By Nasrullah Uul (UKM Intern)
Pix Abd Ra’ai Osman

BANGI, 13 March 2015 – The National University of Malaysia (UKM) and the University of Passau, Germany will continue to work together in the field of student exchanges, joint research and student mobility programmes.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed here on today by the two institutions to carry out joint research projects and academic exchange programmes.

Vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali signed on behalf of UKM while Sociologist Prof. Rüdiger Korff represented the University of Passau.

Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSSKUKM) Prof Dr Hazita Azman and Director of the Political and Security Research Niche and the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS) Prof Dr Rashila Ramli signed as witnesses.

Both parties agreed to implement student mobility programmes, exchange of academics and research collaborations to broaden the areas of cooperation in all specialized academic fields.

Prof Noor Azlan spoke about a ‘Malaysian Window’ with the hope that a window of knowledge would be a path of broadest knowledge for Malaysians to facilitate social and cultural exchanges.

He added that with the establishment of the Malaysian window, the future of industrial relations will materialise and Malaysia will become part of the global economy to generate income for the people.

Prof Korff, in turn said that next semester the University of Passau will provide opportunities for UKM postgraduate PhD lecturers and supervisors to have attachments at the German university.

He added that it was reasonable to hope for beneficial cooperation between them.

Even before the MoU, there already was an established relationship between UKM and the University of Passau when in November 2014 a number of lecturers from FSSKUKM participated in a Workshop at the University of Passau.

In 2013 the  Deputy Director of UKM Alumni Relation Office at the School of Media & Communication Studies and Lecturer at FSSKUKM Assoc Prof Dr Chang Peng Kee and Prof. Rüdiger Korff did a joint study on Media in Southeast Asia and the challenges of new forms of communication.

The cooperation goes back even further, when in 1980 Distinguished Prof Dato’ Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, the Director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA) established a relationship with German University of Passau.

With the sealing of this MoU both universities hoped to provide opportunities for all academics to develop knowledge for their respective disciplines.