UCSI’s 17th Convocation is the university’s first convocation ceremony since becoming a University College in September 2003. It is also the first convocation to be held at its newly completed campus in Taman Connaught.

A total of 900 graduands received their scrolls today at a ceremony officiated by its Chairman, Dato’ Hj Mohd Karim Hj Abdullah Omar. He was accompanied by UCSI’s Vice Chancellor and President, Mr Peter T.S. Ng, who congratulated the graduates for their achievements.

UCSI scored another first with its pioneer batch of pharmacists graduating with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours), a 4+0 arrangement with Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Mother of a 14-year-old daughter, Lim Ming Tsuey and fellow course mate, Kee Swee Luan, emerged as top scorers from the School of Pharmacy.

Hailing from Segamat, Johor, Lim, a registered chemist, had worked in a quality control laboratory in Pasir Gudang, when she realized that this was not what she wanted to do for a lifetime. "I came to know about Pharmacy offered at UCSI and after much soul searching, I decided to sign up."

The graduands represented the School of Management, School of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts, School of Engineering, School of Information Technology, School of Music, School of Medicine, Health & Applied Science, and School of Pharmacy. 

A total of five students were selected to receive the much-coveted President’s Award for their academic excellence, while another six received the Achievement Award for attaining excellence in sports, extra-curricular activities, fine arts and their studies.

21-year-old Yau Lai Yin, the epitome of a fine graduate, is selected this year’s Valedictorian of the Year. A from the School of Information Technology, the former girl from Sekolah Menengah Aminuddin Baki said: "Throughout my university life here, I must say I am very impressed with all my lecturers, and their efforts in helping me with my studies. They have inspired me to look at every problem as an opportunity. "

"I have indeed grown so much with UCSI. I am proud to be a graduate from UCSI!" she said. 

Ng said that since becoming a University, UCSI will be emphasizing a lot more on the importance of research.

"Even before we were upgraded to our present status, we were already giving a lot of emphasis on research. One of the hallmarks of our University, in fact, is research. Through the UCSI Centre of Research Excellence, we are committing a minimum of one per cent of our total gross turnover to fund research projects undertaken by our academic staff," he said. 

Ng pointed out that academic staff, who are research active, will be more up-to-date with the things that they teach, especially with today’s ever changing information age.

"The explosion in knowledge and the shrinking horizons of a globalised world have a great bearing on how students will lead their lives and build their own careers," he said. "What is learnt in the past few years, for example, would not be sufficient for the rest of one’s life. Therefore, education should never end at the Convocation. We must inculcate in our young people a research active culture."