Tag: Malaysia

On 4th April 2023, 21 Master of Public Health (MPH) postgraduate students from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Medical Faculty had the privilege of visiting the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Malaysia, located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

As prospective public health physicians, it was a good opportunity to understand the role of UNHCR in dealing with the forgotten and forsaken health issues among migrant populations and their health-related challenges. Yet, our host, Mr. Jason Yeo, the assistant public health officer at UNHCR, posed a poignant question that would linger in our minds long after the visit ended.

“Imagine a scenario where your loved one falls ill, and you spend your last RM50 on a Grab car to rush them to a healthcare facility. However, upon arrival, you are told that treatment cannot be given for various reasons. How would you feel?” Mr. Jason proceeded to present a summary of health issues faced by the refugees, highlighting the stark differences between undocumented immigrants and refugees – undocumented immigrants still have the protection of their home countries and can return home, whereas refugees have no such privilege and cannot return home or risk persecution if they do.

He then shared staggering statistics with us, including the fact that there are approximately 100 million refugees worldwide and that Malaysia alone is housing 184,699 refugees and asylum seekers. Malaysia currently hosts refugees from over 60 countries, with the vast majority hailing from Myanmar. Unfortunately, more than a quarter of the refugees are children and people with medical needs. Malaysia has no refugee camps; hence, their presence can sometimes go unnoticed. Most reside in the slums or low-cost flats in metropolitan regions, with the highest concentrations in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Despite the availability of healthcare facilities, affordability remains a significant barrier to healthcare among refugees and asylum seekers in this country. The cost of living, along with the absence of prospects for official employment and lack of educational opportunities, exacerbate the difficulty in obtaining healthcare. It is evident that these displaced individuals were vulnerable to a wide range of health issues, many of which stem from urban poverty, including malnutrition, infectious diseases, and non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and mental illnesses. Refugees in Malaysia have demonstrated remarkable resourcefulness by establishing their own support systems.

This includes helping one another to sustain their families, yet many still struggle to get needed services despite the initiatives and discounted healthcare fees. It is imperative that we address the root causes of these challenges, such as restricted employment and education opportunities to improve refugee health and well-being. Employment and education are important determinants of health, but refugees can neither work nor go to school legally.

A reliable income would improve their chances of getting proper healthcare. Education is key to securing employment to earn a living, allowing them to live healthier, consume better food and receive better quality healthcare. As we reflect on the situation of refugees in Malaysia, we must consider how we can best support them. This includes finding ways to enhance access to healthcare while also addressing the underlying social determinants of health that impact the lives of refugees. Through collaborative efforts, we can work towards creating a more equitable and just society for all.

Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia is set on its path to be a globally renowned university by 2025 or known as GRU 2025 in its blueprint. Due to this, various international initiatives have been planned and executed by the university toward achieving this overriding goal. One of the projects undertaken under this mission takes place in the actual classroom setting involving the teaching and learning process. This venture is named Global Learning and is placed under the Centre for Innovative Delivery and Learning Development (CIDL), UiTM. Its main focus is to bring international connection and live interaction directly to the classroom. This undertaking aspires to deliver world class education and at the same time, benefit students so that they can be competent graduates globally. With the acceleration in online learning and virtual meetings, Global Learning is even more relevant because UiTM students can now have international speakers in their classroom without having to leave their space.

Realising the benefit of such an innovation, UiTM Kedah Branch, Malaysia, via one of its English language classrooms, has successfully conducted a Global Learning session for its students. The English language subject is ELC650 or known in full as English for Professional Interaction, is offered to the degree students of various disciplines. This subject exposes a variety of workplace communication issues to the students and deal with a wide range of topics such as how to behave professionally, how to write emails and how to conduct formal group discussions. For the planned Global Learning session, 34 students from the classes of KAM2285C and KAM2285D who are pursuing their Bachelor of Administrative Science took part. The session took place on 3 January 2023, Tuesday, from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm. The invited speaker was Mr. Abdul Bari Khan, is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Southern Punjab, Multan, Pakistan. The topics covered by Mr. Abdul Bari Khan were Consideration for Professional Interaction, Professional Etiquette, Politeness & Concept of Face. The session was conducted using Webex. The organising team for this session includes Syazliyati Ibrahim as the group leader, Rafidah Amat as the moderator, Dr. Nursyazwanie Mansor, Nur Hidyati Zolhani and Nurazila Abdul Aziz as the committee members.

All in all, the students gave positive feedback and managed to garner valuable insights from the invited speaker. The experiences shared by the speaker who hails from Pakistan have been able to expose the students to different perspectives on workplace issues and allow them to compare their future workplace scenarios with the ones in Pakistan.

On 18 March 2023, UiTM Perak Branch, Malaysia, under the Green Campus Committee and Green Safe Cities (GreSAFE) Research Group, collaborated with the housing community of Puncak Iskandar, Perak, and the local council of Perak Tengah, Malaysia in disseminating the solar lighting technology towards enhancing the safety level of the neighborhood. Under the initiation and support of the UiTM Perak technical team, Assoc. Prof. Sr Dr. Nur Azfahani Ahmad addressed that this program is sequential knowledge and technology transfer program using a community-based approach.

This program has successfully gathered 30 academic and supporting staff of the UiTM Perak Branch, 15 staff from the local council, and more than 50 community members in the installation process of 12 units of solar lighting system in the housing surroundings, the amenities, and playgrounds. The municipal councilor, Mr. Syukri Azaari, highlights that this program helps to strengthen the safety, security, well-being, and inclusivity of the community toward crime prevention. It aligns with the Malaysian Twelfth Plan (2021-2025) and United Nation Sustainable Development Goals No 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and No 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) by synchronizing the plan of Malaysian Science, Technology, Innovation, and Economic (MySTIE), specifically Smart Cities and Transportation. The community leader, Dr. Norhazlan Haron has supported the program and agreed that the people’s quality and welfare are improved with the aid of green energy. It significantly strengthens the country’s prosperity by enhancing the excellence of academia through green technology applications.

At current, UiTM Perak Branch under the Green Campus initiative and Green Safe Cities Research Group are actively conducting various activities focusing on resilient and safe communities in Malaysia. It includes activities on crime prevention through environmental design, green environment of safe cities, and resilient cities with green management.

It was a life-changing experience for three students from the Faculty of Business and Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia, Puncak Alam campus, when they were given the opportunity to participate in the Asian International Mobility for Students (AIMS) programme at Kangwon National University (KNU), Chuncheon, Republic of South Korea during the spring semester of February 2022. AIMS is SEAMEO RIHED’s  (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre specialising in higher education and development) flagship regional initiative to support student mobility and improve cooperation among Asian nations in higher education.

During the 5-months exchange program, the three FBM’s students, Siti Sarah, Muhammad Naqib and Dina Hanani attended various credit transfer classes under the department of international trade at KNU. Classes were taught entirely in English or in a dual language, Korean and English by the professors at KNU. At KNU, they were also given a chance to learn the Korean language to help them better adapt to their surroundings.

To further enhance their sense of university life at KNU and learn more about the language and culture of South Korea, the FBM’s students were paired with KNU’s students through the buddy program. They also visited places in South Korea such as Busan and Seoul, giving them the opportunity to learn beyond the classroom’s walls. For Siti Sarah, she found this program to be an experience that completely changed her life. While, Muhammad Naqib said, “this program was exciting and full of adventure as there were abundance of new things and knowledge to be explored”. Dina Hanani claimed, “the program was wonderful, beyond her expectations and had pushed students to be adventurous and go out of their comfort zone”.

Basically, this exchange program had provided the Malaysian students the educational experience that brings together local and foreign students to form networks and learn more about Korean history, culture, and business. Not only that, one of them was even awarded a scholarship by KNU. This once in a lifetime opportunity enabled the students to gain knowledge and experience that make them more grounded and probably could contribute to UiTM and the nation.

For the program’s video, go to https://youtu.be/FLZmV2KtMtE

UiTM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Research and Education Development (READ) Institute, Indonesia. READ collaborating with the Faculty of Education and Teacher Training of IAIN Palopo, Indonesia provides a platform called the International Journal of Asian Education (IJAE) that welcomes and acknowledges high-quality original papers about education written by researchers, academicians, professionals, and practitioners over the world. IJAE has been approved for inclusion in the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH PLUS).

International Journal of Asian Education is a publication of general education studies. It offers professional and academic analyses of global issues at all stages of education, both formal and informal. It publishes peer-reviewed articles by international authors across a variety of education and viewpoints, including pedagogy and instruction, history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, international and comparative education, and educational leadership. Articles provide original insights into formal and informal education policy, service, processes, and practice and the experience of all those concerned in a variety of countries around the world.

The MoU agreement that has been initiated by Ts. Dr. Duratul Ain Tholibon, senior lecturer from the Civil Engineering Studies, College of Engineering, UiTM Pahang Branch, Jengka Campus, Malaysia has met the performance indicator of PI No. 74 and 90 i.e., new MoUs with international industrial and universities related to academic or research activities. This MoU agreement was signed on a desk-to-desk basis, which was represented by YBhg. Prof. Ts. Dr. Mohd Ilham Bin Adenan, Rector of UiTM Pahang Branch, while READ was represented by Dr. Dodi Ilham, Director of the READ Institute.

This MoU agreement will be forged for one year to increase collaboration between UiTM and READ. It is hoped that this MoU will strengthen, promote, and expand international collaboration
in the fields of academia, culture, and research. This MoU signing initiative is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) No.17, which focuses on partnerships for the goals. It is hoped that these efforts will highlight UiTM Pahang Branch Campus’ global visibility.

In the era of IR 4.0, the demand for highly skilled workers increases while the demand for low-skilled jobs will decline. To embrace this era, Malaysia needs more young generations who have expertise in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). As STEM has a close relationship with the development of technology, the prime minister also gave hope that STEM-related subjects should be given attention.

Strengthening the quality of STEM education has been listed as one of the components in shifts to transform the Malaysia education system, as stated in Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, with an emphasis on practical applications of knowledge through laboratory and project-based work. Nevertheless, current trends in Malaysia showed reducing interest in science education, with less than one fifth of secondary school students choosing science stream. There is a need to prepare the young people to face the IR 4.0 challenge by ensuring they have high education and skills.

Therefore, the School of Biology, UiTM Cawangan Negeri Sembilan, Kampus Kuala Pilah took the initiative to be directly involved in activities promoting and empowering the STEM field at the level of the younger generation since the campus has sufficient facilities. They have organized the Little Scientist in Action! program in the last school holiday season which provides useful activities to fill the children’s time off. The program held for two days on 7th and 8th September 2022 involved the full participation of 60 children aged between 4 and 12 years. This program was conducted with the aim of fueling children’s interest in science, especially in the field of biology, through observation and experiments in the laboratory. In addition, participants were exposed to new experiences in learning outside of school and communicating with peers of various ages and different schools.

During the two-day program, participants were exposed to various experiments in the field of biology, such as isolation of microorganisms from multiple samples, plant transpiration and animals’ observation. The participants were assisted by facilitators consisting of lecturers, laboratory staff and students of the biology study center. In line with technological and digital needs, there are also learning slots using interactive videos and VR headsets.

This program provides an opportunity for primary school students to do hands-on science experiments, since they are not exposed to complete laboratory facilities at school. With this program initiative, it is hoped to help students to understand a concept learned at school, as well as encourage students to think critically, as well as increase their motivation and interest in the field of science. It is also hoped that this program will be able to have a positive impact on the children in particular, and the country of Malaysia in general.

A seven-member delegation led by Associate Professor Dr Saidatul Akmar Ismail of the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia attached to Education University of Indonesia (locally known as Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia – UPI) for three months beginning April to June 2022. Since WHO allowed the open-up of international borders for foreign visitors, this was the first “physical” outbound activity that bridged UiTM with the international universities. The delegation from the School of Information Science (SIS), College of Computing, Informatics, and Media (formerly known as Faculty of Information Management) was the first to set foot in Bandung City where UPI is located. They were attached to the Faculty of Education Studies, Program of Librarianship and Information Studies.

The delegation had the opportunity to participate in faculty activities, such as educational visits to national library, city library, school library, historic museum and archives, students of core academic courses (library management and cataloguing & classification), and other international student-related activities. The academic staff invited as expert speakers and lecturers to the academic and students’ events. The 100% commitment and agile move of the SIS outbound activities are beyond expectations, provide a tremendous effect on the SIS’s academic experience, perspectives, and thus, raise the profile of UiTM and SIS in the field of library and information management.

During the outbound activities, the outbound academic and UPI faculty members discussed the possibilities of undertaking joint collaborative academic and research programs between UPI Bandung, West Java and UiTM Malaysia. In addition, there is a need for producing skilled graduates at both the universities through training and internship programs, awarded with certification or outbound certificate for librarianship. This competency certification will add value to this outbound program.

SIS is committed to providing quality education. With the international mobility programs, this platform enables the SIS’s internationalization goal to escalate, the inter-university partnerships intensify, and thus, the UiTM’s presence abroad soar. It is hoped that more SIS academics and students, in particular, would participate in the global academics’ and students’ exchange activities and gain a new horizon of knowledge, exposure, and network.

TAGS #Universiti Teknologi MARA #Pusat Pengajian Sains Maklumat #School of Information Science #College of Computing, Informatics and Media #UiTM #SIS #SISiSchool