KUCHING: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) concurs with the Ministry of Higher Education’s (MoHE) recommendations for the country’s higher education to take a quantum leap and become more effective.
According to Unimas vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi on Friday (Feb 3), federal Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin included a number of initiatives and aspirations in his new year message that were seen as in line with the demands and development in the field of higher education.
“The mandate is founded on the spirit of Malaysia Madani, which serves as the presentation’s main pillar. This emphasis is placed on qualities such as trust, adaptability, and transparency, as well as the mastery of sharpness and policy-making abilities by students.
“This is the essence that demonstrates the commitment and seriousness of the minister and MoHE to ensure that the country’s higher education sector continues to be respected, relevant and become a knowledge building entity that gains the trust of local people and even in the world to be chosen as a quality academic destination,” he said.
“The approach to diversify training and academic development in countries other than the USA and the UK is a wise move.
“It not only gives a new dimension and variety to the world of knowledge seeking. It will certainly provide opportunities for trainees to be more open, bring home new experiences, methods and approaches in various aspects including the development of study curriculum, teaching and learning methods as well as new culture and good practices in the world of academia,” Prof Kadim added.
The emphasis and attention paid to the importance of teaching aspects being given full focus apart from research, which may have received more attention previously, was one of the positive steps taken to ensure that students, particularly undergraduate students, would receive a solid foundation of knowledge through effective teaching commitment from lecturers.
In fact, the recommendation that more academics become more actively involved in teaching activities was a very smart strategy in line with the need to educate students to face the current demands in the workplace in line with the objective to generate future-ready graduates.
Meanwhile, assistant vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Mohd Fadzil Abd Rahman stated that the talent development that Khaled hoped to empower was not only to meet internal needs and demands, but also to produce talent that could be marketed on a global scale, allowing the country to produce world-class talents.
“In addition, the minister’s announcement to empower PTPTN with a touch of new life through a trust fund (Endowment) certainly gives the advantage of access to free education for students from rural and rural areas of Sarawak who are less able.
“Many more initiatives highlighted by him (Khaled) through his mandate can be translated as a package of hopes and targets to be achieved in line with current demands, especially in the increasingly challenging world of higher education.
“The level of higher education in the nation can be raised, and at the same time the goal of making Malaysia a higher education hub that becomes a reference choice and a respected academic destination in the world can be realised if all the messages that the minister has conveyed can be fully translated and implemented by all parties involved.”
