Organizing a research visit abroad
As you may know, my PhD journey has been ongoing alongside my full time work. With the support from my colleagues at work, supervisors, my family and especially from fellow PhD students it has been rewarding/challenging/tiring/energizing/engaging… What ever end I would put to this sentence really depends on the day. To put it shortly, it has been worth the uncounted time I have invested in it.
A while back, I decided I would concentrate on my research full time in autumn 2023. In Finland, still at this moment - maybe not in the future anymore, we have a possibility to take study leave which means an employee can take a maximum of two years of study leave in a five-year period and they might also be entitled to receive adult education grant. This was also an opportunity to head abroad, we as a family have been longing to have another international experience. With research on possible locations and universities, I came across Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus in Selangor, right next to Kuala Lumpur. And, almost two years later in July 2023 I arrived to Kuala Lumpur with my family. I will later write more about my experiences, so stay tuned!
Finding a suitable University
Universities do usually have partners around the world, so does my home university Estonian Business School. But, in my case, I found about Taylor’s on my own and started discussions with them. From the very first contact, I felt this is THE place for me. Firstly, I contacted the University via their webpages, got an answer right back and few weeks later organized a Teams meeting with them. Then, as it started to look like this would be truly happening it was time to concentrate on looking for funding. Approximately 6 months before the start of the exchange, we started arrangements = paperwork :) What was needed, was an official agreement between the two universities. I must address huge thanks to international offices and management in both universities as they mainly handled the papers. Only thing left to me, was to sign the papers. So many of them.
Funding a research visit
One part of a researchers life is applying for funding. One challenging, time consuming part. I have also written my share of funding applications, one always starts with a lot of confidence. My application is written with such a passion and detail, my research is of importance, there is no reason why it would not be accepted. But, the reality is there are usually hundreds, even thousands of other applicants out there. The biggest impact on my research visit, truly making it possible, was a grant from The Foundation for Economic Education - grant round 2022 awarded 22% of applicants with grants and I could not believe I was one of them. When I received the message, I must say I was happy for the financial aid but maybe even more impressed with the feeling that such a respected panel had seen my research valuable. It gave me a lot of confidence. When one is looking for grants, pay attention to application times and deadlines (writing does take time and quite often you need also reference letters from supervisors), to grant rules (some may exclude any further funding/grants at the same time) and to the over all quality of your application.
Official documents
This part, again, was quite easy for me as a Finn. To enroll to Taylor’s University for my research visit, I needed a student visa. The application was done online through EMGSs://visa.educationmalaysia.gov.my/ and it was fairly simple. Only thing I must address is that one needs to be very careful with the documents you submit. There is a certain way of proofing things and al details need to be written in a format the Education Malaysia Globl Services (EMGS) is expecting. But again, the international office will be of help in this. The only thing I almost missed was the fact that I also needed a single entry visa to Malaysia on my arrival. If one comes to Malaysia for a leisure trip, no such visa is needed - with a Finnish passport you can stay here up to 90 days. But, as I was entering the country for research/study purposes, I needed to get the single entry visa. Well… Luckily this was fixed by very helpful embassy personnel in Helsinki as soon as I contacted them on Friday before our flight on Monday. I do not know how I came to realize this detail so late, but luckily I did and all went well.
Organizing living etc.
Universities do provide accommodation options, but again as I was travelling with my family, we made our own plans. What came to us as a surprise was the fact that in Kuala Lumpur it is fairly difficult to find a rental apartment for the duration of 6 moths. Contracts for 1+ years are preferred and the premium one will need to pay is quite high. So, we decided on going with AirBnb which was a very good choice indeed. If anyone is looking for a short or longer time accommodation, I am happy to share contacts to our host - they have a number of apartments available in the city. Just drop me an e-mail via contact sheet.
Coming from Finland, Kuala Lumpur is not the most walkable city… Quite rapidly we got used to Grab life. Via Grab app you order your daily taxi (I have been using it to commute to the University as we do not have a car), groceries (so easy!), medicines from pharmacy if you are sick (that’s really great), flowers if you are visiting some one and want to surprise them and restaurant food. I must admit, the months before we moved to KL were so hectic that we did not even prepare ourselves too much. I guess that’s how we are, quite relaxed. Of course back home there were a number of things that needed to be sorted, schooling for our daughter, summer house upkeeping, car storage etc. The preparations at home took so much of our efforts, that we really just came to KL and started to wonder around to get to know the city.
I hope my experience gives you some ideas if you are thinking of going abroad.
(picture: Esmonde Yong, Unsplash)