:: Welcome to Manchester ::

Manchester welcomed us (me and my family) on 21st November 2010. It was winter when we step in. We enjoyed every second of the travelling until we reached our friend's house in Salford. Thanks to Syahrizal and Siti Nurbaiti for the company. Alhamdulillah.

:: Supervisory Team at MBS ::

My PhD supervisory team is made up of Professor Robert Scapens and Dr ChunLei Yang. Hopefully everything will be just fine, insyaAllah.

:: About to Start ::

The new academic term in Manchester Business School (MBS) had started in October 2010 after the university orientation and student registration sessions in September 2010. I suppose many people have started their PhD. I will be starting a bit late as Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) had just approved the scholarship to the UK which is now limited to only critical areas. At first MBS advised me to enrol by October. Consequently MBS offered me another enrolment date latest by 1 December 2010 after justification was made. Alhamdulillah. I wish to also express my gratitude to MoHE and UiTM for their concerns and supports. To MBS, I am indebted for your kind consideration. Thank you.

:: PEN-KUL-LHR-MAN ::

I received a complete itinerary from Rohaida Abu Bakar of UiTM yesterday for the UK travel after Eid Adha. Alhamdulillah. The air tickets for three of us - myself, wife and lovely baby Zulfa are now with me. They cost nearly RM11,000. Thank you Allah.
Thank you MoHE. Thank you UiTM. Special thanks to our family members. Thank you to all.

We will be travelling with MAS from Penang to Kuala Lumpur and from Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow before we board on British Airways or BMI to wonderful Manchester.

Pray to Allah for our blessed trip and safe journey there!

:: UK Visa Application ::

UK visa application process can be very daunting in the absence of necessary documents or information. I guess I am an expert in UK visa application as I proved to be able to get it through for myself and two dependants - haha.

I provide vital steps on how to apply a UK visa although you can get them elsewhere. But these are the steps that I have gone through.

1. Get ready with the valid passports before you apply. Make sure they are valid for at least 6 months before the date of your departure.

2. Get visa letter from the fund provider first. For example in my case, UiTM provided me with a letter showing the amount of money you will receive during period of study.

3. For courses that need ATAS certificate, please do it a.s.a.p. Observe ATAS requirement from CAS provided by the sponsoring UK university.

4. You should have CAS number in hand before you apply UK VISA. It is compulsory! If you happen to have received it, you are entitled for 30 full points.

5. Translated marriage certificate, birth certificate - bring over original documents and their copies.

6. One specified photograph for each applicant - refer to UKBA website.

7. I would advise that you apply online. Fill up the right forms - Tier 4 general sponsored student (VAF 9) and 2 forms Tier 4 dependant (VAF 10). Download Appendix 8 - to be manually filled up.

8. Schedule an appointment after payment has been made at any branch of Alliance Bank. submit biometric prints for all 10 fingers. Make sure they are in good conndition - no injuries and covered with no henna.

9. Go to Wisma MCA, KL with all forms, original and copies of the documents you mentioned in those forms, passport and bank saving acconts (you will get enough points if we can proof them we have sufficient money to maintain all dependants.

I guess that's all you need to know. Good luck to you!

:: Scholarship ::

Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah. Finally I secured a scholarship to pursue my area of interest; management accounting. A PhD in Accounting and Finance programme shall start on December 1, 2010 at Manchester Business School (MBS), The University of Manchester, England. My supervisors, Professor Robert W. Scapens and Dr Chun LeiYang will lend their expertise on my proposed research topic - Management Accounting innovation.

:: Al-Qadr ::

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

1. Verily, We revealed it on the Night of Power.
2. And what will make you know what the Night of Al-Qadr is?
3. The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.
4. The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by the permission of their Lord, with all decrees.
5. (The night is) Peace until the rising of the dawn.

"The month of Ramadhan, that in which the Quran was sent down; a guidance for mankind, and clear signs of guidance and distinction."
~Surah Al Baqarah 2:185

Laylat al-Qadr is the anniversary of the night Muslims believe the first verses of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad SAW by the angel Gabriel. It is also the anniversary of the night in which the Quran is believed by Muslims to have first descended to the earthly heavens in its entirety.

"One who while fasting does not guard his tongue from telling lies and does not refrain from bad deeds, is not respecting his fast. When you are fasting, you should not speak ill of anybody, nor should you be rough and noisy. If anybody speaks ill of you or tries to pick a quarrel with you, reply him not, but say to him that you are fasting. If people understood what good there was in the month of Ramadhan, they would have liked that it last for a year. A person gets the same reward by reciting in this month, one verse of the Holy Quran, as others do by reciting the whole of the Quran in other months. Whoever is not forgiven in the month of Ramadan, then in which month will he be forgiven? Unfortunate is the person who is deprived of the forgiveness of Allah during this great month (of Ramadhan). Allah does not approve of mere abstention from food. Whoever is prevented from food that he likes, because of his fast, Allah will feed him from the food of Heaven and from its drink. Fast, and you shall be healthy."
~The Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW

On the Day of Judgement, "Fasting will say: O My Lord I prevented him from food and desires so accept my intercession for him." May Allah SWT bless us with the ability to fast through this Ramadhan successfully and I'd like to wish you a blessed Ramadhan, May Allah accept from us and from you.

:: MIA Articles of Merit Award on PAIB 2009 ::

I am thankful to Allah, God Almighty for giving me the courage to write an article on "Current Mechanisms and Future Initiatives Shaping Ethical Behaviour of Professional Accountants in Malaysia". The paper was authored by me, Zubir Azhar; Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Kamal Abdul Rahman; and Dr. Sharifah Khadijah Syed Agil.

All in all, UiTM won two prizes - the Silver and Bronze awards respectively. The Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee organises the competition as a way of selecting suitable articles to be submitted to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) for the annual "IFAC Articles of Merit".

Associate Professor Dr Huang Ching Choo won the Silver Award and RM3,000 cash prize. Our team won the Bronze Award with cash prize of RM1,500.

:: Research Method & Methodology in Finance & Accounting ::

"Research is an activity that we all undertake to learn more about our environment and the impact we have upon it. It is pretty much agreed that research is a process of intellectual discovery, which has the potential to transform our knowledge and understanding of the world around us..."

Ryan et al. (2002)

Let's do research!

:: Eggdrops ::

For obvious reason I am so happy today. After 2 days of fiddling and configuring eggdrops, not only I managed to get the eggdrops working but I also succeeded in linking it with Shoutcast tcl script!

Now, the eggdrops can broadcast the songs into IRC! I am so happy!:-) Moreover, somebody came up to me a while ago and told me about good news. Hahaha. Talking about luck!

I think I kinda know what I am heading into but we all know that we can only plan, in the end of the day Allah will decide:-)

:: Sunday ::

It's Sunday again. It's probably the second worst day of the week as it comes before Monday. I am supposed to be off somewhere with colleagues today in SP ---> dinner. To be honest, I don't know how the dinner going to be like. But I escape myself. Oh well, hope I can do something very interesting at home.

The pressure of headache is also taking its toll on me. It's me who can get rid of it but the strength is limited. Some of you probably wonder don't understand what the heck I am babbling about but I'd better not go into town on this as I'd like to keep it to myself :-)

Oh oh!! and last night I managed to watch many dramas and movies on the tv. It's not complete yet but the first episode was extremely exciting! I am so pleased with myself. Watch out guys, more to come and watch this space. Cheerio. :-)

:: PhD Course ::

Attending a PhD course recently has really made my day. I am absolutely motivated. Alhamdulillah, He is the only One that has power to lift up my motivation, and He is the only One as well that has power to do the other way around.

I finished my first day in the methodological course organised by my institution, and I am greatly thankful to Allah, providing me the oppurtunity to attend this course. I had the rest of the days completing the course with full of passion. Not just motivated to hear the rest of the talks and experience-sharing, but also motivated to put both of my feet onto my research track as well. Thanks to the organiser!

The speakers were really good with their stunning backgrounds. Their experiences in guiding a lot of PhD students to graduate with flying colours illustrate that a PhD is a journey. I know the reality that it needs a great amount of work, commitment, sacrification and few other things, but I relatively do agree over his illustration on PhD. I'm not trying to be overconfident here, plus I would say I still have not put even a step in my research path, but it is more about motivating myself. I am very well motivated.

A number of speakers reiterated several times, "It is just a PhD, you are not solving the whole world's problems". Yes, it is true indeed.

InsyaAllah, I will make my way!