TOWARDS ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: Khairuddin (second left) and Takashi (second right) with the MoU while Peter (left) and Takumi look on.
KOTA SAMARAHAN: Higher learning institutions today are challenged to improve their quality and output, both in its graduates and research products.
“National, regional or global benchmarking of universities demand these institutions, including Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), to increase their efforts, strategise their approaches and accelerate their action plans in order to achieve their targeted outcomes,” said Unimas Vice Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Khairuddin Ab Hamid at the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Signing Ceremony between Unimas and Shiabaura Institute of Technology (SIT) Japan here yesterday.
He said that establishing international cooperation with foreign institutions such as SIT was one of the major keys in achieving Unimas’ aim of being internationally recognised in teaching and research.
“Unimas offers an abundance of opportunities in the exploration of natural resources, agriculture, local industry, education and more. The university is also proud to be acknowledged by our peers in several niche areas of research namely biotechnological research in epidemiology, biogeography and agriculture, rural communication and image analysis and biodiversity, natural resources and environmental management,” added Khairuddin.
With the strength and advantages of both Unimas and SIT, various opportunities of collaboration in research will be explored.
“Unimas itself has established seven Centres of Excellence, which are The Malaria Research Centre, The Centre for Water Research, Rural Informatics, Image Analysis and Spatial Technologies, Semantic Technology and Augmented Reality, Renewable Energy and Sago Research,” Khairuddin said, adding that the partnership will also observe an active exchange of students and faculty members between Unimas and SIT, in addition to joint research works, which was expected to bring benefits to both parties.
“With this MoU, we hoped that a reciprocal gain will be achieved via exhibition of good practices and sharing of knowledge, in the context of teaching and learning through faculty exchange.
“Likewise, providing an option of foreign exchange for Unimas students will give possibility to the development of our human capitals, cultural exchange and enrichment of students’ learning experience,” he said.
Meanwhile, SIT Vice President Professor Takashi Komeda said that the SIT engineering education vision seeks to promote spiral evolution with the combination of education, research and innovation, with an emphasis on proactive promotion of the international exchange of faculties and students.
“SIT has been running cooperative joint programmes with the Malaysian government and institutions of higher learning for almost 20 years,” he said and expressed his anticipation that the active implementation of students and faculty exchange, and advanced research collaboration will further strengthen the relationship between SIT and Unimas. SIT currently enrolls more than 100 students fromMalaysia, representing the largest number of international students in the institution.
Also present at the ceremony were Unimas Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Prof Dr Peter Songan, Dean Faculty of Engineering Prof Dr Wan Hashim Wan Ibrahim and SIT Associate Prof Dr Takumi Miyoshi.