MSU receives honours from global higher-learning accreditation body
KUCHING: The Management and Science University ( MSU) has received new recognitions from the Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities (ASIC).
MSU founder and president Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Dr Mohd Shukri Ab Yajid is honoured with the ‘International Technical and Vocational Education and Training ( TVet) Education Award’, while the set of new ASIC recognitions to MSU has given the university the ‘Academic and Skills International Qualifications (ASIQUAL) Validated Award Centre Status’ for the provision of ASIQUAL-validated programmes, as well as the ‘ Recognised Centre Status with ASIQUAL’ for the provision of ASIQUAL qualifications.
The ceremony was held at MSU’s main campus in Shah Alam recently, with ASIC chairman Dr Maurice K Dimmock presenting the awards.
Dimmock recounted his own personal TVet experience in the context of a post-high school apprenticeship at an Imperial Chemical Industries ( ICI) plant in the UK.
He did so well in his ‘Ordinary National Certificate’ and later in his ‘Higher National Certificate’, because he could correlate the work that he did with the theoretical materials that he was taught.
“Experiential learning is the best kind of learning because you immediately relate the theory with practice. You see everything that you do in TVet becomes relevant on the job,” he said.
Last year, MSU received the ASIC’s ‘ Excellence in Quality International Education’ and ‘Outstanding Contribution to International Education’ awards. The university had also received the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia’s Tier- 5 Setara rating – the national rating system that measures an institution’s industry closeness.
“I n d u s t r y - emb e d d e d programmes have always been the MSU’s DNA in building workready, well-rounded graduates,” said Mohd Shukri, describing the TVet recognitions as ‘being timely’ as MSU moves into its third phase of growth towards greater TVet content across all its academic programmes.
Industry is also embedded into MSU – enhancing curriculum development through the University Industry Advisors Panel ( UIAP), keeping learning relevant and contemporary with teaching that mirrors industry’s latest developments and best practices, as well as strengthening the university-industry ecosystem with comprehensive collaborations.
In this regard, Dimmock said with ‘MSU-rians’ leading the job market at a national high of 98.6 per cent graduate employability, MSU emerges as a ‘ model TVet institution’.