Tag: Universiti Teknologi MARA

The Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia (UiTMLaw)  is always committed to prepare future-proof and quality graduates. In line with this, UiTMLaw Career Path Webinar Series 2.0 “What’s Out There ?” has been organised to gear up the students for the new
job market.

This 3-day webinar series commenced on 3rd March 2021. Eminent figures in the legal fraternity shared their immense experiences and practical knowledge in various aspects relevant with students soon to embark on their legal career.

The webinar series set off with an enthralling topic, “Money Laundering: What Should You Know?.” Three distinguished speakers were invited to discuss this topic, namely; Mr Mohamad Faizal bin Sadri, Deputy Director II, Anti-Money Laundering Division, Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission, Mr Amir Zharif Abdullah and Mr Nizamuddin Hamid, the Managing Partner and Partner of Messrs Zharif Nizamuddin, respectively.

The webinar series continued with inspirational sharing by UiTMLaw Adjunct Professor Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Richard Malanjum on the topic “Strategic Approach on Civil Litigation and Writing Impactful Submissions-Sharing Experiences.”

Sound financial management, including debt management, is essential to inculcate positive financial behaviour and prevent individuals from falling into the debt trap.

Mrs Nirmala Subramaniam, Manager, Financial Education Department, Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) and Ms Elena Cho, Legal Executive, Modalku Ventures Sdn Bhd, spoke on the important topic of “Managing Financial after Graduation: How to Avoid Debt Trap”.

Next, to find out the reality behind “Life as a Deputy Public Prosecutor”, Dato’ Masri bin Mohd Daud, Head of Special Litigation Unit, Prosecution Division, Attorney General’s Chambers, who is also UiTMLaw Adjunct Professor, was specially invited to share the ups and downs of being part of the prosecution team.

The final day of the webinar series featured Mr Justice Dean Wayne Daly, High Court Judge of Miri, Sarawak, who clarified the distinction between pupillage in East Malaysia and Peninsular Malaysia in a talk entitled “Pupillage and Legal Practice in Sabah and Sarawak”. Datuk Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham, UiTMLaw Adjunct Professor who is now the Deputy Director, Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC), offered invaluable insights on the question, “How to Begin your Legal Career as an Arbitration Counsel?”.

The programme was well-received since the scope covered were not restricted to conventional civil and criminal litigation but extended to other critical areas, including money laundering, financial management and alternative dispute resolutions. Engagement with prominent legal personnel and industry players has
offered distinct outlooks to the students. Overall, this program will help them shape their careers, explore their niche and better prepared to handle the future.

A virtual academic roundtable discussion focusing on teaching International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in an online learning environment was held on 29 March 2021, involving a think
tank across the Asian region, including Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Timor Leste and Morocco. This event was jointly organized by the Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia (UiTMLaw) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

 

This roundtable discussion offered an opportunity for academicians in the region to learn from
each other and share ideas on teaching IHL in a flexible learning environment. The initiative was in response to a significant shift in the teaching approach that was forced upon universities and learning institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

The roundtable discussion reveals that teaching IHL during a pandemic is challenging as some students may not have access to the Internet and the gadgets to facilitate online learning. In addition, there is a lack of engagement and motivation among students in the learning process. Apart from the difficulties faced by students, the lecturers equally struggle to set up and design the appropriate content for online learning. 

 

To overcome this challenge, the participants agreed that lecturers must adapt to new technology and become tech-savvy. They may use pop culture references, Kahoot and Wooclap to make the lesson more exciting and pleasant. Additionally, the participants also propose establishing a regional platform among academicians to facilitate the exchange of ideas and good practices. Simultaneously, this platform can assist lecturers in developing IHL teaching materials based on the Asian or the Southeast Asian experience. 

 

Acting as a key person in charge of this program on behalf of UiTMLaw, Dr Ummi Hani’ binti Maso’od hopes a similar collaboration can be held in future to allow the sharing of ideas for the mutual benefit of students and academicians at the regional level.

Issues concerning environmental law have long been discussed on an international scale, as the problems faced by nations are interconnected. The Faculty of Law of Universiti
Teknologi MARA (UiTMLaw) environmental law expert, Dr Irini Ibrahim, shared her knowledge at the International Share Lecturer and University Collaboration lecture series.

The event was part of a series of lectures, a collaboration between Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia, Universitas as-Zahra and Universitas Tulungagung, both from Indonesia. This platform encourages multidisciplinary knowledge-sharing among lecturers from various ASEAN universities.  The sharing session was attended by academicians and students, who posed questions on, among others, the role of wetlands as the “Kidneys of the Earth”, wildlife and migratory birds.

Dr Irini said, “Despite the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on public health, economy and social movements, the pandemic can be seen to be a blessing to the environment. When the global community went into isolated lockdown within the confines of their homes, the environment sighed a relieved breath. Nature blossomed. Global
pollution rates plummeted drastically.”

She continued, “The Ganga and Yamuna rivers of India became extremely clean. Closer to home, the pH levels of the Malacca River have improved. Faunas of the world enjoyed momentary freedom as animals roam the Earth more freely.”

She concluded that these are solid evidence of the negative impact that the human race has on the environment.

Dr Irini added that issues of the wetlands are not new issues. Under the RAMSAR Convention, several wetlands in Malaysia are registered for possessing international importance. However, more needs to be done to spread awareness of the importance of wetlands as the “Kidneys of the Earth”.

UiTMLaw takes pride in Dr Irini for shedding light on issues of the wetlands during these troubled times. The session illustrates the serious need to tackle issues concerning the environment. It is hoped that the audience benefitted from this sharing session.

The Faculty of Law of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia (UiTMLaw) participated in the Jessup Intercontinental Friendly 2021 which was held online for the first time since its conception due to the pandemic. The Jessup Intercontinental Friendly 2021 was organized by a collective group of four European universities from Bulgarian, France, Latvia and Portugal.

The team made it to the finals of the Intercontinental Friendly and went up against Portugal’s top law school from the University of Lisbon, having beaten out the top-ranked team in the group stage from Sweden in the semi-finals. They emerged proudly as the first runner-up. Ameerah Batrisyia added a feather to her cap when she was named the 8th Best Oralist of the Jessup Intercontinental Friendly 2021.

The team from UiTMLaw, led by Wardah Yumna binti Yunus (a winner of the Jessup Best Oralist in the Malaysian National Rounds in 2019 and 2020), also consisted of Ameera Batrisyia binti Reza Andrian Malikwi Wan Nur Fatini binti Wan Abd Halim, Farah Nurizzaty Afifa binti Azhar and Muhammad Iqmal Hazim bin Khairuddin. The team was trained by moot coaches Prof. Dr Irwin Ooi Ui Joo and Dr Ummi Hani Masood.

Teams were given a fictional legal case or a moot problem on issues of international law and must plead their stance before the International Court of Justice. This year, the competition embraced the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the world’s landscape and based the competition to appear before the court concerning the J-Vid-18 Pandemic.

Several similar friendly rounds such as the Jessup Intercontinental Friendly 2021 are also held in the Asia Pacific region and the South Asia region. These friendly rounds are treated as training.

These friendly rounds are treated as training grounds, culminating in the anticipated Jessup Global Rounds as the final leg of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. Jessup is widely held as the most prestigious mooting competition in the world and as the largest gathering of international law students in history.

In line with the needs of the legal industry, UiTMLaw believes that participation in mooting competitions will enable its students to develop their soft skills of critical thinking, research, writing and advocacy.  The UiTMLaw Mooting Team continues to be a powerful force nationally and continues to make Malaysia proud internationally.

Honouring the beauty and significance of mathematics, the International Day of Mathematics (IDM), known before as Pi-Day, highlights the important roles played to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Supported by 16 international and regional organizations and coordinated by the International Mathematics Union, IDM featured a mixture of over 410 individual physical and virtual celebrations scheduled in more than 70 countries including in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia.

This year’s theme “Mathematics for a Better World” is hoped to spark creativity and further enlighten the relevance of mathematics to other fields, concepts and ideas. International events complemented by national programmes include the organization of webinars, conferences, exhibitions, mathematics competitions, recreational mathematics, and classroom activities.

They demonstrated how mathematics helps improve the world as highlighted by Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of UNESCO, “Mathematics, with its many technical applications, now underpins all areas of our lives. Together with algorithms, mathematics plays a key role in artificial intelligence and technological disruptions – and, as we address global issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, we are reminded of the importance of mathematics in responding to the challenges of our time.”

UiTM was honoured to share a spot on the IDM‘s world map, for the second time. Themed Mathematics for Life, and working hand in hand with the Mathematical Sciences Association (PERSAMA) of Malaysia, the event started off on Friday, 12 March 2021 with a webinar on Mathematics and Humanity: the Past, the Present and the Future that detailed the interlocking among mathematics, the universe and civilization.

The webinar was aired on Webex and Youtube of Centre for Mathematics Studies, Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, UiTM and was presented by Dr Muhammad Ikhwan bin Azlan from Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor (KUIS). He specializes in Islamic Thoughts and Civilization and was with the Malaysian teams for the International Mathematical Olympiad in The United States of America and Scotland.

His session clarified the dependencies between mathematics and humanity but at the same time opened up interest in the issues relating to humanity that mathematics had failed to expose.

UiTM is determined to support the Dasar Sains, Teknologi dan Inovasi Negara (DSTIN) 2021–2030 and the government’s STEM agenda to realize the National Science and Technology Enrolment Policy of 60:40 of science to arts streams that are far beyond reach.

On Monday 15 March 2021, the celebration continued with Maths Mind, an interactive online workshop for school students that helped to create awareness on the use of various mathematical software and their applications in real life situations and problem solving so that they are technologically literate and able to perform in a global work environment.

UiTM students facilitated 109 school students, including 6 teachers as observers, from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK, Shah Alam through some virtual mathematical modelling and graphing activities, and fun quizzes and games.

UiTM students boosted their leadership talent when taking responsibility to organize and manage the workshop. They exercised their communication and social skills to guide and inspire the school students to build up confidence in their future studies and careers.

On a positive note, the workshop had successfully raised interest towards mathematic in 80% of the students. Nevertheless, only 48% of the students expressed their intention to pursue in mathematics at their tertiary level. Therefore, UiTM wishes to collaborate with the National STEM Association and other organizations to plan and build a solid STEM foundation through a well-rounded curriculum to ensure that school students are exposed to and interested in the STEM subjects from a very young age and throughout their educational career as to respond to the second wave (2016-2020) of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025.

The Mathematics and Life video competition completed the UiTM IDM 2021 celebration. Besides the UiTM students, it welcomed our global partners, the Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology of India, the National University of Uzbekistan and Samarkand State University of Uzbekistan.

The competition aims for the students to showcase their ideas and bring mathematics to life in a way that can help to break barriers for those who may not otherwise understand how mathematics is used around us.

 

The Faculty of Computer & Mathematical Sciences (FSKM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Microsoft (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 19 March 2021.

The MoU aims at mutual cooperation to benefit the university and students from Microsoft’s expertise. The MOU was virtually signed by the Former Vice-Chancellor of UiTM, Emeritus Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr Azraai Kassim and Microsoft’s Managing Director, Mr K. Raman.

Under the MoU, UiTM can leverage Microsoft Learn for Educators (MSLE) resources to achieve its vision – to establish UiTM as a Globally Renowned University of Science, Technology, Humanities and Entrepreneurship.  The mission is to empower UiTM to lead the development of professionals through state-of-the-art curricula and impactful research.

Affiliated as one of the “Premier Digital Tech Institution”, UiTM is always looking forward to offering competitive programmes that fulfill market needs, spearhead national development and promote global prosperity.

This MoU will extend the opportunities to the UiTM lecturers and students to upskill with the Microsoft Future-Ready Skills through Microsoft Learn. It provides self-paced, digital learning resources to build skills and a foundational understanding of technology besides making available the resources to complement existing institution courseware and study materials to best prepare students for in-demand jobs and Microsoft industry-recognized certifications.

This MoU is expected to be able to improve UiTM’s graduate employability as it helps validate students’ knowledge of technology and potential to perform in technology industry jobs through Microsoft certification in the Azure Fundamentals, Azure AI Fundamentals and Azure Data Fundamentals courses.

Students will be equipped with relevant technical skills and graduate as certified IT professionals, making them more competitive in the job sectors which are becoming more digitized and automated, requiring strong technology skills.

The effort by UiTM is another step taken to strengthen the ICT and AI capacity building of students relevant to the current needs and changes affecting higher learning institutions globally.

Students from the Faculty of Business Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia, Faznie Hasniza binti Mohd Zanif and Ika Farina binti Mustaffa, stood out in the online Summer Course Program and International Student’s Competition organized by the Faculty of Human Ecology, Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) University, Indonesia on November 22 to 30, 2021.

Both students from the Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons.) International Business demonstrated their active engagement and enthusiasm by joining the summer course and succeeded to excel in the International Student’s Competition. Faznie Hasniza has been awarded as 2nd Winner Videography Group 2, while Ika Farina won a 3rd Winner Videography Group and 3rd Winner Poster Group competition.

The focus of the summer course was on “Learning for Human Development and Natural Resources towards Sustainability: An International Perspective”. Students participating from different countries had the opportunity to learn and exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences while earning credit units that can be transferred to their home university.

The course also integrated a competitive element to allow the students to showcase their talents and understanding of the topics learned during the program.

Overall, the Summer Course Program and its International Student’s Competition conducted by the Faculty of Human Ecology, IPB University, Indonesia, provided an excellent avenue for knowledge sharing and exchange between the two nations.

Additionally, it also opens the possibility for future collaborations between the two institutions, which UiTM is very much looking forward to in the near future.

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia, Kelantan branch campus was recently awarded a grant valued at RM94,000 from the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education for the Digital Datapreneur Incubator Project.

The grant which was awarded on 23rd November 2020 will allow Dr. Wan Fairos Wan Yaacob, the leader and her team members, Dr. Syerina Azlin Md Nasir, Dr. Nurazleena Ismail, and Dr. Wan Marhaini Wan Omar to continue building on the digital datapreneur hub initiative. This project primarily aims to centralise the mobilisation of young entrepreneurs from the public universities nationwide.

The Digital Datapreneur Incubator is aimed at equipping the growing number of participants with data-based analytical skills and encourage the use of data analytics approach to innovate the decision-making phase. This will add value to the entrepreneurs as skills in advanced technology will give them the competitive edge to not only run their businesses, but to also thrive the fast-paced economic landscape of Industrial Revolution 4.0.

Apart from providing the platform for young entrepreneurs to polish their skills in data analytics, this project will reach the local community in Kelantan by providing hands-on experience in using a wide array of applications to do their business activities. This programme has very far-reaching aims and hopes to facilitate the entrepreneurs involved through the identification of important business data which are pivotal for the decision-making process. Hence, this will enable them to make informed selection of target market, determine market segmentation, and to better strategise the market placement.

The Digital Datapreuner Incubator is one of the 10 collaboration incubators under the Structured Entrepreneurial Incubator Programme (SEIP) which is an entrepreneurship programme at the Ministry of Higher Education. Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, as the key figure for SEIP has been working hand in hand with Malaysian higher educational institutions, government agencies, as well as the industry to bring this project together.

Overall, this initiative is observed to principally produce human capital who is knowledgeable, skilled and competitive to pursue the development of digital entrepreneurship in Malaysia. The Digital Datapreneur Incubator project will contribute towards improving both data management and data analytical skills, and also ensure the sustainability across various sectors in Malaysia such as engineering, technology and digital entrepreneurship. This project will play an important role in national development.

Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (FSKM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is hosting a fifteen-week Hybrid Synchronous lectures series aimed at students and lecturers interested in the area of Groups and Algebras scheduled from February 25 – June 1 2021. Topics covered include algebraic structures, groups, rings, polynomials and number theory, vector space, and algebra.

The move to online and hybrid teaching and learning environment offers faculties and students from all participating universities an opportunity to collaborate, experiment, analyze, and discuss mathematical problems together.

The lecture series taught by Prof Dr Isamiddin Rakhimov is a hybrid experience for the faculties and students from UiTM, the National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz), and Samarkand State University (SamsU) Uzbekistan.  

FSKM, UiTM hosted the first lecture in one of the Global Learning Spaces on February 25, 2021 (5.00 pm, Malaysian time). It was joined virtually by participants from other local universities and UiTM campuses nationwide. Lectures were streamed live via the Cisco Webex application and the Centre for Mathematics Studies, UiTM Youtube account.

The hosting of the hybrid synchronous series embarks a significant faculty’s role in education innovation delivery to be experienced by more students and lecturers in the future. It also offers the students and staff the taste of international exposure and strengthening our global engagement through knowledge sharing. 

Prof Dr Isamiddin Rakhimov who led this lecture series is a mathematics professor at FSKM, UiTM, since October 2019, with research interests in pure mathematics. With his presence, FSKM has successfully co-organized the International Uzbekistan-Malaysia Conference on Computational Models and Technologies (CMT2020) with the National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz) and several universities from Uzbekistan.

He also contributed to the recent MoUs with the National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz) and Samarkand State University (SamSU), Uzbekistan. Various organizations have awarded him for his achievements, such as the Lifetime Professor Award by the Supreme Attestation Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Excellent teaching (Faculty of Sciences), and Outstanding Scientist Award (INSPEM) by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).

He has extensive teaching experience in a few universities, including Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University (LETI) in Russia, the National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz) in Uzbekistan, and University Putra Malaysia (UPM) in Malaysia.