KYOTO, JAPAN, 25 September 2017 – The 5th University-Community Engagement Conference (UCEC) 2017 is currently held at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Kyoto, Japan. The conference is jointly-organised by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (KUFS).

The USM Vice-Chancellor, Professor Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail has been selected to be one of the keynote speakers at the conference. She delivered a keynote speech this morning entitled "Partnership among Universities: Synergistic Way of Sustaining University-Community Collaboration in Facing Challenges of the 21st century including 4th Industrial Revolution".

Her talk revolved around the intent to explore the potential for universities to collaborate, primarily in building effective engagement mechanisms that will support an ongoing flow of new community projects and partnerships over time in a sustainable manner.

According to Asma, community engagement is very much relevant to answer the 21st century challenges, and should be moved up to a higher level.

“In order to do so, collaborative efforts between universities through alliances and networking such as the Asia Pacific University-Community Engagement Network (APUCEN) can be an efficient and effective platform to promote engagement and cooperation to tackle issues of mutual concerns and to provide sustainable solutions for the wellbeing of communities,” she added.

“Currently, under APUCEN, there are 92 universities from 19 countries which have embraced the idea and this necessitates the willingness to work together, which is essential to achieve success for all.

"In order to work with a like-minded workforce, we need to shift from acting upon the community with our ideas to now working side by side with the community to define the questions and offer them the relevant solutions," said Asma.

She said, the whole idea is for universities to not only undergo knowledge creation that is transferred to the community but also to undergo knowledge exchange that will lead to knowledge assimilation and finally resulting in knowledge transformation which will bring about changes in the society.    

Asma also mentioned that the young generation in the room represents the era of convergence where data analytics, 3D and 4D printing, machine learning, robotics and automation are the talk of the day.

“We now must accept that we are no longer talking about working in silo, but moving towards multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary. With the advent of the digital age, an idea can now shift across borders easily and therefore, collaboration and information sharing is very important.

“The new keyword to take home today is 'collaborate" and because tomorrow is about collaborative economy, we are no longer talking about being in control or secretive, but sharing of information and working together.

“Hence, mutual respect, trust and trustworthiness are important factors of social capital that can be expressed and trained under community engagement," she added.

Furthermore, Asma also stated that the global competition has basically restructured the universities to meet the demands of the industry in order to make the students more employable.

“Many universities are now fast forsaking the noble goals of producing the knowledge and developing holistic humanistic individuals, but rather focused on developing the one that is now market-driven and serving in the needs of the industry and the work force.

“Public universities now have two ‘faces’, one is values-driven and another is profit-driven. Somewhere along the line, universities need to balance these two to achieve the maximum benefit.

“The four pillars: plant, people, prosperity and policy must co-exist for 21st century education and therefore the curriculum needs to be re-designed or designed to set a greater coherence to achieve a higher purpose in education, she said.

In closing, Asma stressed that community engagement requires that we treat everyone with dignity, humility and with utmost respect whilst we build relationships based on trust and mutual understanding.

Also presenting a keynote on the same platform was Dr. Yasushi Akashi, Chairman of The International House of Japan, with the title "The great challenge before young leaders and my personal experiences". Yasushi is also the former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Some 129 participants attended the 3-day conference, held from 24-26 September 2017.