KUCHING: Wawasan Open University (WOU) officially opened its Kuching Regional Office at Jalan Tun Jugah here yesterday, providing online lifelong learning opportunity to locals.
According to vice chancellor and chief executive officer professor Dr Wong Tat Meng, the university’s vision is to help build a vibrant learning community that inspires learning, supports innovation and nurtures all-round personal growth.
“In pursuit of this vision, we task ourselves with the mission of expanding opportunities in higher education whilst committing ourselves to teaching excellence aimed at increasing the level of knowledge and scholarship among Malaysians.
“We specially target the 80 per cent of the country’s workforce that currently do not have qualifications beyond the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) as identified in the blueprint for the New Economic Model launched by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak,” he said at the launching of the regional office opening yesterday.
Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah officiated at the function.
WOU opens its door to adults who wish to pursue tertiary level knowledge and qualifications delivered through the ‘Technology Enhanced Open Distance Learning mode’.
He said it was important to note that while investment in 19 to 22 year olds studying in conventional universities takes time to bear fruit (since these students do not get a change to put their knowledge into practice until they graduate and secure a job), investment in working adults can yield more immediate results as working adults engaged in university studies have the opportunity to apply what they learn in their work environment almost immediately.
Therefore, he hoped the state government would consider providing grants and financial awards to its own workforce to support their studies at the nation’s open universities including WOU.
He also pointed out that WOU Kuching regional office was also used to spearhead the university’s migration to the use of CD ROMs to deliver its course content in preparation for the introduction of a fully web-based E-Learning delivery model in the near future.
“This involves digitising our course content. In the process, we further enhanced the quality of our materials by introducing features such as search functions, interactive elements, links to websites as well as enriching the content with the inclusion of multimedia materials. This also means that all WOU graduates from the Kuching regional office will be fully capable of functioning in the E-working environment of the future,” he said.
WOU Kuching regional office can be contacted at 082-578 923.
More information can also be obtained at www.wou.edu.my.