UiTM

Setting the Bar High at UiTM

Dato’ Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar, Vice Chancellor and President of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), has big plans to put UiTM graduates on the national and global employment map. By Wai Quan C.

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Dato’ Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar is bold, visionary and a maverick. He has big plans, not only for Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) students, but also for faculty members and the person who will helm UiTM when he leaves.

It comes as no surprise that Dato’ Dr Sahol is such a forward-looking Vice Chancellor. After all, he is continuing the legacy of this great institution, conceptualised by Malaysia’s second Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussain, to give underprivileged Malay and Bumiputera students the opportunity to acquire a tertiary education and become productive citizens.

Head Start

“We have 172,000 students at present,” says Dato’ Dr Sahol, “About 80 percent are poor and underprivileged.”

“Each semester, we admit about 20,000 students based on academic qualifications. But we also take in another 5,000 with poor results. We do this because we want to take them out of their environment and to give them a better chance. They are put into a special programme that has an 80 percent success rate. To date, we have had over 40,000 such successes from this programme.”

“My target is to have 250,000 students by 2015 in accordance with the challenge given by the Prime Minister in the 10th Malaysia Plan (MP). The mandate has been set, and it’s now up to us to translate it and turn it into an action plan.”

Dato’ Dr Sahol, the eldest of nine children, is one such beneficiary of this policy. Others include corporate leaders at PNB, Proton, Perodua, PLUS and KTM, and many politicians.

“We have a huge legacy to live up to at UiTM. We give hope; that’s what makes us unique among other institutions of higher learning.”

To inculcate the spirit of continuing education and excellence among graduates, Dato’ Dr Sahol says UiTM also has a strong tradition of supporting its alumni in pursuing postgraduate studies abroad.

Each year, the university awards 500 scholarships to its best students to pursue masters or PhD programmes in countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Germany.

Ensuring Quality

Trained as an engineer, Dato’ Dr Sahol is constantly looking for results-based outcomes and focuses on programmes that can help students gain knowledge and practical training, as well as learn discipline.

“We don’t offer social science courses at UiTM,” says the Vice Chancellor. “All our courses are professional programmes bounded by accreditation bodies overseas. External examiners visit from overseas to audit the quality, so students have to live up to those standards.”

UiTM students also have the benefit of industry training at the on-set of their engineering programmes. Dato’ Dr Sahol started the Sandwich Programme in 2005, whereby for example the university placed students in plantations. These Mechanical Engineering students were attached to an oil refinery and spent three days on-campus and two days in the plantation.

“Because they spend two days a week during a three-year programme in the industry, our graduates have a head start over their peers. They are pretty sharp after that exposure!”

A similar attachment programme is being planned with the automotive industry. With the help of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Ministry of Higher Education and the Malaysian Automotive Association, among others, UiTM will send 80 students to work in the industry.

Spurred on by its success, Dato’ Dr Sahol plans to implement the Sandwich Programme in a bold manner. “The new campus in Pasir Gudang, which will be ready in 2013, will run the Sandwich Programme for all 5,000 students in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical Engineering. And Pasir Gudang, being an industrial area, will provide the playing field!” he enthuses.

UiTM also advocates structured industrial training similar to programmes conducted in Germany, where Dato’ Dr Sahol is a Visiting Professor. Companies involved in UiTM’s Industrial Training Programme include local giants Proton, Petronas and foreign-based multi-nationals like Siemens, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Mercedes Benz.

The university has invested heavily in developing the programme and has a Deputy Vice Chancellor specifically in charge of building relationships with industries.

Ensuring the right programmes are available for students is only one part of the job. Dato’ Dr Sahol says the actual course work produced by the students is also constantly checked for quality.

“To raise standards, we have external examiners visit every six months. They also check our examination papers to ensure they meet certain standards. If they don’t, the external examiners can reject them.”

“We also have ISO 9000 accreditation by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) and by other professional bodies. These are checks on quality. That’s why I’m not worried about the quantity of the graduates we are producing because the quality is compartmentalised and continuously maintained.”

Creating Globally Employable Graduates

Dato’ Dr Sahol is proud that UiTM alumni are highly employable compared to graduates of other local universities. “Our students always get job offers before they graduate. Those who don’t, become entrepreneurs.”

However, the Vice Chancellor lays the facts plainly. “Unlike other universities and private institutions, we pick students who hardly can speak English. But we push them very hard to develop competency in the language. All classes are taught in English, including religious studies, class presentations are done in English and, on top of all this, our students have to take English classes each semester.”

“I am putting emphasis on Mandarin now. The world is changing. The next economic force is China and if UiTM graduates want to survive in this world, Mandarin is the language they must master. Mandarin and Arabic will become very important for business.”

Besides making language proficiency a requirement, Dato’ Dr Sahol has also put in place practical training to help UiTM students excel.

“We’ve started a programme called the Dual System. Students are assessed after three semesters and put on the industry track if they are not coping well academically. Students are employed based on results; if they get poor results, they will struggle to find employment. Under this programme, we develop subprofessionals who are diverted into industry earlier so they don’t end up with a degree, but no job offers.”

Another programme to enhance its graduates’ employability is entrepreneurship training. This programme is affiliated to SIFE, a global organisation dedicated to bringing entrepreneurship training to more young people.

“We have been winning the SIFE award for the last 10 years,” Dato’ Dr Sahol says proudly. “We are among the best. Our students compete in world competitions.”

Global Competitiveness

Dato’ Dr Sahol, who has the advantage of teaching both Malaysian and German students, says UiTM graduates are on par with the best in the world.

“The Germans are very punctual, ask more questions in class and are precise. Our students are a bit more shy in class, but they still learn and are just as intelligent.”

He sees the role of a university as providing students with the right programmes and equipping them with the training and knowledge to become employable or to succeed as entrepreneurs.

But as bold and visionary as he is, Dato’ Dr Sahol is also a realist. “We are far from perfect (at UiTM). If I can get 80 percent of the undergrads on the right track, I would consider it a job well done. Nobody is perfect, but everyone can be perfected.”

“Our role is to develop more Malaysians into professionals to help the nation achieve its 2020 aspirations.”

Indeed it is, and Dato’ Dr Sahol is certainly on track to deliver just that.