KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a chartered accounting firm to provide on-campus training base to its students.
The MoU with P.S Yap, Isma and Associates will see the firm setting up for the very first ever in Malaysia an on-campus office in UMS.
Vice Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Dr. Mohd Harun Abdullah, said, UMS accounting students will greatly benefit from the collaboration as they would no longer need to travel outside of the campus for their industrial training.
The experience gained at the on-campus accounting office, he said, would allow students to immediately apply their skills in the industry with minimum supervision upon graduation, thus significantly increasing their employability.
Apart from that, the collaboration would also allow lecturers of accounting programme to join the firm for short-term industrial attachment without sacrificing their teaching responsibility.
“The Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) recommends that accounting lecturers with no previous industrial experience should have a minimum of 12 months industrial attachment. This is to ensure the accounting subjects are taught by lecturers with relevant experience.
“By having this collaboration, termed as Business Solution @ UMS, the accounting programme will be able to fulfill another requirement for accounting programmes set by MIA, which is to invite accounting practitioners as guest speakers to share their knowledge with the students from time to time. And now, we have a whole team of experienced accountants ready as our guest speakers,” said Harun.
He also urged other faculties in UMS to emulate the new model of cooperation with the private firm.
P.S Yap, Isma and Associates is a chartered accounting firm based in Kuala Lumpur with presence in Langkawi, Johor Baru and Kota Kinabalu.
Harun signed the MoU for UMS while the firm was represented by Dato’ Yap Pian Seen.