By Nurul Haziqah Abdul Halim
Pix khwan Hashim

BANGI, 22 Apr 2014 – Research findings, statistics and data gathered by The National University of Malaysia researchers is to be made available to the Statistics Department for compilation and analysis to enable the government and its various departments and agencies to use in making informed decisions.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for this was signed here recently between UKM and the Statistics Department that will also allow UKM researchers to cull whatever data and statistics available from the department.

Use of the data and statistics by the Statistics Department will help UKM to reach out to the public, as their research will become more understandable when translated to layman’s terms, said Vice Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali at the signing.

The signing ceremony also saw the return of three of UKM’s alumni back to its campus here as all the three top officers of the Department are UKM graduates. UKM was represented by the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST).

Prof Noor Azlan welcomed the officers, Datuk Dr Hj Abdul Rahman bin Hasan, The Chief Statistician, Hj Ismail Bin Yusoff, Deputy Chief Statistician (Social/Demographics) and Puan Omi Kelsom Binti Elias, Deputy Chief Statistician (Economy), who had all graduated from UKM hoping they will remember their old stomping grounds in the campus.

“It makes me feel very proud that I will be signing a MoU with the Department of Statistics where three of the top management are former UKM students.”

Prof Noor Azlan said their presence had proven what he had been saying all along that UKM is the “Guardian of the Nation” as it helps to mould and build students who will become leaders of the country and important members of society.

He said statistics is the language of science and it helps in communicating information, ideas and research results. By analysing the results, government departments can make informed decisions that will benefit society and understand growth of the economy and nation.

Statistics, he said, play an important role in many aspects, especially in communicating information which is even more apparent in the 21st century, with its “information overload” situation where people needed to be more selective of the information or data available to be absorbed or discarded.

Datuk Abdul Rahman said the MoU can result in many new ideas, conclusions and breakthroughs that will benefit all Malaysians.

He said the partnership with UKM will teach the students the process of micro-data collecting and analysing as well as making them understand the healthy growth of Malaysia’s economy rather than believing the manipulation of certain quarters that the country’s economy is on the decline.

The MoU documents were signed by Prof Noor Azlan with Dean of FST, Prof Dr Sahrin Ahmad for UKM and Dr Abdul Rahman and Hj Ismail signing for the Statistics Department.