By Nadia Sapuan and Asmahanim Amir
Pictures by Abd Raai, Ikhwan Hashim and Izwan Azman

BANGI, 19 April 2017- In facing mainstream challenges, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has been urged to make strategic preparations to ensure UKM always be excellent and be referred by others in various contexts.

UKM Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali said UKM intends to champion the prime challenges, as set by the government, through continuous performance in the context of sustainability.

“The University now is no longer as before. This shows that we need to always be prepared with any changes that occur in the environment, especially in terms of technology because if we are not, we will be left behind,” he said.

He said among the other challenges faced is the competition between the universities due to the increasing number of public and private universities in addition of the industry’s demands for graduates and research with better quality.

“We have tens and hundreds of public and private universities, which led to a fierce competition as well as the demand for quality research and graduates by the industry.

“The challenges we face today needs us to be prepared to make changes that challenge the conventions,” he said when delivering his speech at the annual Bicara Perdana Naib Canselor, themed Kebitaraan dan Kecemerlangan, recently.

He added that UKM have implemented a variety of changes that challenged the convention, especially in terms of scholarly research that are conducted in collaboration with several public industries.

“We have been doing collaborations with many public and private industry in research, such with Sime Darby on Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Treatment.

“In terms of outstanding scholarship, we also were among the University that has the largest number of professors,” he said.