An Insight to Dr Nur Haniz's Electrifying Life

W3T1: Press Conference with Dr. Nur Haniz

“Life comes in every shitty way, you just have to break through it”

Senior lecturer, Dr. Nur Haniz expresses enthusiastically to a room of eager students. With her lively hand gestures and warm passionate voice, “animated” would be the best word to describe the wife, daughter, and educator. Her energy bounces off the room as she recalls her life as a journalist, the struggles she has faced as a woman in the industry, and how she overcame the various curveballs of life.

Dr. Nur Haniz was raised in Subang Jaya, proving her residence as she proudly finishes the line “Budak Subang Jaya mesti ada gaya” - much to the amusement of students. Her education journey has not stopped since she graduated university, and in her quest for knowledge, she has completed a master's in communication and much recently, completed her doctorate exploring the netizens perception on 1MDB in Free Malaysia Today. In addition to her badges of educational achievements, she has worked in various colleges and universities such as SEGi, Epitome College Subang Jaya, TAR UC, INTI, and now Taylor’s Lakeside Campus - all while being a student and a mother.

Prior to becoming an educator, Dr Haniz had spent a significant amount of time as a journalist, working in various organisations such as The Star, New Straits Time, and Buletin Rakyat Malaysia. When asked about her choice of stepping into the industry, Dr Haniz recounts her family’s choice of career, as they all ventured into Communications and her father being a prominent radio DJ - hence, it was only appropriate that she too entered the field of communications.

Her journey as a young, female journalist wasn’t easy. When asked about how she dealt with the harsh comments from her editors, she chuckled as she described her working lifestyle of a sixteen-hour shift, coupled with the stress and countless nights of crying.“But I like it.” she confidently states, adding that the patience and eagerness to prove to her editors was what pushed her to continue working in the industry with her acknowledging hard work is the only way to get to where one wants to be.

As a young female working towards the industry, Dr. Nur Haniz is an inspiration so to say. From rejecting her husband’s proposal to trudge through her Ph.D. to working two odd jobs as a lecturer in between Taylor’s and INTI while being pregnant, and also bolding standing up against incidents of sexual harassment from her male colleagues - she is one tough nut to crack.

“Life is all about challenges, people.”

She expresses with a smile on her face, a smile forged from years of hard work, grinding, and persistence.

While she does occasionally miss her life as a journalist, being an educator means so much to her for her love for teaching trumps all. Dr. Nur Haniz now works from home together with her husband and one-year-old daughter as a senior lecturer at Taylor’s and a freelance journalist.