MILESTONE: Peter (second left) and Ferdinand exchange signed documents. Also seen are Sanib (left) and Mandarin.
KUCHING: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Universitas Palangka Raya (Unpar) yesterday to strengthen, promote and develop academic links and research collaboration.
Unimas deputy vice-chancellor (research and innovation) Prof Dr Peter Songan and Unpar rector Prof Dr Ferdinand signed the MoU during the seventh Cross-University Conference on Borneo-Kalimantan (Kaboka) together with Unimas associate professor and Institute of East Asian studies director Datu Sanib Said and Unpa’s Mandarin Guntur.
The agreement will facilitate academic relations and cooperation between the two institutions in a number of areas including student-staff exchanges, research project collaborations, joint activities and publishing, and mutual participation in seminars.
Peter said Unimas hoped to sign similar MoUs with other universities in Borneo.
Kaboka, which was first held in 2005, intends to nurture, develop and add to the body of research pertaining to Borneo-Kalimantan.
This year’s conference received 120 academic paper abstracts and attracted participants from Brunei, Kalimantan, Peninsular Malaysia, Jakarta and Bandung.
Conference topics included social sciences, physical sciences, biological sciences, social transformation, economics and politics.
In his speech, Ferdinand said Kaboka would help tertiary institutions in Borneo improve in quality adding that research presented in Kaboka could one day even win a Nobel prize.
He also invited researchers to visit and conduct research at Unpar, which has the largest peat swamp laboratorium in the world.