VIRTUAL TOUR
2011
5 AugUCSI UNIVERSITY ENHANCES ‘UNIVERSITY LIFE’ BY EMBRACING THE COMMUNITY
Kuala Lumpur, 05 August 2011 - Over 400 UCSI University first year students filled up its Multi-purpose Hall on the 28 July as they showcased part of their final assessment projects for a community-based subject known as ‘University Life’. Instead of the usual community service work, the students showcased something unique with the theme ‘The Melting Pot of UCSI’ this year. Complete with traditional dances and costumes, food and colourful posters, the main aim of the showcase was to enhance co-operation with classmates of different nationalities, while cultivating creativity in their coursework, and learning vital operational skills, as part of their initiation into university.
Transcending classroom borders, ‘University Life’ aligns with UCSI University’s aspirations to provide a blended learning environment to its students by incorporating theoretical coursework with practical opportunities in availing them a potential learning environment that is more sustainable and ever growing.
Almost 35% of UCSI University’s students are international students from 70 different countries. This year’s showcase shows that students in groups of 10 represented countries that are not of their origin. A total of 39 countries were represented, including Republic of Zambia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Kingdom of Lesotho, Uzbekistan and Korea, just to name a few. Students were exposed to a wide variety of cultures and they were required to gather as much information as possible for their display booth and a 10-minutes presentation on the day of the event.
Throughout the day, students actively entertain the public with the displays on their booth that consists of food, artefacts, maps, drawings, posters, flags and etc. Almost all students were dressed in traditional clothing of their represented country. Some students even took the initiative to sew their own costumes!
The 10-minutes presentation stole the limelight of the day with engaging performances from the groups. The students went all out to prepare for their performances that range from traditional dances to songs performances to demonstration of traditional games to mini drama to fashion show. To get in depth information for some of the countries, students made the initiative to visit the ambassador or the embassy of their respective countries.
Many students were excited to be able to learn about different cultures and agreed that it helped them learn something new and understand their peers from different countries and cultures better.
“The students sometimes find it difficult to intermingle and communicate with students of other races as there is no understanding of the different cultures and seeing that there are more than 70 foreign countries registered with UCSI University, we agreed that this was a very good project to get the students to understand their peers better,” said Ms Adeline Cruz, a lecturer at the University’s Centre of Learning Excellence.
“The creativity and effort put in by the students is evidence that they enjoyed themselves with this project and gained new knowledge in the process, which is what we aimed for,” she added.
‘University Life’, taken by all first year students at UCSI University, was introduced by CLE in January last year. Presently, students from three faculties, namely, the Faculty of Management & Information Technology (FoMIT), the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and the Faculty of Music, Social Sciences and Design, have undertaken the subject which CLE plans to introduce in stages to the other faculties. Modules in the subject are designed to instil students with important values such as respect, tolerance and recognition, and appreciation of each other’s differences. The subject also teaches students basic skills they could use for the rest of their lives, such as identifying learning styles, learning effective study techniques, note-taking skills, presentation skills, listening and memory skills, as well as different methods to prepare for examinations.
