By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Shahiddan saidi

BANGI, 11 February 2015 – Every faculty at The National University of Malaysia (UKM) should identify at least five of their alumni of high standings who are willing to endorse the university in its various fields of expertise.

UKM Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali said all the faculties have alumni or former staff and academics who are prominent in their careers who can speak up for it.

Launching the K-Novasi Teaching and Learning Carnival here today, the Vice-Chancellor said UKM should look beyond traditional means in burnishing its credentials both at home and abroad.

He said each faculty can surely identify five reputable stakeholders who can vouch for it. If such prominent alumni can endorse the university it will not need rankings.

He said those in the uniformed services who had attended various courses organised by UKM had praised the university as well as for its contribution to the development of the nation.

“If the diplomatic and administrative services and the police keep sending their staff here for training, this must mean that our programmes are useful to them. We should ask them to spread the message about our services,” Prof Noor Azlan said.

UKM, he said, should not also rely too much on world university rankings because the international agencies’ methods of qualitative estimation may not reflect the real situation in the university.

He also called for a review of learning and teaching at the post-graduate level saying that there should be lecturers who are creative and able to make their classes interesting.

Prof Noor Azlan hoped that the teaching and learning carnival would yield new techniques that could be used successfully.

A total of eight workshops were held for 25 minutes each at the two-day carnival participated by all the faculties and centres of excellence.

He lamented that many were still hesitant in using new techniques. So many – including him – are still stuck with the old ways, he said.

He also suggested the university’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) use less reference books but use more case studies when teaching it’s students.

“Why not examine real-life business dealings in our research. The present method alone will not serve the needs of the industry,” he said.

The K-Novasi carnival this year replaced the UKM Teaching and Learning Congress which had been an annual fixture since 2009.