KUALA TERENGGANU

cnews@nstp.com.my

UNIVERSITI Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) wants to be among the top 200 universities in the world by 2023, and its staff, academicians and students are united and committed towards realising the objective.

The race towards achieving this goal began with the introduction of UMT’s T200Y2023 Marine 4.0 programme. The code refers to “Towards becoming among the 200th top ranking universities by the year 2023 with marine being the pillar of the programme”.

Leading the programme is UMT’s deputy vice-chancellor (Academic and International) Prof Ir. Dr Noor Azuan Abu Osman, assigned from Universiti Malaya to UMT by the Higher Education Ministry.

Noor Azuan knows that making UMT among the top 200 universities in the world within five years is a mammoth challenge because he needs to “overhaul” some aspects in managing the academics in the university.

His 23 years’ experience will be put to the test with the first transformation step, undertaking a study on the university’s set-up which includes the management, its staff and students, and holding meetings with its 542 academicians, 262 non-academicians, students as well as 54 UMT students who are studying abroad.

He chose to focus on the Marine niche area because UMT is the only university in the country which emphasises studies of the ocean and marine environment and to look into ways to commercialise the research in related fields.

“We started by identifying what is the main attraction that needs to be highlighted in the Marine 4.0 programme. We prepared a working paper which was presented at a post cabinet meeting on Feb 21, and it was endorsed by the members,” he said.

Noor Azuan said seven main factors were identified to support the programme and all the deans of schools were briefed when the programme would be initiated, their roles and how the objectives need to be achieved within five years.

He said towards redesigning UMT’s education approach, seven areas would be upgraded and reviewed, related to its Education 4.0, Research 4.0, Smart Campus 4.0, Smart Mind 4.0 programmes, Flexible Technologies, Infrastructure and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) 4.0 and Digital Library.

He said Education 4.0, for example, would focus on classroom activities namely empowering undergraduate research, alleviation of examiners, excellent graduate intensification, conducive e-learning space, professional affiliations, industry involvements in the classroom and world-class programmes.

“UMT students will spend three weeks with industry partners in the classroom with the objective of developing ties. Our aim is to work and collaborate