UTM Vice Chancellor’s fruitful visit to UK
UTM VC Oxford, Dec 2, 2011: Prof. Dato’ Dr Zaini Ujang, UTM Vice-Chancellor met with Dr. Farhan Nizami, Director of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) to discuss the forthcoming Ditchley Roundtable Conference to be held in Oxford in June 2012.
Also present were Ambassador Roger Makepeace, the Registrar of OCIS, and Assoc. Prof. Dr Mohd Ismail Abd Aziz, UTM Director of International Affairs.
The meeting was held to discuss, in more detail, the organization of the inaugural conference to be jointly organised by OCIS and UTM Centre for Advanced Studies on Islam, Science and Civilization (CASIS).
UTM’s Chancellor HRH Raja Zarith Sofia is expected to give a speech at the conference. At the end of the one hour meeting, a tentative theme for the conference, a list of prospective invitees and the provisional programme were proposed.
While in Oxford, The Vice Chancellor also had a brief meeting with Mr Hamidi of Nexus Protocol, based in Oxford. The meeting was held to co-brand and leverage on Mr Hamidi’s expertise and networking in the UK. It was proposed that an MOU be established between Nexus Protocol and UTM for partnership in developing and promoting mobile application for the healthcare industry.
The Vice Chancellor and team also had the opportunity to meet the Reading University top management in another meeting at Reading.
In an effort to enhance the MOU signed between UTM and University of Reading back in June 2011, Prof. Dato’ Dr Zaini Ujang met with the upper management of University of Reading including Professor Tony Downes, the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rob Robson, Provost and CEO of University of Reading Malaysia, and Dr Martha-Marie Kleinhans, Vice Provost, Academic.
The session was also attended by Professor Stuart Green, Head, School of Construction Management and Engineering, and Professor Roger Flanagan and Professor Will Hughes, both from the School.
As a preamble to discussions that followed, UTM VC outlined some of UTM’s latest internationalization initiatives, developments in postgraduate programmes and incentive packages for staff with high impact publications.
The ensuing discussions centred mainly on possible research collaborations and doctoral supervisions in areas of construction management and sustainability.
Also present during the meeting were members of University of Reading (UoR) International Study and Learning Centre (ISLC) including Professor Ros Richards, Director of the Centre, Mr John Slaght, Director of Assessment, ISLC, Mr Bruce Howell and Mr Sebastian Watkins, a teaching staff on University of Reading pre-sessional English courses.
They had a discussion with Associate Professor Dr. Noor Abidah Mohd. Omar, Director of the UTM Language Academy. Their discussions revolved around possible research collaboration in developing further the UTM Test of English Communication Skills for Graduating Students (TECS) which was first implemented at UTM in Semester II 2010/2011 session.
Other areas deliberated were on dual or double degree master programmes, teaching on the UoR’s pre-sessional courses in April 2012 in JB, and Bahasa Malaysia and cultural familiarization courses for UoR Iskandar campus staff in May/June 2012.
In addition to other scheduled meetings, Dato’ Zaini Ujang also had the opportunity to meet with UTM staff in Cambridge and London who are currently pursuing their doctoral studies in the UK.
At the small gathering, the Vice-Chancellor updated the staff on the latest developments in UTM and iterated some of the expectations of the university which among others include, completing their studies on time, establishing strategic networkings while they are here in the UK, and publishing in high impact journals.
The VC also reminded that UTM and Malaysia are the last few universities and countries to send their staff abroad for doctoral studies and therefore, the University expects to reap high dividends for such an investment.