Fruitful collaboration

HELP University and the University of Waterloo (UW) in Canada have enjoyed a fruitful collaboration where students are offered the opportunity to complete either one or two years of their studies at the American Degree Programme (ADP) in HELP before transferring to the University of Waterloo’s co-operative (co-op) programme to complete their degree in Actuarial Science.
While the co-op programme takes a year longer to complete than its regular programme – for a total of four years and eight months – students gain up to two years of valuable work experience in the field of actuarial science, which guarantees them better job prospects.
The University of Waterloo is a public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario. The university is most famous for its cooperative education programme, which allows students to integrate their education with applicable work experiences. They also operate the largest post-secondary co-op programme of its kind in the world.
The University of Waterloo ranked 152nd in the 2015–2016 QS World University Rankings and 179th in the 2015–2016 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
Waterloo’s (co-op) education programme allows students to earn academic credits for their work employment while studying, with a good salary and therefore it remains an attractive option for HELP ADP students.
Its Mathematics faculty is one of the largest in the world and highly regarded for its lecturers and professors who nurture strong and talented mathematicians in the field of actuarial science.
Prof Mike Eden, a lecturer from the Faculty of Mathematics and an associate director at the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Waterloo together with Amelia Burton, the Undergraduate Recruitment & Admissions officer from UW, recently paid a visit to the ADP department at HELP University.
Eden’s main purpose was to conduct a Mathematics Workshop for HELP University’s ADP students, whereas Burton’s purpose was to help facilitate several ADP student transfers to the University of Waterloo.
Burton’s main role is to recruit international students and conduct counselling sessions for international students, while promoting the University of Waterloo.
In addition to teaching first-year calculus and algebra courses at UW, Eden is actively involved in creating high school mathematics competitions, as well as conducting outreach to schools like HELP University and heading workshops for students around the world through publications and contests.
The university also has more certified actuaries that are actually changing policies and regulating the textbooks that are used to teach students, not just at Waterloo but around the world. “Our actuaries,” said Burton, “were also asked to participate in other programmes around the world, like in Indonesia where they have been asked by the Indonesian government to help create more actuaries.”
The co-op programme, as mentioned by Eden, is one of the main draws for international students studying at the University of Waterloo and over 70% of the students from the university are enrolled in the programme. Burton said that Waterloo’s students do really well after graduation and within a year after graduation, almost 90% of their graduates find employment in their chosen fields. The University of Waterloo can lay claim to fame for having a student who had invented the first smartphone.
“I am grateful for the transfer programme opportunity provided by HELP University,” said Zhi Huan Low, who is currently a co-op student at the University of Waterloo, double majoring in Actuarial Science/Finance Option and Statistics.
“The programme which requires students to take twelve courses before transferring definitely saves up a lot of time, since students are able to enrol in this programme without any pre-university requirement,” expressed Huan Low.
The ADP department at HELP University has four intakes each year and their upcoming intake is in March.
For more details, contact 03-2716 2000 or visit www.help.edu.my