Academia-industry work hand-in-hand
Mohamed Jamil Ahmad retired in 2011, armed with over 34 years of experience in the urban planning industry.
After his retirement, he was invited to deliver part-time lectures by Universiti Malaya at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning Faculty of Built Environment.
He is currently an Associate Professor at the department.
“While most of my colleagues and contemporaries have sunk into retirement doing things they had dreamed off in their working life, teaching and disseminating knowledge in urban planning has always been in my ‘shopping cart’.
“Imparting essential urban planning knowledge to young students of the Built Environment course has been very fulfilling and satisfying.
“Practical experiences add colour to your lectures and sharing sessions as lessons can be interpersed with real life examples. More often than not, this creates extra value in your presentation during lessons,” he said.
By giving real life practical experiences, he said, the “authority” and “authenticity” in the deliberation will make an academic’s lessons more interesting and believable.
Having this extra skill is important because as a former industry practitioner, he said, educators will be able to achieve better academic results and add value to their students’ pursuit of real work experience.
“You also tend to be more apt at problem solving and imparting street smart qualities on your students. Going into academia also opens up new doors for your career as you are now part of a global community of researchers and scientists.”
For urban planning to improve, a cooperative relationship between industry and academia needs to be established and flourish.
Thus, both need each other, he added. Decision making in urban planning must be evidence based, and planning policies and products need to be tested from time to time to remain relevant. Universities must prepare and undertake empirical research into formulating future planning methodologies, he said.
“The industry needs to provide funding towards that end as there isn’t enough research-based studies being funded by the urban planning sector.
“There are many university-industry collaborations in the fields of technology, medicine and science, but there is a lack of similar collaboration in the social
sciences.”
While Mohamed Jamil’s focus is on teaching, he is still involved in the urban planning industry in an advisory capacity. He does consultancy work and is a co-opted exco member of the Malaysian Institute of Planners.
He is also a member of the Federal Territory Planning Urban Planning Appeal Board.