By Asmahanim Amir
Photo Shahiddan Saidi

KUALA LUMPUR, 17 July 2017- The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) hopes that all the faculties at Malaysian public universities will implement the Integrated Cumulative Grade Average (iCGPA) by 2019.

MoHE minister, Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh said until last March, a number of 152 faculties involving 334 education programmes in 20 public universities have implemented iCGPA.

He said the iCGPA assessment is an improvement from the CGPA system implemented in all universities.

“iCGPA is a system which evaluates students’ learning process which will  enable students to improve their qualities in academic and soft skills,” he said.

“The five earliest universities that have applied the system are Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) and Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP),” he said.

Dato’ Seri Idris said Malaysia is the first country to conduct such assessment.

There are no other universities outside this country doing this form of assessment, including Harvard University, Oxford University and Stamford University.

“Even our conference today is attended by representatives from foreign universities because of their curiosity to know more about iCGPA,” he explained.

He is delighted to know that private universities are also interested in the assessment.

“They (private universities) take on the ministry’s challenge to carry out this assessment and there are some private university representatives present at this conference,” he said.

Meanwhile, UKM Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali said he believes iCGPA can evaluate students’ development by building learning ethics, abilities and knowledge in enhancing their academic potential and soft skills.

“This is very crucial in facing the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s request,” he said.

The three-day conference with the theme ‘Nurturing Holistic, Entrepreneurial and Balanced Graduates’ has brought together over 300 participants from public universities, including Polytechnic and Community Colleges, Private Universities and international participants.