Kuala Lumpur, 10 October, 2011 : The Vice Chancellor of UTM, Prof. Dato’ Dr Zaini Ujang delivered his 1st Lecture since reelected as UTM’s Vice Chancellor for a second term beginning 1October 2011 until 30 September, 2013. It was part of the monthly assembly with UTM staff and students held at Dewan Jumaah, UTM International Campus and broadcast live to Johor Bahru campus.
Dato’ Zaini stressed with the new mandate entrusted on him, he is set to propel UTM further to greater heights. UTM should continue to shine and remain strong to maintain its outstanding reputation as an exemplary and reputable institution despite its accomplishment in 2010 achieving the status of a research university.
UTM should aim for first class mentality among all its staff and students and aspire to be listed as one of the top universities in the region. The aspiration should be to think big and think first class and never be satisfied being second best.
UTM should embark on more strategic initiatives with a focus on increasing the number of postgraduate students with a view to enhance research initiatives. This is to generate a high-end print culture, high target indexed publications and citations.
At present, the number of UTM postgraduate students has exceeded 10,000 while the number of undergraduates will slowly be trimmed down, a practice already in place in renowned world universities such as Imperial College, MIT, Harvard, KAIST, to name a few.
With the transformation in terms of functional organizational structure , a new context of research which is interdisciplinary in nature through the eleven Research Alliances should be expedited.
Academics of UTM should aim for high impact publications in high impact factor journals and high citations. As such faculty members are encouraged to target the Nature and Science Journal with a diverse range of potential areas of publication such as Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Studies, Physical Science and Engineering as well as Life Sciences including Biology and Biometric.
For those in the Social Science, the aim should be to get published in reputable and impactful journals such as Foreign Affairs Journal.
Dato’ Zaini also promised attractive incentives for academic staff who managed to get themselves published in high impact journals.
Academics should also aim to publish international best selling books that are made available anywhere in the world.
At the same time, they should aim to become Editors in leading journals with a view to enhance publicity and reputation of UTM in the academic fraternity.
What is most important is that the work done should have originality with a ‘surprising’ or high impact conclusion that challenges conventions and the ‘norm’.
All staff are expected to move in tandem with the transformation to leapfrog beyond the boundaries with mindset change, entrepreneurial spirit, high impact publication, financial strength and teamwork to bring the university to greater heights.