The Otomotif College (TOC) plans to expand its international student exchange programme following the success of its partnership with Ajou Motor College (AMC), Korea’s only specialist automotive college.
TOC Chief Operating Officer Thin Lee Chean said that the college plans to explore establishing similar exchange programmes with leading colleges in Europe and even South Africa in the near future. “We believe that this programme is invaluable in providing our students with a crucial competitive edge – a world view and exposure to different cultures and environments through up-close interaction with their peers from other countries. About 15% of our student population come from other countries, providing further opportunities for cross-cultural exchange,” he said.
TOC played host to a delegation of 20 first-year students from AMC recently, the second visit by the Korean college in two years.
According to delegation head, Professor Jie Myoung Seok, AMC has a vibrant international exchange programme with colleges in Australia, Canada, China, England, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and New Zealand. “We decided to partner with TOC in Malaysia as it came highly recommended as the country’s top automotive college and we share the same vision. Our students benefited greatly from exposure to TOC’s state-of-the-art teaching equipment such as the CAN-Bus system and impressive fleet of vehicles of various makes.”
Noh Eung Kon, 24, liked the wide variety of training cars available at TOC as AMC students worked primarily with Korean car makes such as Hyundai and Kia back home. “It was a fun and eye-opening experience to be able to work on cars like Mercedes Benz, BMW, Citroen, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Proton among others,” he said.
For live-wire Park San Gyeol, 23, the best part of his two-week stay in Malaysia was the combination of good weather and great food. Park said, “I like the warm Malaysian weather as the Korean winter is very cold. I also enjoyed delicious Malaysian food such as fried rice and chilli crabs but unfortunately, not durian!”
