Faculty of Business and Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia conducted an exchange program recently with UNTAG-SURABAYA, which started on 4th November 2019 and lasted for two weeks. Two lecturers, Assoc. Prof. Dr Maimunah Mohd Shah and Dr Rohani Mohd from FBM were involved in this international collaboration, which has provided the opportunity to share knowledge and expertise among the students and staff of Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 (UNTAG), Surabaya. In the process, the learning and work culture of both universities were observed by the counterparts which provided the visiting lecturers opportunities to enhance their teaching and learning. This programme has also been very beneficial in promoting UiTM to UNTAG-SURABAYA. The purpose of the program was to conduct activities following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two universities which was signed on 1 November 2018.
The programme also witnessed collaborative research between the two universities. The highlight of the visit was when the two visiting lecturers presented their research work at a symposium, which was attended by 45 lecturers and 100 students from UNTAG-SURABAYA and FBM UiTM. The UiTM lecturers also shared their expertise on publication and data analysis. While Dr Rohani shared her experience on “What it takes to publish in a Scopus indexed journal?”, Dr, Maimunah spoke on “Data analysis using SPSS”. Based on their sharing sessions, it stimulated interest among the lecturers to collaborate with FBM on publishing papers in scopus indexed journals. This has certainly been a positive development in the area of inculcating research culture in both universities.
Another gainful exposure from the visit was a long-term practice of UNTAG SURABAYA to engage with the community by means of social entrepreneurship. They are used to devising long-term planning for the community on tackling global issues, for example, green environment which is of great focus now. This is certainly a diversity that can facilitate the sustainable growth of a university and in the process promote research to be conducted on pre-and post-phenomena. This act is also sustainable for the community as they become responsible towards becoming healthy and productive, as well as for business trading in this nature to flourish.
Additionally, as UNTAG SURABAYA also practices another form of entrepreneurship, namely micro business, this exchange program and many more in the future would certainly benefit sourcing creative ideas from UNTAG SURABAYA. Being passionate with entrepreneurship, the two visiting lecturers proposed that an entrepreneurship competition be conducted between FBM UiTM and UNTAG SURABAYA, and also proposed a student-exchange programme. This move would certainly be a move towards producing more all-rounded, multi-skilled students, both at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Based on the valuable input and insights gained throughout their stay in UNTAG SURABAYA, the visiting lecturers recommend that the exchange programme become an on-going exercise to be attended by lecturers and students alike.
“Reconnect Your World with International Collaboration”
Prepared by : Prepared by: Dr Rohani Mohd & Assoc. Prof. Dr Maimunah Mohd Shah, UiTM
Edited by: Assoc.Prof.Dr. Badrul Hisham Kamaruddin, UiTM & Assoc.Prof.Dr.Geetha Subramaniam, Fellow, InQKA,UiTM