USM, PENANG, 27 April 2018 – A talk was held earlier today by the Centre for Development of Academic Excellence and Student Development (CDAE) at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). 

Being the second in the seminar series this year on Excellence in Teaching and Learning, the talk entitled “A Future-Ready Curriculum Framework for Academic Programme Transformation” was presented by Professor Dr. Rose Alinda Alias from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Rose Alinda heads the Malaysian Public Universities Task Force for Academic Programmes Transformation, set up by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in September 2017 and with UTM as the secretariat. The Task Force comprises of members from Malaysian public universities and representatives from various industries.

Rose Alinda began her talk by mentioning how the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) would bring about changes to education, and higher education in particular. She presented two articles, one focusing on Realising Human Potential in 4IR and the other on The Future of Jobs, in relation to employment, skills and workforce strategy.

“In relation to Malaysia, the country has a significant top-down implementation of education policies and strategies compared to many other countries. The government is always a step ahead in formulating policies to add value to higher education. At the same time however, universities too need to be proactive in devising localised plans and strategies in dealing with current and future challenges,” she said.

Rose Alinda further mentioned that the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), being the main quality assurance and accrediting body of higher education programmes, has been very supportive in this aspect. However, universities need to do their own assessments on the readiness of their programmes to prepare the students for 4IR. The institutions need to shape their curriculum to be future-ready.

She continued by stating the necessary steps to be taken to transform the educational ecosystem and on what are the features of a future-ready curriculum. She also shared on what are the careers that would have the workers most likely be replaced by machines in the future.

Malaysia needs to have its education system ready in facing 4IR. At this point, she said, the focus of Education 4.0 would be more on designing the delivery system and to ensure that it is future-ready.

“There is a need to have a future-proof curriculum to produce future-proof talents. The students too need to be equipped with future-proof skills and attributes, among which are equipped with computational thinking, involved in lifelong learning and having multiple intelligences.”

She ended her talk by saying that more needs to be done and time is of the essence. There has to be a change of mindsets in the overall education system, in developing a flexible (‘fluid’ and ‘organic’) curricula that would provide the students with the necessary skills, tools and characteristics that would allow them to face the disruptive challenges ahead in life.

Professor Rose Alinda has a background in Information Systems Management, and is from the UTM Faculty of Computing. She has served among others, as the Dean at the UTM School of Graduate Studies and as UTM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International).

Moderated by CDAE Director, Professor Dr. Abd Karim Alias, the talk was attended by close to 40 people, including Heads of Departments at USM. CDAE is a centre that was established to implement the USM APEX Transformation Plan, by developing and conducting activities focused on nurturing and learning.

Text: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin