March of progress
The focus is not on academic achievement alone as SEGi hopes to equip its students with the necessary tools to take on the challenges of the 21st century.
SEGi University’s tremendous success over the years is not going to slow it down, instead of resting on its laurels, it plans to forge ahead in its march of progress and keep giving back to its stakeholders.
SEGi celebrated its 35th anniversary with a glitzy gala dinner recently, and footage of its growth from a humble college to the university it is today, was featured in a short video clip.
SEGi not only attained university status this year, but obtained two out of the 131 Entry Point Projects (EPP) under the government’s Economic Transformation Programme, said its chief executive officer Hew Moi Lan.
“The Education Ministry has entrusted us with championing Early Childhood and Childcare Education (ECCE) and the Human Resource Ministry made us project leader for SkillsMalaysia and INVITE (International Technical Education and Vocational Training) Programme.
“With such recognition and trust, we are required to make a mark and we intend to do so by providing better services and increased returns to all our stakeholders.
“We have numerous projects underway, such as a campus in Ipoh and an international school which will feature an international kindergarten in the not so distant future,” she said.
Hew added that the university also hopes to increase foreign student enrolment and further develop its PhD programmes.
“We want members of the SEGi family to have a better overall experience, an improved environment to work, play and study in, as well as a more holistic education framework that solely focuses on the academic aspects of higher education.
“Basically we want all our stakeholders to be happy and that means being sensitive to their demands and the demands of the market. that provides holistic education to address these challenges. Teaching and learning need to progress with the times, it used to be a oneway process where the lecturer spews out information and students digest them. “Today it is a twoway process where students contribute to the teaching process. This is a necessity we can’t stay in the old mould of education, it’s out-of-date,” he said.
Dr Muhamad said that apart from revitalising teaching processes, it was also vital to focus on research and development (R&D) and commercialisation.
“We have to conduct R&D with a difference, by integrating the best brains across disciplines and faculties to come up with great research projects and outcomes,” he said.
He hopes that SEGi University will become a research university in five to six years.
“As we go in that direction, we will also have to ensure the delivery methods of our programmes lead to desired learning outcomes. Students must be able to absorb what we teach, our curriculum and educational philosophy must be in line with this.
“We would like to widen the scope of our courses and introduce new ones, but as vice-chancellor I have to look at the quality domains of the new directions we may be heading in,” he said.
The varsity is keen to offer niche programmes but market demands and employability of graduates have to be taken into account when charting new courses, he said.
“Once a programme is running it will be subject to scrutiny by an international academic advisory board made up of professors from the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and other countries.
“Even now, the advisory board visits once a year to ensure our courses are relevant and provide suggestions to make them better. We are in constant communication with them,” he said.
Dr Muhamad added that SEGi is academically well regulated but it goes even further to ensure its courses are exceptional.
“We also engage the industry to get their input. For example, if they say they need better communicators, we then prepare our graduates to ensure they have better communication skills.
“Building industry-university linkages is something we strive for, and we have internal and external moderators to ensure we are on the same page,” he said.
Prof Muhamad said that he had seen the industry evolve after spending four decades in higher education.
“The traditional functions of the university have changed. The focus then was on teaching and learning to produce managers and leaders ... there wasn’t much emphasis on R&D and advisory functions.
“Today it’s the other way around. Universities are marketplaces of ideas and we produce technopreneurs and advise the government and private sector,” he said.
For now though, SEGi will focus on quality assurance and meet the EPP goals set for it, said Prof Muhamad.
“At the same time we will also be diversifying our programmes to suit target segments of our students by riding on the waves of the ICT revolution which allows us greater reach and precision in our courses.
“Apart from that, we’re working on inculcating a sense of pride and belonging among our students and staff.
“We want them to be proud to be a part of the university and carry that pride past graduation as a part of an illustrious alumni,” he said.
SEGi University is a contributor to the Star Education Fund. Our courses must be relevant and comprehensive,” she said.
SEGi University vice-chancellor Emeritus Prof Dr Muhamad Awang explained that producing future leaders is the core business of the university and despite changes it goes through, it has a set of guiding principles it abides by.
“We aim to be a vibrant, passionate and caring university that provides quality education and the highest levels of satisfaction to our stakeholders.
“Our effort is to build a foundation for our students which includes organising leadership-oriented activities such as career fairs and providing them with environmental education,” he said.
Dr Muhamad added that cultural and economic or entrepreneurial studies were some of the areas he was interested in focusing on, now that Segi had attained its new status.
“There is no peace in some parts of the globe because of the misunderstanding between cultures.
“Courses like theology and comparative religion which deal with such issues should be made more accessible so as to promote harmony and tolerance among the generations to come. Equipped with cultural knowledge they will be able to build bridges of their own,” he said.
He added that around 10% of SEGi’s student population were foreigners, who come from diverse cultural backgrounds, making cultural understanding and tolerance a “natural necessity”.
“We intend to increase foreign enrolment to 20%, so the more mature we are culturally the better, in a globalised world the importance of cultural awareness cannot be overstated,” he said.
Economic and entrepreneurial knowledge are also essential for survival in a globalised world, said Dr Muhamad, “I cannot overstate the importance of the two fields and we make subjects related to them compulsory here in SEGi University.”
He said that SEGi’s modus operandi was to be fast, fluid and adaptable to meet the needs of students and that was also how it worked around complying with the demands of the Higher Education Ministry when it sought university status.
“SEGi strives to create an energetic and lively atmosphere that promotes interaction with all stakeholders. We meet our students and their parents on a regular basis to get feedback as well as share our vision and discuss pertinent issues.
“Parents tend to be more conservative and students more liberal and we intend to go the extra mile and foster a safe campus environment that’s vibrant and appealing to the students,” he added.
“We need to become a comprehensive university