UUM-Yemen Collaboration Produces First Batch Of 22 Graduates

SINTOK, March 30 (Bernama) -- Twenty-two students from Yemen became the first batch of graduates under a collaboration programme between the Yemen University of Science and Technology and Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) here.

The students, who graduated with a bachelor's degree, either in information technology or business administration, received their scrolls at the UUM's convocation Monday.

One of them, Najah Abduljabbar Almugahed, an information technology graduate, said she was very happy and excited to be back in Malaysia to receive the scroll after studying for four years.

"(When) I first stepped foot at UUM, I noticed there was very good opportunity for education development here and the courses that were offered encompassed theory and practical aspects," she added.

Najah, who is now a manager at an information technology development agency in Yemen, said she hoped to pursue her studies for a master's degree and then a doctorate to fulfil her ambition of contributing to her country and other Muslim countries through education.

Her country mate, Waleed Abdulkader Al-Mujahed, who graduated with a degree in business administration, said he enjoyed studying at UUM and had bought an expensive suit to wear for the convocation.

"I'll use the knowledge I have gathered to improve my family business in Yemen," said the icompany manager of Gardenia for Drugs and Medical Appliance.

Another Yemeni graduate in information technology, Aseel Abdulla Lutf Almutareb, said the programme gave him an opportunity to learn and acquire more skills in information technology.

"I'm now a web developer, which I have always wanted to be since a young boy, at Tahseen Consulting, Sana'a-Yemen and am hoping to be an expert in the field one day," he added.

-- BERNAMA

UKM News Portal Hasten UKM Internationalisation Process

SUNDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2011 21:02

By Shahfizal Musa
Pix by PKK and Unit Foto UKM Press

BANGI,  25 Sept.  2011-  UKM Newsportal has eased the process of elevating
 UKM to the international stage as news about the university and its research 
findings can be accessed anywhere in the world.

UKM Vice-Chancellor, Prof Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed 

Hasan Shahabudin, speaking at the third session of UKM 39^th Convocation 

ceremony here today said it has now been accessed  widely in  majority of 

countries over the world.

(Following a revamp in May 2010, UKM website is now accessed from 4,314  

cities in 187 countries (latest reading of Google Analytics on 25 Sept. 2011).

The UKM News Portal is accessed from 2,902 cities in 173 countries).

The site is where the media and public can find updates about new findings 

and scientific discoveries that could affect them. It has thus been able to 

publicise many research findings of the university not known to the world.

Its focus is to present research and new findings made by UKM academics 
and researchers to the public so as to be the bridge between the researchers
and society.

The portal has carried some highly technical research in simple jargon free 
layman’s language so as to benefit readers around the world. It has thus 
become a source of news for both local and international media. 

She said UKM is also playing
 its role in community service 
mentioning how students from the 

Faculty of Social Science and

Humanities initiated a project 

to lend a helping hand to those 

in need like having the 

soup kitchen project to feed 

the homeless around

Kuala Lumpur and the youth 

empowerment program meto 

counter the 

escalating social problems among them.

These initatives has attracted world attention 

and UKM was made one of the 20 model universities that 

shouId be emulated in the book “The Engaged 

University: International Perspective on Civic Engagement”.

The university’s Pro Chancellor Tunku Panglima Besar Kedah, Dato’ Seri Tunku 
Intan Safinaz binti Sultan Haji Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah graced the occasion. 
Deans of Faculties,Heads of Departments and parents were also present. 

UKM to Acquire Latest Technology to be Among the World’s Best University

MONDAY, 18 JULY 2011 17:23

By S. Sivaselvam
Pics by Mohd Hairul Azmi Jahid

BANGI, 18 July 2011 –UKM has drawnup its ICT Strategic Plan for the period 2011-2015 

to be spearheaded by the Information Technology Centre (PTM) as part of its efforts to 

become a world renowned university. Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Student and Alumni 

Affairs, Prof Ir Dr Othman

A. Karim said the latest technology is needed to help spur the university’s principal 

activities to be on par with other institutions of higher learning on a global scale.

There needed to be comprehensive planning to achieve this, he said when opening 

PTM’s ICT Day here today.He is confident that PTM will be able to meet requirements 

for the latest technology under the Strategic Plan, 

a blueprint that provides guidance for the implementation of ICT projects in a cost 

effective way in line with the need for priority to be placed on management and 

operational requirements within a specified period.“This Strategic Plan also identifies 

the initiatives that will be supported by applications systems, technology, human capital 

development and ICT-based administration in supporting UKM’s mission and vision,” 

Prof Othman said.

In describing ICT as the driver of UKM’s transformation exercise, Prof. Othman said the 

level of ICT usage among UKM’s staff and students is high in view of the facilities and 

services that are being provided.

Even so, he hoped PTM will always seek feedback from the users of its services and 

look for ways to improve its delivery. He described the ICT Day as one such avenue 

for feedback and a way to re-evaluate the current technology, study problems that 

arise and ways to overcome them.

Prof. Othman was proud of the achievements of PTM in providing a wide range of 

facilities in terms of ICT infrastructure to help nurture research, teaching and learning 

while ensuring administrative excellence at the university.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin 

in her message for the ICT Day said that PTM, as a major service centre at UKM, has 

improved the quality of its service provisions in a comprehensive manner.

In 2010, PTM was awarded the ISO 9001:2008 certification, which she described as proof 

that PTM succeeded in 

meeting its KPI, and she hoped that efforts to build upon this would be continued

through and monitoring mechanisms so that improvement in service quality is achieved 

more effectively.

PTM Director Associate Prof Dr Mohamad Shanudin Zakaria said the era where ICT 

was seen as a technical facilitator to overcome the technical issues facing organisations 

is over. ICT’s primary role now is to develop and provide services that are suited 

for the world of business, he said.

“This requires intellectual transformation that is geared towards the realisation of a 

knowledge economy,” he stressed.

“For this purpose, ICT must be regarded as the driver in powering smart partnership 

and not just focussed on resolving issues in terms of content and hardware.”

Among the exhibitors at the ICT Day are the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation 

and Management Planning Unit (Mampu), the OSS (Open Source Software) community,

the amateur radio community, Telekom Malaysia, Symantec Corp (Malaysia) and Avaya 

(Malaysia)

   

UKM VC: Students to Design Their Own Programmes (second part of three part interview)

WEDNESDAY, 20 JULY 2011 00:00

By  S. Sivaselvam Pix by Saliman Leman 

BANGI, 20 July, 2011 - UKM is 

introducing contract learning as 

part of its student-centred learning 

strategy,said Vice-Chancellor 

Prof Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Dr. Sharifah 

Hapsah Shahabudin. 

In contract learning the students, within 

the broad framework of the university’s 

learning outcomes, decide onthe 

activities they want to do on their own 

to achieve those outcomes. These can 

include leadership, teamwork and 

management abilities. 

“The students can design their own 

programmes and they will get these 

accredited, with supervisors to see 

that theyachieve the outcome that 

they set out for themselves.” 

In tis second part of her interview with UKM News Portal, she spoke of how 

professors are important at different levels. At the micro level, where they deal 

directly with the students, they can exert a very profound influence on the students 

with regard to the way they think and behave. 

“It’s not just the knowledge that is being transmitted by the professors, but also how 

the professors help the students to think and imbibe values which are important for 

us as a nation.” 

While previously “we left it too much to professors to their own devices, perhaps now 

we should be a bit more systematic and that’s what we are trying to do with 

the outcomes-based approach and the student-centred learning,” she said. 

“At the classroom level, we can set guidelines on what professors should also be doing, 

rather than only considering themselves as people with knowledge and transmitting

that knowledge.” 

While knowledge is everywhere - on the Internet, in books and journals – she felt that 

what professors must do is to help students learn how to access this knowledge that is 

available. They must learn to show students the world, guide them on how to evaluate 

such information, how to use it, so that they can make changes to the things that they 

are concerned about. 

“So, at this micro level, we determine what outcomes we expect the students to achieve,

how the professors design the teaching and learning to help students achieve this,” 

she added. 

“It would mean things would have to be outside the classroom. You cannot impart a lot 

of the things we want to in just lectures, for example, because a lot of it the students 

have to observe and experience themselves.” 

Combining these two, the professors helping the students, and the students coming up 

with their own teaching-learning activities, then it becomes contract learning, a 

contract between the university and students. 

“It tells the students that if they are allowed to do certain things, they must fulfill their 

contract in terms of the outcomes. At the micro level, we are progressing fairly well,” 

she said. 

At the recent National Professors Congress in Kuala Lumpur, the chairman of the 

National Professors Council, Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr. Zakri Abdul Hamid, wanted 

professors to take on the role of national thinkers, visionaries as well as an 

intellectual tonic and problem solvers, who can help the country’s leaders 

people-related problems. 

He spoke of how the late Prof. Syed Hussein Alatas and Royal Prof. Ungku Aziz impacted 

the lives of Malaysians. In other words, he sees professors as serving the community 

beyond their universities. 

To this, Prof. Tan Sri Sharifah Hapsah points out that there are many other professors 

too who have been doing a lot for the community at large, such as in Islamic banking 

and on social issues. There are a sizeable number of professors who have actually 

introduced projects that could become models of development. 

If Prof. Zakri is speaking about a collective basis, with a more organised level of input,

she said that is what the Council is all about, and it already has several clusters on 

various disciplines. 

“If they (Council members) can get their act together to study an issue and come out

very quickly with well reasoned proposals to the government, that’ll be one very

 big input, particularly when the government spends a lot on consultancy,” she added. 

Prof  Sharifah Hapsah contended that UKM is already a consultancy, as it has groups of 

people working on projects and they submit recommendations or studies. 

“So now, if instead of doing this at the university level, we are going to do it at the 

National Professors Council, I’m not quite sure how this is going to work out in the end. 

This is because at the university we are doing a lot of consultancy work already. 

We have been contributing significantly to various projects undertaken by both public 

and private sector agencies.” 

She felt that the Council could probably come out with some good ideas about how 

universities should be governed or work out programmes for universities on how they 

should move forward.  

It should in fact look not only at the direction of higher education but look at the whole 

education system, from preschool right up to PhD and beyond, even continuing education.  

“Professors should be thinking very seriously in the area of continuing education, because
that’s where you are required to keep the economy going. Once you graduate nobody’s 
holding your hand, and you must learn how to learn on your own. Perhaps professors 
can think about how this can be effectively done. 

They can also help chart research areas,” Prof Sharifah Hapsah said. 

Facebook Usage Among Malaysian Youths

THURSDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2011 00:00

By Aini Raudhah binti Roslam, graduate student, Security and Strategic Studies, UKM

 

BANGI, 20 Oct. 2011 - Researchers from the 

School of Media and 

Communications, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSSH) in the 

National University of Malaysia (UKM) have debunked the longtime belief 

that youths and teenagers are addicted to Facebook.

Facebook is currently the most visited social media website in the world. 
By May 2011 there were 666million users globally with Malaysians making up 
10.4 million of whom 3.5 million are youths aged between 18 and 24.  

The researchers comprising  Dr Normah Mustafa, Dr Wan Amizah Wan Mahmud, 
Dr. Fauziah Ahmad, Dr Chang Peng Kee and Puan Maizatul Haizam Mahbob 
presented their findings at the FSSH Monthly Seminar Series here today. 

Dr Normah who presented the findings on behalf of the group categorised 
Facebook users into five groups, whom she termed as Innovators, Early 
Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards. 

The research was carried out to find the level of popularity of Facebook  among 
youths, the purpose of usage and other factors that had influenced its usage, 
she said. 

The group used the Song, Larose, and Eastin categorisation in their 2004 

research here those who used Facebook for more than 4 hours a day were 

considered as addicts.

The research found  that a majority of Malaysian youths spend less than 

3 hours per day on Facebook. Being relatively new they were categorised as 

‘late majority’. The main reason why they logged into Facebbok is to 

communicate with their peers and to find old friends.

Peer pressure is also found to be a factor leading to its usage. They concluded 
that its usage among youths is due to need rather than an addiction.  

They group reasoned that its usage should not be misconstrued negatively 

as its usage had some positive results like helping to improve family bonding 

which is evident when some of the youth became closer to their parents when 

they added their parents as “friends” on their walls. That  had enabled them to 

discuss with their parents certain things they had not been able to discuss 

face to face.   

Associate Professor Dr Fuziah Kartini Binti Hassan Basri from FSSH who 

officiated the presentation reminded all internet users to be honest and 

responsible when using the facility not just for Facebook but for all websites 

especially since they were not supervised.She said usage of the new technology 

comes with certain underlying values like honesty and responsibility which needed 

to be upheld.