Getting published in a reputable journal has never been an easy task for most academics regardless of their seniority and years of experience in their field. Academicians spend long hours and effort in writing to journals mainly to achieve one goal: getting it published! In fact, all researchers have to compete with one another to publish their manuscript successfully in reputable journals as a means to survive the ‘publish or perish’ conundrum. So, with all the pressure and competition that exists within academia to publish, what chance does one has as a mere undergraduate student?

When commencing a three-year undergraduate degree programme in Actuarial Studies with the School of Mathematical Sciences at Sunway University, the author was also working as a research assistant at a local university to support herself financially. As such, Elly Chin had to juggle the time between the job as a research assistant, studies, and the role as a student representative. While this time was found to be the most stressful, it helped tremendously in the research projects.

With the accumulated experience and knowledge gained through the degree programme, internship and working, she managed to publish a Web of Science (Social Science Citation Index) Q1 High Impact Journal Article in the field of Educational Leadership together with an excellent team of researchers led by Dr Donnie Adams at the University of Malaya. The journal article entitled ‘The elusive Malayan tiger ‘captured’: A systematic review of research on educational leadership and management in Malaysia’ was published in the journal of Educational Management Administration & Leadership by Sage. This was after a two-year struggle with five reviewers and four revisions.

Looking back, Elly Chin only felt pride and honour for choosing to pursue a degree at Sunway University, the place the best three years of this life was spent! A journey that was filled with different aspects of learning to hone the many skills developed, to the nurturing and ever-motivating lecturers that have shaped the way to see the world today. People say that Kuala Lumpur is a city that never sleeps. As a Sunwayian, it can be said that Sunway University is the campus that never sleeps!