Azman Hashim International Business School (AHIBS) conducted the final round of Undergraduate Pitch for Funding (UGPFF) on 1st December 2020. The competition was organised first time at the undergraduate level with the main objective to nurture and empower undergraduate research proposals that involved 164 final year students’ projects from three programs: Management (Technology), Marketing, and Accounting.

Out of the 164 projects, 45 of them managed to reach the final round and pitch their research proposals. The students presented their research proposals that described the essential features to be conducted in the future, as well as the strategy whereby the inquiry may be logically and successfully accomplished.

This program is a part of the students’ final year project research and it connects all the corporate collaborators including AHIBS adjunct professors, industrial advisory panels (IAP), and industry peers and fellow academics. The valuable and constructive comments from the panels elevated students to recognise their strengths and weaknesses for the purpose of growing their roles in research skills. Nine winners were selected and a 99-seconds pitch was conducted to close the deal to choose the grand winner: The Best of the Best.

The program ended with the closing remark from the Dean and then continued with the announcement of nine winners across programs. The grand prize, The Best of the Best, went to Tamilselvan Suparmaniam, with the title of “Impact of Environmental, Social and Governance Commitment on Financial Performance among Malaysian Listed Public Limited Companies”, which is supervised by Lt Kol PM Dr. Mohd. Noor Azli Ali Khan.

Special acknowledgement goes to Azman Hashim Endowment as the key contributor to the success of UGPFF 2020/2021. The competition which was advised by Associate Professor Dr. Noriza Mohd Jamal, AHIBS Deputy Dean (Academic & Student Affairs) and led by Dr. Logaiswari Indiran together with her team, was deemed a success.