Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has participated in the International Staff Week 2022 program from 9 – 13 May 2022 which was held at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Vilnius Tech), Lithuania. This program was fully sponsored under the Erasmus+ Program Inter-Institutional Agreement 2019-2022 grant. This is UTM’s second participation in the program since 2018 before the pandemic of COVID-19 struck worldwide in 2019.
Four delegates from UTM attended the program, led by Assoc. Prof. Dr Mohd Ismid Md Said, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International). Dr Mohd Ismid was invited as one of the speakers in the program which was attended by 30 participants from 16 universities and 14 countries. In addition to joining Vilnius Tech International Staff Week (ISW) 2022 program, Prof. Dr Nor Haniza Sarmin and Dr Ahmad Fadhil Yusof were also invited to participate in a teaching mobility program in which both of them hold a number of teaching sessions in the field of Mathematics and Computer Science, respectively, while Mr Ahmad Hilman Borhan was invited as one of the participants in the ISW program.
On 9 May 2022, Assoc. Prof. Dr Mohd Ismid Mohd Said also received a special invitation to have a bilateral meeting with the Deputy Rector (Academic) of Vilnius Tech to discuss an agenda for strengthening the cooperation between UTM and Vilnius Tech. Apart from that, the representatives from UTM also had bilateral meetings with Dr Adas Meskenas, Vice-Rector for Strategic Partnership and Assoc. Prof. Dr Vaidotas Vaisis, Director, Science and Research Office, Vilnius Tech on 11 May 2022 to explore the opportunities of expanding UTM-Vilnius Tech collaboration opportunities in the field of research. They also had a chance to have a meeting with Assoc. Prof. Dr Remigijus Salna, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering accompanied by Assoc. Prof. Dr Linas Juknevicius, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering.
UTM and Vilnius Tech have been established partners under the bilateral agreement since 2016 upon the initiation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which covers various collaborations including education and research areas between both universities. Currently, both universities are actively collaborating through the Inter-institutional Agreement (IIA) under the Erasmus+ Programme which offers training and teaching programs for staff and it opens wider opportunities for students from both universities to study abroad under the exchange program with Erasmus+ scholarships funded by the European Union (EU). For the record, there are two students from Vilnius Tech who are now studying at UTM for one semester which will end in July 2022.
The UTM International team is also now in communication with all the University representatives who participated in the Vilnius Tech ISW2022 to explore potential collaboration between UTM and each institution.
You may reach UTM International via https://www.utm.my/international/ or our official Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/UTMInternational.
Prepared by:
Prof. Dr Nor Haniza Sarmin
Mr Ahmad Hilman Borhan
Mrs Norhaiza Daud
Ms Nur Shafikah Misran
Ms Sarina Wahyuni Junaidi
