me and giving me so many support in my decision.

I told my boss about this news and surprisedly she took it so well. I actually didn't think that she would be nice - though :-P

I told her this well in advance because I wanted to be fair to her as we were discussing my 2009 KPI and new assignments. I wouldn't want her to assign me something real important and I can't follow through the whole project.

At the other hand, I do not want to cut the tie with the company and hopefully they still can continue my service when I come to Uk as a student.

This meeting ended with positive note but then......

Friends that we must thank

When we knew that the interview was arranged, we have thought of informing our close friends - and they are the first ones we wanted to seek prayer support and feedback.

It is really important to have friends to support us at that point of time. Ann and I were not so comfortable to share with friends in KL, partly I had experienced some 'sour grape' responses and anyway it was just an interview, nothing is confirmed as yet.

However, we trust God hears theirs and our prayer and we want to know some decision is not mainly our 'wishful' thinking, someone can filter us a bit in the decision making process.

So, thank you pals and we really appreciate you have been standing with us and journey with us.

We love you all :-)

Reply from Bristol Business School

Here is the reply of the interview from the panel, dated 10 Feb 2009:

Yesterday, we interviewed Edward Tew over Skype. We found him to be lively and engaging with a strong commitment to research in accounting education. We believe that he would make a suitable PhD candidate and would like you to offer him a BBS bursary with a start date of 1st September 2009. Ursula would be his director of studies. The selection of second supervisor is undecided at the moment.

We do have a few concerns that need to be communicated to Edward:
1. Edward's PhD proposal is too broad and needs substantial revision in terms of its focus. We will need to work with him in the first year to establish a clear plan. This is not uncommon with PhD applicants, but Edward needs to realise that his plans will need to be narrowed down.
2. We cannot guarantee any hourly paid lecturing work. This has two effects. Firstly, he will not be able to engage in a 'action research' project where substantial changes are made to modules to assess different educational strategies. However, we can support Edward in any reasonable request that he might make to a module leader to have access to students/data. Secondly, Edward needs to ensure that he has sufficient means to survive here in Bristol. Please can you send him some guidance on likely living expenses in Bristol?
3. Edward has no English qualification. We think that UWE requires an IELTS certificate. However, Edward has a masters degree from Sheffield Hallam and has previously lived in the UK and teaches in English. We are satisfied with the standard of his English. Can you decide whether Edward needs a certificate?

We said that we would respond to him by the end of this week.
Regards,
Ursula, Phaik and Dave

What tickled me and Ann is the description of me being lively and engaging :-)

Do you know who I learn from - here is the guy I always like seeing his keynote presentation. I already imagine being like him when I do my proposal presentation




Ummm I must think it again and dear always says I am a wood at home

Skype Interview

So now the interview panel want to do a video-tele conference with me. It was 2009 in mid Jan I remembered I needed to fly down to UK office a few days later.

Fiona was helpful and gave me clues what would the panel normally ask - so homework for me again.

I think I used about a day time to do a research for the skills required in the accounting students and practitioners. To get more higher chance to get the deal, I read the panel's research papers. They were Prof David Bench, Prof Ursula (my main supervisor) and Dr Phaik Tan (second supervisor).

The university not only wanted to hear my voice and they wanted to see my face as well :-) I think they just want to see me how to handle the questions real time so that I can't hide anything from them.

So a skype-interview was organised and I have all my homework and paper/sticky notes all over on my monitor and wall. Of course, they won't see that but i guess they knew because I kept looking at the notes to answer their questions.

Fair enough, I have predicted what they were going to ask me and i have them all prepared. So the session has no dead silence and I can answered them pretty good. I purposely quoted some of their research papers and works to show that I did do some homework and ground work for this interview.

I guess they were pleased :-)

So, another waiting time... for the final YES from them.

Hey I saw this ad !!

Let's roll back in mid 2008 - I happened to be too free and I surfed my usual site to look for studentship and I spooted this ad by Bristol Business School. It was also mainly because of my PhD study with Sheffield University was going nowhere at that point of time, mainly due to my lack of discipline and also time management back in Malaysia.

Also, my current employer has a strong link with Bristol Business School so I was tempted to have a look :-) Plus, It was quite a good deal as this covers living allowance also.

Well, the research area was just my cup of tea : Accounting Education & Management Accounting. So I told Ann I want to apply for it. I still remembered it was quite a last minute thing for me. I quickly looked into what I did with Sheffield University and adapted the version to UK context and boldly i sent in the application form.

Then I was busy with my job flying around - months passed until at the end of 2008. I was again prompted to contact the university to find out the result. To my surprise, Fiona Watt, the Research Manager informed that I was shortlisted and I am the only one that being selected for interview as they just want to sponsor for one position. In the conversation, she suggested that I will be likely get the sponsorship looking at the paper I have submitted to them -

I immediately jumped for joy and can't believe myself that i have beaten down so many applicants, again :-)

Our God is always full of surprises

Apples grows in Bristol

This blog is recording Tew family in the City of Bristol, UK.

We know we thank God for every minute in this city

May the Apple Tree grows stronger and healthier in Bristol.