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Month: January 2022

iHiLead 2021: Cooperation between HEIs important

Posted on by President University

President University (PresUniv) hosted Train the Trainers for Leadership Development Program for university leaders. The workshop is carried out in a hybrid way. Some participants and speakers attended offline at the President Executive Club, Jababeka industrial estate, Cikarang, by implementing strict health procedures. Some other participants joined it online. This workshop is one of a series of activities carried out by the Indonesia Higher Education Leaders (iHiLead) consortium, a consortium consisting of seven Indonesian universities and three universities from the European Union.

They are President University, University of Ahmad Dahlan and University Islamic Indonesian from Yogyakarta, Brawijaya University and STIE Malangkucecwara from Malang, Semarang State University, and Padjadjaran University. Meanwhile, three foreign universities consist of the University of Gloucestershire from the United Kingdom, the International School for Business and Social Studies (ISBSS) from Slovenia, and the University of Granada from Spain. This consortium is supervised by the Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology.

In his opening remarks, Rector PresUniv Prof. Dr. Jony Oktavian Haryanto said that the consortium aims to improve the quality of higher education in Indonesia through reform of leaders and leadership. “By increasing the capacity of leaders and leadership, universities will be better able to produce quality graduates, so that in the future they will be able to become future leaders,” said Prof. Jony. He also hopes that through this workshop, all participants will be able to capture information and generate positive energy, as well as disseminate it to higher education institutions and the public. “Finally, hopefully after attending this workshop we will all be able to become agents of change,” said Prof. Jony.

Meanwhile, in her keynote address, the Secretary of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology, Dr. Ir. Paristiyanti Nurwandani, MP, explained the government’s policy in optimizing higher education cooperation through the implementation of program Kampus Merdeka. She said, until now we have 4,670 higher education institutions with more than 8 million students. The highest number of higher education institutions are high schools, reaching 2,525 institutions. While the highest number of students are universities with more than 5 million. “This condition makes cooperation to improve the quality of higher education institutions is very important,” said Paristiyanti. She continued, “We really appreciate programs like iHiLead from the European Union in increasing the capacity of leaders and leadership in higher education institutions in Indonesia.”

University Hospital launches TAXI Volunteers COVID Concern and Support project

Posted on by Thammasat University

Thammasat University Hospital moved forward and helped COVID patients through the “TAXI Volunteers COVID Concern and Support” Project by wearing PPE and using screens when accepting-sending patients. Thammasat University Hospital did home isolations of more than 500 patients. Most of the patients were concerned about waste, wanted to build understanding in the community and wanted someone to talk to every day.

Prof. Dr. Surapon Nitikraipot, Chairman of the Executive Board, Thammasat University Hospital, spoke about a major problem for hospitals caring for COVID patients in the country, which is patient transportation for trips to the hospital, returning home, sending patients to the agencies involved or home isolations where some patients at home need to see a doctor to follow-up on symptoms and have travel limitations. The “TAXI Volunteers COVID Concern and Support” Project is the beginning of support with systems for preventing infections in order to provide good safety for drivers. This is a small matter of logistics in Thammasat’s process to help patients with fees at normal rates. However, if patients have no money, the fees will be paid on their behalf.

“This project is a small encouragement to help make our system of care for patients more complete. I would like to thank supporters, and I believe this may be the beginning of logistical changes for patients in need. Patients need more support and this small mechanism will make our system more complete”, said Prof. Dr. Surapon.

Dr. Kanitta Buranapansak, Head of Social Security, Thammasat University Hospital, stated that “The “Taxi Volunteers COVID Concern and Support” Project” is a project that builds on the “Fight COVID @ Pathumthani” Project, a project allied to the project to improve capacity of social workers, social care models and empower communities for social monitoring and management for patients and persons affected by COVID-19 supported by the Social Security Office. For nearly seven months, the project continues to move forward. The “TAXI Volunteers COVID Concern and Support” Project currently has six vehicles picking up patients and taking patents from home to hospital. Every taxi driver wears PPE and has screens in the vehicle for safety to give both driver and patient confidence. At the same time, social workers have found COVID-19 patients to have concerns about waste and need someone to talk to every day.

A professional nurse, Miss Nettip Booncharat, Deputy Director of the Home Isolation Coordination Center, revealed that 526 patients were being treated in the home isolation system, 130 patients had completed the project and more than 30 patients had severe symptoms with 271 patients remaining in the project. In addition to providing attentive care for patients via the Telehealth system, Thammasat University Hospital handed out self-care booklets with survival sets or isolation sets for children and adults complete with necessary equipment such as thermometers, fingertip oxygen measuring devices, waste sorting bags and medications for patients in the green group, including food delivery services.

How generalist and specialist CEOs compare

Posted on by Chulalongkorn University

The benefits and drawbacks of generalist CEOs – those with the talent and skill to manage companies in various industries – have been fiercely debated in contemporary research. Some research touts generalist CEOs’ varied professional experiences and ability to launch a wide range of strategic initiatives. Other research warns of their tendency to switch jobs easily, which may mean that their motivations do not align with those of shareholders and prompt them to give short-term investments priority over above longer-term, but more beneficial, projects.

Our research contributes to the debate by exploring how independent directors view generalist and specialist CEOs. Boards of directors are often considered the ultimate governance mechanism for resolving agency conflicts, and, as outsiders, independent directors are more likely to be impartial. As a consequence, the degree of board independence is often used as a measure of board quality. Since effective board governance leads to shareholder-friendly corporate decisions and activities, a great deal of research demonstrates that independent directors are valuable. Therefore, to the extent that generalist CEOs enhance shareholders’ wealth, independent directors should view them favorably.

It is, however, challenging to test this argument empirically because, in economics and finance, it is not possible to run a randomized experiment where certain firms are assigned more independent directors than others are. Fortunately, there is a quasi-natural experiment where only certain firms are forced involuntarily to change their board independence by a regulation. This is analogous to a randomized experiment. Interestingly, three economists have just been given a Nobel Prize for their work related to this empirical method (David Card, Guido Imbens, and Joshua Angrist).

In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, along with new stock exchange rules, required that publicly traded firms have a majority of independent directors on the board. This requirement served as an unexpected exogenous shock to companies who had to appoint more independent directors to comply. Using a difference-in-difference estimation, we compare, before and after the passage of the law, the change in the general ability of the CEOs of firms forced to appoint more independent directors to the change in the general ability of the CEOs of firms not affected by the law. Firms required to change their board composition were the treatment group, and firms unaffected by the law were the control group.

Our difference-in-difference estimates reveal that firms compelled to increase board independence show a smaller improvement in CEO ability than do other firms, suggesting that independent directors do not view generalist CEOs favorably. Our findings are consistent with the notion that generalist CEOs may have incentives that conflict with those of shareholders, resulting in an incentive misalignment. For instance, generalist CEOs are less likely to be risk-averse (Custodio et al., 2013; Mishra, 2014). Supporting this argument, Mishra (2014) reports that having a generalist CEO leads to a significantly higher cost of equity capital. Moreover, because generalist CEOs tend to change jobs more often, they may not take the long-term perspective required to enhance shareholder value. Furthermore, our results are consistent with those in Ma, Ruan, Wang, and Zhang (2021), who find that companies with generalist CEOs have significantly lower credit ratings, implying that credit rating agencies view generalist CEOs as a credit risk factor. Their results are consistent with ours. Both independent directors and credit rating agencies view generalist CEOs unfavorably.

We also run several checks to ensure that our findings are robust. For instance, we execute propensity score matching, where we carefully match each treatment firm to another firm outside the treatment group that is most similar based on several firm characteristics. So, our treatment and control firms are nearly identical except for board independence. This technique increases the probability that the findings are driven by board independence, not by any other firm characteristics. Moreover, an instrumental variable analysis, which is more likely to reveal a causal effect, corroborates our findings. Finally, we apply Oster’s (2019) method for testing coefficient stability and find that our conclusion is robust.

Our results contribute to the debate about generalist CEOs. Most prior studies concentrate on assessing the effects of generalist CEOs on corporate outcomes and policies. Our study, however, adopts a unique approach, focusing on how independent directors view generalist CEOs. Furthermore, our study contributes to the literature that exploits the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to ascertain the effects of board independence on various corporate outcomes. Our study is the first to apply this approach to explore the impact of board independence on general managerial skills.

UiTM lecturers awarded International IIARI Luminary Awards

Posted on by Dr Duratul Ain Tholibon

One of the Universiti Teknologi MARA MoU international partnerships, the Institute of Industry and Academic Research Incorporated, (IIARI) Philippines had organized the IIARI Luminary Awards (ILA) on December 4, 2021. The IIARI Luminary Award (ILA) is the organization’s recognition and celebration of inspirational success stories in teaching, research, leadership, and civic works. It embodies IIARI’s commitment to the formulation of the community of scholars driven by a passion for life-long learning and community service. The ILA aims to honor the contribution of individuals in various fields that would serve as inspiration and influence for other people. ILA is an annual recognition given to individuals from various parts of the world who have exemplary and inspiring contributions in the organization or the community through their profession, academic works, innovation and inventions, community service, and inspired behavior and action. It brings forth a venue for inspirational success stories to emulate and spread.

The objective of ILA is to acknowledge the inspirational success stories of individuals in teaching, research, leadership, and civic works. It is also to recognize the exemplary contribution of individuals in the organization and the community. Moreover, it is to provide a platform for the emulation of exemplary and inspiring works of individuals around the world. Furthermore, it fosters leadership and service among professionals, researchers, and civic individuals around the globe; and forms a community of scholars driven by a passion for life-long learning and community service. The four categories are being contested that is ILA in Teaching, ILA in Research, ILA in Civic Works, ILA in Leadership. Congratulations to IIARI that providing the opportunity and the platform of recognition for the educational and research endeavors. The awarding ceremony was held virtually with the participation from various backgrounds of IIARI members around the world. The event was hosted by Prof. Mary Jane S. Carandang, who is the Committee Members of IIARI.

Two senior lecturers from UiTM had been nominated as a finalist in the respective categories. Ts. Dr. Duratul Ain Tholibon, senior lecturer from School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Mara Cawangan Pahang had been awarded of ILA in Research category. Another awardee Ts. Dr. Masyitah Md Nujid had been awarded ILA in the Teaching category. She is a senior lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering, UiTM Cawangan Pulau Pinang, Kampus Permatang Pauh, Malaysia.

All of the awardees were received a certificate and a plaque of recognition for their achievement. May this international award will encourage and motivate more lecturers to do more research and innovation in their careers. Besides may this event continuously develops strong research culture among industry and academic professionals, enhance free and accessible knowledge through sharing of best practices. This initiative may also foster collaboration among industry and academic professionals around the globe, develop camaraderie among fellows in the industry and the academic community as in line with Sustainable Development Goals No. 17 Partnership for the Goals.

Thammasat University Hospital to distribute antiviral drug ‘Remdesivir’

Posted on by Thammasat University

From August 9, Thammasat University Hospital will be 1 of 6 medical school hospitals assigned as a distribution center for Remdesivir which is an antiviral drug for yellow or orange cases which are symptomatic patients. It is more efficient than the existing medication, Favipiravir, and can be used to stop the virus.

Remdesivir may cause unwanted side effects which must be exclusively used under close supervision of medical professionals from the medical school hospital. Thammasat University Hospital should be more assured and hopeful for this solution because they have been provided more effective equipment from the Ministry of Health.

Thammasat University Hospital has been managing the COVID-19 situation continuously since the third and fourth wave. They have used workforce and supplied customized equipment and have been receiving the support for more equipment. Although the equipment is not quite sufficient and has been received in a timely manner, the hospital has been supported increasingly. This encouraged Thammasat University Hospital and made them realize that the situation they have encountered and how they have handled it continuously and for so long is not a waste of time because they are able to hold back and receive more support in many aspects for now.

Hopefully we will receive more support until we are able to respond and cease the attack of the COVID- 19 in the near future despite the great losses of many lives already.

TMU collaborates with HTC to launch Instructional VR Resource Centre for Food Safety

Posted on by Taipei Medical University

Taipei Medical University (TMU), in collaboration HTC Corporation (HTC), established its Instructional VR Resource Center for Food Safety. Aiming at improving food safety across Taiwan, this Center brings in VR technology and high-quality training content to the University’s food safety education and promotes the digitization of Taiwan’s food processing industry. This collaborative project between TMU and HTC stemmed from their ongoing partnership of talent development of food safety professionals using innovative technology.

TMU established the first College of Nutrition in Taiwan in 2016 and the first School of Food Safety a year later. As the only such establishment in Taiwan, TMU School of Food Safety is dedicated to the training and education of future practitioners and professionals in the modern food industry.

Associate Professor Hui-Ting Yang from the TMU School of Food Safety applies virtual reality to the courses she teaches, which allows future food safety professionals to virtually experience the workflow involved in a number of a work environment.. Take the VR kitchen for instance, training modules includes food materials inspection, food preparation, cooking procedure and food serving. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points can also be incorporated into the observation training, and simulated food serving stress and fires in the kitchen can also be incorporated for contingency response training. Trainees can accumulate a large amount of authentic experience within a short period of time and acquire the skills and abilities necessary to adapt to their workplace. Moreover, this training approach effectively prevents errors and subsequent business losses caused by their lack of familiarity with the operations.

Raymond Pao, Senior Vice President of HTC, said, “The VR scenario simulation training has been implemented in teaching and learning in various types of businesses and schools. Through immersive learning experience, it can simulate real emergencies and reinforce correct contingency response capability in students. Students can also use HTC’s Virti 360 VR platform to easily create their own VR teaching materials. They can quickly produce all kinds of VR content according to their learning syllabus. Through industry-academia collaboration, relevant teaching materials can be imported into the employee training program of domestic smart food factories. Employees can then practice relevant SOP in simulated VR scenarios as and when required to strengthen their learning effectiveness, thus benefitting the domestic food safety industry and talent development.”

Speaking about the collaboration, Professor Yue-Hwa Chen, Director of TMU School of Food Safety, said, “I am very pleased to collaborate with HTC’s VIVE Medical VR Division to build the first Instructional VR Resource Center for Food Safety in Taiwan. We are constantly thinking about how to increase the learning interest and effectiveness of students. The integration with VR technology has given us new ideas in our course designs and how we advise Taiwan’s food processing factories to continuously transform their operation, improve work quality, and enhance staff development with help of technology.”

LSE and OakNorth launch ‘Mentorpreneurship’ programme

Posted on by London School of Economics and Political Science

The London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) has launched its ‘Mentorpreneurship’ programme in partnership with OakNorth, which is on a mission to empower the “Missing Middle”. The programme, which is the first university run initiative of its kind, has been designed to support the development of socially conscious startups and inspire entrepreneurial thinking, by focusing on the fundamental role of mentorship in business.

To achieve this, the new programme, which is run through the university’s entrepreneurship department, LSE Generate, will engage past, current and future student entrepreneurs, including OakNorth co-founders, Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman, in a ‘life-cycle’ of mentorship, helping to develop their businesses and creative ideas. As well as supporting student startups, the programme has launched a first-of-its-kind ‘Mentorpreneurship’ course for school children, piloting in partnership with Girls Day School Trust (GDST) across 11 institutions and commencing this September. As part of this, students will complete various modules, bootcamps and creative exercises that demonstrate the value of social sciences, arts and humanities in encouraging collaboration in order to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges.

To ensure everyone taking part in the programme can connect, collaborate, and receive as much support as possible, a central ‘Mentorpreneurship’ hub and app – which is available on the App Store and Google Play – have been created in partnership with the private network software provider getTWOit. The online platform will facilitate mentoring across the participating groups: school students will be mentored by LSE students, early-stage entrepreneurs can receive support from alumni entrepreneurs who will have access to senior innovators, who will in turn be ‘reverse mentored’ by school students. This ‘life-cycle’ model challenges traditional methods of mentoring by introducing reverse mentoring and peer-to-peer collaboration to question biases and encourage innovation. The platform and app have been designed to facilitate interactions on users’ own terms in safe-environments that oscillate between the local and global to reflect the needs of entrepreneurs at every stage in their journey.

With the overarching ambition of encouraging entrepreneurship as a meaningful path to drive local change and create enduring communities of impact, each year LSE Generate will also be hosting a tailored programme of online and offline activity. This includes: mentor bootcamps, founders retreats, keynotes and pitching practices, alongside a series of podcasts and audiobooks to connect entrepreneurs with mentors locally and internationally. With several international entrepreneurship chapters across the world including Mumbai, Chengdu, LA and Lisbon, with Ghana, Berlin and Shanghai on the horizon, the programme aims to create an ongoing global community of support for socially conscious entrepreneurs.

Laura-Jane Silverman, Head of LSE Generate, said: “The pandemic has been a hugely challenging time for startup businesses but it has also presented opportunities to think about the type of innovation and support needed in order to make a real difference in society. The launch of this programme comes at a time when the need for human-to-human collaboration and mentorship is fundamental, to not only navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, but in creating real change for the future. We believe that entrepreneurship should be the great equaliser; no matter what challenges the world presents, or where you are based, with the right support, access and materials, an inclusive startup culture that benefits a global community can flourish.”

The partnership is also part of OakNorth’s ongoing commitment to donate 1% of Group profits to supporting charitable causes and socially driven enterprises.

Speaking on the importance of university-born businesses and this collaboration, Rishi Khosla, co-founder of OakNorth and an LSE alumni, said: “LSE has played a hugely important role in the entrepreneurial journey of OakNorth, as that’s where my co-founder, Joel Perlman, and I met while studying. Having mentors and being a mentor to others has been invaluable to us, and what particularly excited us about LSE Generate is its focus on socially minded enterprise. We want to inspire students and alumni to start and scale businesses that have a positive impact on society, and to equip them with the skills, knowledge and confidence to mentor future generations of entrepreneurs who will do the same.”

College of Innovation, Thammasat University, & CIMB Thai Bank sign MoU

Posted on by Thammasat University

Asst. Prof. Dr. Chayakrit Asawathitanon, Dean of the College of Innovation and Asst. Prof. Dr. Noppol Tangchitprom, Director of the Bachelor of Innovation and Digital Transformation (dX) Program, Thammasat University together with the Board of Directors, Mr. Anon Sirisaengthaksin, an Independent Director, Mr. Paul Wong Chee Kin, President and Chief Executive Officer, CIMB Thai Bank Public Company Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote and support the development of students, faculty and personnel which will increase the opportunity to exchange knowledge of personnel and students with quality and expertise in future skills and as well to develop qualified personnel to the society.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Chayakrit Asawathitanon, Dean of the College of Innovation, Thammasat University said that the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding represents the determination of the two parties to jointly develop sustainable personnel as in addition to arranging students an internship to learn moree about business, we also organize a knowledge exchange program with each other.

Mr. Paul Wong Chee Kin, President and Chief Executive Officer of CIMB Thai Bank Public Company Limited revealed that the bank has always been focusing on personnel potential development. This is considered a key element of success in every organization. It is regarded as an important force that drives the business forward and even under the rapid changes as well. The Bank, therefore, promotes education and provides students opportunities to develop their knowledge and abilities through internship and co-operation programs, where students can learn real work from experienced people, enhance problem-solving skills, and work together as a team in order to prepare before entering the work in the future.

President University and JST hold workshop on Information and Electronic Engineering

Posted on by President University

President University (PresUniv) in collaboration with the Japan Science and Technology Foundation (JST), held an Information and Electronic Engineering Workshop, Monday (13/12). This workshop is part of the Sakura Science Exchange Program 2021, held online from December 13 to December 16, 2021. This workshop presents six speakers, namely Dr.-Ing. Erwin Sitompul, M.Sc, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, PresUniv; Drs. Antonius Suhartomo, M.Eng.Sc., M.M., Ph.D., Head of Electrical Engineering Study Program, PresUniv; Prof. Mitsuhiro Ogawa, Prof. Testufumi Tanamoto, and Prof. Koichi Hamada, all three from Teikyo University; Nova Eka Budiyanto, S.Pd., M.Pd., M.T from Atma Jaya University.

In this workshop, Erwin delivered material on the Robot Development Practical Approach and his various research & projects in the manufacture and development of robots, namely Robot Arm Manipulator (RAM), IoT-Based Pet Robot with Customizable Functions, and Walking Optimization of Humanoid Robot. He explained that RAM is a prototype of Arduino-based RAM controlled by the lead-through method. “RAM has 3 degrees of freedom, with rotational movement, up-down movement, and back-and-forth movement,” he said. Meanwhile, the Humanoid Robot has 10 degrees of freedom designed and constructed using metal brackets and bolts.

Meanwhile, Antonius delivered material on Basic Electronic Devices with three discussion topics, namely semiconductors, Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT), and Field Effect Transistors (FET). According to him, basic electronic devices are an important part to learn before discussing more about advanced technology. In a semiconductor, says Antonius, the bandgap energy is in the order of 1 eV, where a net flow of free electrons causes a current. “In a semiconductor, two types of charged particles contribute to the current, namely negatively charged electrons and positively charged holes,” he explained. In this workshop, Antonius also said that BJT can provide much greater amplification than JFT.

Thammasat initiates Ready Senior platform

Posted on by Thammasat University

‘Thammasat’ initiates the“Ready Senior” platform through “Website-Facebook-Line” to develop a health care community for people aged 50 and older to prepare for retirement and also organize the project “Turning Retirement into Power” in collaboration with 20 businesses to open the “full-time-part-time” job seeking and recruitment market and online training, having Thammasat University Hospital Doctors in charge of Dementia problem management.

Asst. Professor Dr. Duangchai Lorthanavanich, Director of the Center for Business Development and Social Care for the Elderly, Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, Thammasat University revealed that now, Thailand has completely entered an aging society and will be entering a super aging society in the next 10 years, with the elderly of the age 60 years old and older of approximately 25% of the total population. Therefore, it is necessary to urgently prepare to resolve and manage the problems of the elderly both socially and economically.

“Our project has signed an MOU with Thammasat University Hospital in designing a curriculum in the Elderly’s and Patients with Dementia’s Caregiving which will train people of the age 50 years old and older to be able to take care of themselves and their families, as well as extending to the career of caregiver for the elderly. This career will be in great demand in the near future,” said Asst. Professor Dr. Duangjai.

Assoc. Professor Dr. Pharuehas Tor-Udom, Director of Thammasat University Hospital said that dementia will become a more threatening disease for Thai people as the elderly live longer. Therefore, knowledge and understanding of the matter will help delay the occurrence of the disease. The medical team and personnel of Thammasat Uninversity Hospital are ready in this regard. Therefore, we have partnered with the Turning Retirement into Power Project by using Thammasat Hospice Palliative Care which is a palliative care center as the main teaching and training venue.

For those interested in the project, “Turning Retirement into Power” that intend to develop themselves, build a career and seek opportunities both pre and post retirement can contact to participate in the activities via Facebook page and Line of Ready Senior for free of charge.