JOHOR BAHRU, May 23 – A total of 16 Master’s graduates from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Transnational Education Programme, implemented in Sudan, received their scrolls at the university’s 65th Convocation Ceremony (MK65) yesterday.
Dean of the Faculty of Technology and Informatics (RFTI) UTM, Assoc. Prof. Ts Dr Mohd Nazri Mahrin said that all of the graduates had followed the Master of Engineering Business Management program for four semesters in Khartoum, Sudan.
“The program which started in 2018 is jointly managed by RFTI and Safat Academy from Sudan. All students who enter studies under this program follow their studies in that country.
“The teaching staffs brought from RFTI went to Sudan to implement the teaching and learning process from there,” he added.
He said this after attending the degree conferment session for all graduates of this program at MK-65 which took place at Dewan Sultan Iskandar, Johor Bahru campus yesterday.
Dr. Mohd Nazri said the collaboration between RFTI and Safat Academy had started since 2012 where several UTM staffs went to that country to make visits and as a result on April 24, 2014 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with Sudan Master Technology (SMT) to establish the Sudan-UTM International Center of Engineering & Management (Sudan-UTM ICEM) in collaboration with the Sudan University of Science & Technology (SUST).
“Sudan-UTM ICEM is expected to be a regional center for organizing various short courses and UTM academic programs.
“The postgraduate program in Sudan started with a Master of Science (Engineering Business Management) program after Safat Academy was interested in collaborating with UTM to organize this program,” he added.
In 2019 another MoU was signed between UTM and Safat Academy for a period of five years to conduct two transnational programs in Sudan, namely Master of Engineering Business Management (MEBM) and Engineering Doctorate (Engineering Business Management) (EngDoc) in Khartoum, Sudan.
“A total of 18 MEBM and 11 EngDoc students for the first intake session have registered in 2019 followed by 32 more for both programs for the second intake session.
“A total of 16 MEBM students for the first intake have successfully completed their studies in 2021 leaving the remaining 40 who are still studying in this program,” he said.
Touching on the future of the program, Dr. Mohd Nazri said that this close collaboration would continue in the future.
“The close cooperation between UTM and Safat Academy will be continued to increase the number of UTM programs abroad,” he added.