Hitchiker's Guide to Nottingham Malaysia Campus Wiki
Register
Advertisement

In UNMC, you will notice a number of interesting social groupings. Members of each social group only tend to hang out with members within their own groups. The main social grouping are as follows:

  • Staff
  • Students
  • Security
  • Sodexo People
  • Estate People
  • The Others
  • Cleaners


Interestingly, members of these groups wear uniform such that they may be easily discriminated.

Regardless of what each section says, there has been recent calls for everyone to mix around (or at least be polite and greet) with different social groups, be it race, or class, or occupation. This not only serves the purpose of creating a warmer, friendlier atmosphere, but might also prove useful in the future if you ever need help from any one of them. (And trust me, you will)

Staff[]

Among the staff, there are various classes of hierarchy, and this can be observed with the CEO/Provost at the very top, and administrative staff at the very bottom. And beneath them, the lab technicians.

  • CEO/Provost
  • Dean
  • Head of departments
  • Professors
  • Associate Professor
  • Assistant Professor
  • Senior Tutor
  • Lecturer
  • Librarians
  • Part-time lecturer
  • Research Assistant (RA)
  • Administrative staff
  • Student Association People
  • IT Support
  • Lab Technician

In terms of who teaches here, most of the lecturers here are typically Malaysian Chinese (though this might be relative to your course). Although there are indeed some English people teaching, you can expect most of the lecturers to be typically South Asian in origin, so people from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. There are some middle eastern types but not much.

Students[]

Namely, you. Typically separated into home and international students, with international, famous for constantly nagging about their perpetual inability to solve their visa issues.

Home Students[]

Home students or Malaysian students, make up roughly 50% of the student community on average yearly intake.

Typically they are made up of 3 distinct races,

  • Chinese (an estimated 70% of home students are ethnic Chinese)
    • The Malaysian Chinese in UNMC can be categorized into 2 major groups, the East Malaysia Chinese, and the West Malaysia Chinese. Within the West Chinese there are numerous sub-groups, but typically you will be seeing 2 major types, the Pure-bred Chinese, which tend to converse all the time in mandarin, and the banana Chinese, well these tend to speak English most of the time. There is a tendency for the pure-breds to stick exclusively among themselves, but this is only natural. Cultural groups are major thing here, with very little inter-cultural mingling.
    • East Malaysia Chinese - these tend to be the outgoing ones, but not all are so, their English is better than typical pure-breds.
    • West Malaysia Chinese - there are a number of distinctive subgroups
      • Pure-breds - this tend to be Chinese vernacular school educated Chinese, although not all of them behave this way, the stereotype is that these are some of the most highly sought after introverts, are typically the top scorer's in a class. While they may dominate in class and sometimes at academic societies, purebreds are least likely to intermingle with people of little to no value to them.
      • Bananas - are named according to belief that they are yellow on the outside but white on the inside, typical group caused by those that are of Chinese ethnicity but for some reason can't converse in Chinese, or can but poorly, or prefers not to. These tend to be the outgoing types. Most clubbing Chinese tend to be bananas for some reason. Obviously have better command of English and may have gone to international or national type schools.
  • Malay (Roughly 20%)
    • Tend to be very lazy. But there are a handful of brilliant and hardworking ones.
      • Poor Malay - no one knows much about this lot, but apparently they are not out there on a bike so they are better than the norm. Often found living in places such as TTS6, Pelangi, or cramped up in TTS3.
      • Rich Malay - tend to have gone to international school, pose an outgoing personality, have plenty of international friends. Sons and daughters of polygamous parents. Open-minded.
  • Indian (Insignificant minority, only a handful.)
    • Most Malaysian Indians are typically Tamils, but there are not much of their kind here. Typically the attrition rate among this bunch is very high and they do not last long. But there are some very brilliant ones.
    • The Singhs are another breed, influential and powerful, sometimes they don't consider themselves Indians. But you will know them cause they wear turbans, and be quite tall fixtures. Lovely people.
  • Others (Mixed hybrids, and some other rejects.)

International Students[]

The foreign or international students are those that do not hold a Malaysian Passport and thus have to pay the international rate in tuition which is roughly RM 3000 extra but this cost is typically compensated in what the university is doing to compensate them *smirk* in their visa issues.

The exact statistics for international students are hard to come by, and typically the university in promotion leaflets would put the figure at 60+ countries, but do not get too excited, most that do come from these rare places then to be in figures of single digits, and would predominantly come from two continents, Africa and Asia.

  • Pakistanis (while most of them would be from Pakistan, a good many would be coming from places such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia.)
    • In fact there are so many, that there are always people complaining that they are over-represented. In terms of quality, most of the clubbing studs seem to come from Pakistan, for some reason. Chances are, if you are a girl/woman you will be approached by a Pakistani at some point in your university career.
  • Indians
    • They have an awesome caste thing going on in campus. Otherwise, they'd be screaming about some cricket game that nobody cares about. Apparently there is a difference between the fair looking hindi indians and the darker skinned tamil indians, who knew?
  • Sri Lankans
    • Are wild people. Always boasting about cricket or a sport that no one cares about. Sri Lankan girls tend to be outgoing and fun. They tend to be dark skin people. The story about Sri Lankan girls, is that back in their home country, they are chronically restricted that when they arrive in UNMC, they find themselves to liberated to control themselves.
  • Saudis
    • No one really knows where are the Saudis are, those whom are here are typically Pakistanis living in Saudi.
  • Maldivian
    • Are made up of Muslims, they have one of the strangest forms of dancing. Maldivians have dark skin. A common discussion point, when you deal with Maldivians is to remind them that their country will disappear in 50 years and that you would like for them to stay.
  • Mauritians
    • Are typically Indian wannabes. Most look like Malaysians, which can be confusing, but you will know them once they open their mouth. A few of them look like Malaysian Chinese, they are typically Chinese without the mandarin component, most of them can't converse in Chinese, but they can speak French.
  • China
    • There are always complaints that China Chinese girls are the most green environmental friendly types. Note the clothes they wear each and every day, especially those that put on short pants. In the shared bathroom, its always a case of could you please clean up your hair from clogging up the drain.
  • Palestinians (they would typically be holding Jordanian passports)
  • Kazakh
    • Most of the Kazakhs are muslims, some are really hot, some not. Most Kazakh men are bodybuilders and have big muscles, that said, respect their women. Some kazakhs look like Caucasians others a bit oriental.
  • Koreans (the Koreans that study here typically are those that happen to have studied in international schools in Malaysia, the children of Korean expatriates.)
    • Most of the Koreans typically hang around among themselves, they will typically be in romantic relationships with each other by the end of first year, while those that aren't are typically damaged goods, put on lots of make up and nothing much else.
    • UNMC Koreans tend to be a loud bunch, you will notice them in TCR, library or any other study room, cause when they open their mouth its always a case of could you please quiet down... That said, Korean girls are some of the most sought after with many of the locals especially the females being big time fan girls of Korean drama.
    • Typical activity include running language classes and looking cute.
  • Vietnamese
    • Are the friendliest people you will meet.
  • Kenyans
    • Some argue, its where Timon and Pumba come from. Fun fact: Obama's dad came from Kenya.
  • Iranians
  • Egyptians
  • Tanzanians
    • Lacking numbers, you find them with the Kenyans.
  • Somalis
  • Nigerians
  • Nepal people
  • Singaporean (rare)
  • Thai (rare)
  • Japanese (rare, always in single digits.)
    • The one presently available is a seriously tanned party girl.
  • Syrians
  • Other –tans
  • White & Black exchange students from the UK
    • Some argue, the best looking girls are the white English girls. Not all of course...
  • Some European (Belgian)
    • Dates some middle eastern bloke? Can be found making out with him around campus.

Dual Nationality[]

There are some students of course that hold multiple passports and statistic doesn’t always capture these students. They will typically be home students due to  lower tuition.

Security[]

Security can be divided into two social class, the executive always in the security office bunch and the worker Nepalese gurkhas. Also among them are administrative clerks.


  • Security Executives (typically Malay male)
  • Administrative Clerks (typically Malay female)
  • Nepalese Gurkhas (fresh from Nepal)


Besides the security on-campus there also the security people off-campus. The very special guards that guard the TTS-UNI bridge. Typically these guys are local Indian guys recruited from somewhere nearby. If you are dark skinned and of Indian ethnicity, or if you're not racist, which is hopefully the case, you can always have these guys for company.


Sodexo People[]

A distinct sect, but a class among to themselves, are the Sodexo people, always respectful, whom while not limited to are either local, or fresh from the Philippines.

  • Administrative Sodexo Staff
  • White-uniformed Cooks (typically local)
  • Blue-uniformed (made up of Pinnoys and some locals)

They are mostly very friendly, and it does not hurt to make allies out of them as that could mean larger serving portions.

Estate People[]

The estate people are a sect among themselves, isolated from much of the other staff, they live in this burrow called the engineering research building.

  • Executive (Local Chinese lady)
  • The rest (Mainly local Malay guys)

After hours, they could be found hanging out with some IT staff at that restaurant next to Al-Shads.


The Others[]

No one really know who these people are, but they are typically local contract workers contracted to carry out works that can’t be handled by the estate people.


The Baijans (Food Delivery People)[]

And this we mean the Pakistani/Bangladeshi people working for Al Reef, Ali Habi, Al Shad or any one of the TTS food delivery outfits. Well, they are mostly male, lonely guys, working far away from home. No one knows how they do it...

TTS restaurant delivery guys

You are not alone honey. :P

Just like any other Pakistani/Bangla

If you are an Indian looking girl, expect to be hit on by some of these guys, they will come from all over the place, your facebook, your whatsapp, who knows even your SMS.

Fun Fact:

If you are particularly liked by them, you may be offered free briyani by some of them.

The Cleaners[]

The cleaners are a nice bunch, always gentle and unseen, they are little house elves that work hard at keeping the campus clean and running. Without them, for even a few days… Well, just take a smell at any one of the TCR and F1 toilets on weekends. These are the people who will also arrange exam tables in preparation for exams. Conduct clean up after any event. Typically, Indonesian/Malaysian.

They are the unseen bunch that we habitually ignore because we are so much better than them.

Advertisement