VIRTUAL TOUR
2008
26 JulGRADUATES AT UCSI'S 21ST CONVOCATION SCORE MULTIPLE FIRSTS
Kuala Lumpur, 26 July 2008 - UCSI today held its 21st convocation with 842 graduates taking home their scrolls, presented to them by UCSI’s Chancellor, Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Abdul Rahman Arshad. Former Education Minister, Tan Sri Dato’ Musa Bin Mohamad was conferred the Honorary Doctorate in Education, in recognition of his contributions to Malaysian education. Faculty members, Dr. Hon Wei Min (Applied Sciences) and Dr. Anupama B.K. (Medical Sciences) were conferred Associate Professorships, while Dr. Hikmat Said S. Al-Salim (Engineering, Architecture and Built Environment) was conferred his Professorship. A “first” achieved this year was the nomination of First Class Honours Psychology student, Alicia Lim Li Shia, as class valedictorian while it was also the first time that all the graduating First Class Honours students, numbering 11, were women.
This year’s convocation also saw UCSI graduating its first batch of Masters of Science in Logistics Management students. Richard Wang Kheng Hwa says, “I chose this course as it was related to my current job, and after searching through the various university brochures, I found that only UCSI offers this course.” Concurring with him was international student, Komohafē Temitpe, “For practical reasons I wanted a course in this field, and I was glad to find out that UCSI was offering it.”
In a short interview after the event, Tan Sri Dato’ Musa emphasised the importance of training current graduates to be employers. “We have to train students to be employers and not employees. When all graduates end up being employees we end up having such a high unemployment rate. The time has come for us to seriously position our graduates to be entrepreneurs.” Tan Sri Musa’s words amplify UCSI’s core strategic goals of inculcating Employability, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship (E3) skills among students. When asked for his advice to graduating students of 2008, he stressed the importance of improving oneself. “It is through improving yourself, that you in turn will prosper the country,” he says.
Assoc. Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Dr. Hon Wei Min, who was conferred the Associate Professorship said that she hopes to further expand the faculty, and improve upon what has already been established. “I am hoping to change the current teaching style to one that is more activity and project-based, as well as to encourage more research among the students and faculty members.” She added, “Students from Applied Sciences should not perceive that they are only meant to stay in laboratories. There are many other fields that they can pursue.”
After being conferred his Professorship, Dr. Hikmat Said S. Al. Salim, UCSI’s Head of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, talked about his feelings after successfully setting up two new courses at UCSI, the Bachelor of Engineering (Hons.) in Chemical Engineering (Petrochemical) and Bachelor of Engineering (Hons.) in Petroleum Engineering. “When the courses were successfully set up, I was teary and emotional, exactly the same feeling I felt when I witnessed the birth of my children,” he said. Dr. Hikmat added by saying that he will do his best to produce first-rate graduates from UCSI.
In her speech, valedictorian Alicia spoke of success not belonging to only those who have been outstanding in their academics. “Success also belongs to those who have gone through these few years faced with challenges, distractions and setbacks, and yet have displayed great endurance and determination in completing their diploma and degree programmes.”
The graduating students came from 5 faculties representing 29 out of the 46 programmes that UCSI currently offers.
