Taking higher education into new directions
Malaysia aims to attract world’s best talents
UMalaysia Perlis (UniMAP) may be located in the country’s smallest state but it has big-sized aspirations, one of which is to be “among the ranks of the better universities in the world”.
This was what UniMAP vice-chancellor Datuk Professor Dr Zul Azhar Zahid Jamal shared in his welcome address at the 12th QS APPLE (AsiaPacific Professional Leaders in Education) Conference and Exhibition held earlier this week in Putrajaya and attended by international educators from Asia, Europe, Australasia and the Americas.
Each year, the conference moves to a different geographical location to highlight the richness and diversity of higher education in the AsiaPacific region.
This year’s event themed New Directions in Asia-Pacific Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities was co-organised by UniMAP, which followed in the footsteps of Nanyang Technological University, Yonsei University, Mahidol University, RMIT Melbourne and University of Malaya, among other illustrious hosts.
Zul Azhar acknowledged that research and innovation are the pulse of progress and success in this century and hoped that this event would enable the participants to touch base with each other, as well as “engage in intense exchanges, profound discussions and thorough reflections”.
He said that by being the event’s organising partner, “we hope to broaden our network with universities and higher education stakeholders across the globe.”
Added Zul Azhar: “We firmly believe that UniMAP already has many success stories and we are aiming towards future collaboration in many strategic areas .... The opportunity is also an honour for UniMAP for once again bringing the international conference to Malaysia to discuss matters pertaining to university ranking in the country.”
In her keynote address, Higher Education Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur said that this year’s conference theme was “very pertinent”.
She said: “As stakeholders for the education sector, we are facing issues, challenges and opportunities to ensure the best-possible education for the country to prosper.”
She added that universities will not only be developing the future workforce but also become centres for the creation of intellectual capital and new knowledge.
“This will hinge on their ability to produce a pool of high-calibre researchers who are actively engaged in R&D as well as undertake research activities that have commercial viability,” she said.
Noorul Ainur also noted that university autonomy was a prerequisite for world-class universities and it has been proven that “autonomy will promote academic freedom and intellectual development that is central to the ecosystem of world-class universities.
“Coupled with other critical success factors, autonomy will strengthen university capacity development to attract the world’s best talents in teaching, research and innovation,” she said.
The 12th QS APPLE Conference and Exhibition was launched by the Raja Muda of Perlis, Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail.
The conference is designed for middle and senior university administrators and academics who aspire to advance the success of their institutions and students on the global stage.
They include presidents, vicechancellors, senior administrators and academics involved in international partnerships and student mobility, government officials and quality assurance bodies involved in the maintenance of academic quality at the national or international level.