By Asmahanim Amir
Pix Abd Raai Osman and Shahddan Saidi

BANGI, Feb 18, 2015 –  Be innovative in teaching and reduce the number of lectures, academic staff of the National University of Malaysia (UKM) have been told.

Apart from research, academic staff have to innovate to come up with new ways to teach more efficiently, said UKM Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali.

“Maybe one day UKM becomes a university with less lectures. If we start it, we are experimenting. If we can do less lectures, I’m sure the academics will be able to teach much better,” he said when opening the  2016 UKM K-Novasi Teaching and Learning  conference, here today.

He proposed that lecturers teach in ways that students can learn from lecture slides where ever they might be.

He said the 2,000 teaching staff shouldn’t just be academics , but need to make changes in teaching and learning methods to help produce more competitive and marketable  graduates.

The Vice-Chancellor expressed hope all the academic staff can take this challenge which would eventually yield positive results.

He said UKM has to be unique and stay ahead of the curve in fostering critical thinking in improving communication skills with graduates.

Innovation should be used in teaching although research is a priority, he noted.

Some 180 academics, mostly from UKM, took part in the conference and competition which ran from 16 till 18 Feb.