Professor Voon Phin Keong

Dean's Message

New Era University College enters into a new phase of development as it introduces new academic programmes to meet the demands and expectations of students. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is made up of the Departments of Chinese Language and Literature, Education, Guidance & Counselling Psychology, and English. It is making available a series of courses ranging from the Foundation and Diploma courses to the Bachelor degree right up to the Masters and Doctorates.

The Department of Chinese Language and Literature is a key department with the mandate to continue and build up a prestigious centre for the study of the Chinese classics, language and literature, Chinese culture as well as the study of the Chinese community in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. These programmes cover a wide range of courses to provide a solid grounding in theoretical and practical training in Chinese language and literature in the classical and contemporary contexts to produce graduates who shall be capable and competent to serve the needs of all levels of education, mass media, literary work, and industry at large. The Department is fast evolving into an institution offering one of the best and complete undergraduate programmes in Chinese Studies in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

In the area of educational studies, the Department of Education has established a niche for itself in higher education in Malaysia. The Department offers diploma and Bachelor degree programmes in Early Childhood Education and the Teaching of Chinese as a Second Language to service the expanding market in International Schools, Chinese language educational institutions, early childhood education centres among others. The Department is also a major provider of teacher training to those intending to serve Chinese high schools, colleges and the universities.

The Department of Guidance & Counselling offers an Executive Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and the Bachelor degree in Counselling & Psychology. The degree course runs for four years, of which the final year is devoted to internship and practical training. The Department also conducts external MA courses with Changhua and Shu De universities of Taiwan in Guidance & Counselling and in Human Sexuality respectively.

The Faculty runs a “Foundation in Chinese” programme to prepare students for direct entry into the Bachelor programmes in all the Departments. These Bachelor programmes were launched in 2017 and the first batch of graduates will attend their convocation as early as 2019. At the same time, post-graduate programmes for the MA and PhD in Chinese Studies will be launched in 2018, with similar programmes in Education as well as Guidance & Psychology to follow shortly. All instructions are planned and structured meticulously according to the requirements of the Malaysian Quality Agency (MQA). The teaching and research activities of the Faculty are generously supported by one of the richest library resources among private institutions of higher learning in the country.

The Faculty members are a team of dynamic and highly qualified scholars with Masters and Doctorates from local and overseas universities including Universiti Malaya and Universiti Putra Malaysia in Malaysia; Central China Normal, Peking, Xiamen in China; National Taiwan and Changhua in Taiwan; Edith Cowan in Australia; Wellington Victoria in New Zealand; and Missouri in the United States. Several staff in Guidance & Counselling are certified professional practitioners in Counselling.

All students will receive the guidance and counsel of Faculty members who will become their friends and mentors. The Faculty also arranges a rich array of academic and cultural events on an annual basis to broaden the perspectives of its students. Major events include the Chinese literary week, lectures by invited speakers, seminars and international conferences, visits and excursions to selected cultural sites and places of interest.

We welcome students from Malaysia and overseas to seize the opportunities for scholarships, subsidies as well as PTPTN and other loans to complete their higher studies in New Era University College. Non-Chinese students are similarly eligible for scholarships or other forms of financial assistance.