I@H: Welcoming Dinner for new UTM international students.

Mohd Ariffin Abu Hassan

UTM International had organized a special welcoming dinner to celebrate the new international students who had successfully registered for Semester I, September 2019/2020 intake on 19th September 2019. There was a total of 885 new international students including 348 undergraduate full-time students, 314 postgraduate students and 163 exchange students from a total of 35 countries.

The objectives of dinner were parallel with the Internationalisation at Home agenda (I@H) by introducing the new students to Malaysia culture. Besides, this dinner had successfully celebrated the diversity of UTM students where they were hundreds of people from different countries, different cultural background, bringing different identity to one roof with their traditional attires.

The students were welcomed by the bowl of speech from Mr. Ashiru Abu Bakar Garba, the President of International Student Society – Central (ISS – Central) followed by the speech from UTM International representative, Prof. Dr. Nor Haniza Sarmin. The welcoming speech was then followed by a speech from Prof. Dr. Durrishah Idrus, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs.

It was a wonderful night that was coloured by interesting performances such as a mashup performance by Syed Mohammed Tibyan Tisher (ISS Pakistan), Genjring dance by ISS Indonesia, flute music by Sharier Mahmud Fahim of ISS Bangladesh, the Traditional Syrian welcoming dance by Zuhur Alsham (ISS Syria), zapin dance by Shams Shazid Kader (ISS Bangladesh) and singing by Satarupa Panda (ISS India). The performance ended with a unique dance of Saman (Ratoh jaroeh) by ISS Indonesia.

The students were served with a variety of delicious local and western food. The night was also filled with a lucky draw session! Thanks to the Master of Ceremony, Ms. Fasihah Jaslan, the Manager (Mobility), UTM International and Mr. Muhammad Ikram Bin Alias, a PhD student from the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities for being able to entertain the guests during the event!