By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Shahiddan Saidi and Izwan Azman

BANGI, 31 Dec 2013 – Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali has  taken over leadership The National University of Malaysia (UKM) as Vice-Chancellor succeeding Prof Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin as from Jan 1.

Prof Sharifah Hapsah handed over her duties in a brief ceremony on her final day as the Vice-Chancellor today.

Present at the ceremony were Chairman of the Board of UKM, Professor Emeritus Dato’ Dr M Zawawi bin Ismail; Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Prof Datuk Dr Rahmah Mohamed (Research and Innovation), Prof Dato’ Ir. Dr Othman A Karim (Student Affairs and Alumni) and Prof Dato’ Dr Saran Kaur Gill (Industry and Community Partnerships).

Also witnessing the signing and handing over of documents were  the deans and deputy deans of faculties, heads of research centres and senior management of UKM.

Prof Dato’ Dr Noor Azlan had been Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) since 2009.

He has extensive experience in the field of economics and was Head of the Management and Economics Cluster of the National Council of Professors and had held various administrative positions in UKM as Dean of the Graduate School of Business (GSB) and Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEP).

He had also served as Director of the Malaysian Development Institute, the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department and Chairman of the National Consumer Advisory Council in the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs.

Prof Sharifah Hapsah was appointed as UKM Vice-Chancellor in August 2006. Prior to that she was the university’s Director of the Centre for Academic Development and Head of the Medical Education Department.

She had also been the Chairman of the Agenda of Critical Governance in the National Higher Education Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Higher Education, member of the Advisory Board of the Public Complaints Bureau at the Prime Minister’s Department.  She is currently member of the Yayasan Permata Board of Trustees, President of The National Women’s Council, The National Unity Advisory Panel and the National Permata Policy Coordination Council.

Prof Sharifah Hapsah has also been Chairman and CEO of the National Accreditation Agency (LAN) and helped draw up the Charter of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) which took over the role of LAN.

In the international arena, she is the founder member of the Executive Board of the Association for Medical Education, WHO Western Pacific Region (AMEWPR) and member of the Executive Board of the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP).