JOHOR BAHRU, 18 January 2014 - Universiti Sains Malaysia Alumni of Johor (AUSMJ) initiated some efforts to give back to the community by helping Sekolah Kebangsaan Sri Pulai, Skudai through a community service programme here yesterday.

Johor Menteri Besar, Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said that such an initiative needs to be cultivated among the alumni of any institution to assist the development of their alma mater.

He said that some of the world's top universities such as Harvard University are strong because one of the contributing factors was the contributions from their alumni in various forms.

“We also need to cultivate the same values among our alumni so that they can continue to provide services for the country’s development as a whole, as carried out by the USM alumni of Johor which benefits its community,” he said.

Khaled said this when attending the Alumni Hi-Tea with Johor Menteri Besar which was the highlight of the day’s community service programme organised by USM, Ikatan Mahasiswa Johor (IKMAR), AUSMJ and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Also present at the programme were USM Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato' Dr. Omar Osman; UTM Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ir. Dr. Wahid Omar; USM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Community Network) Professor Dato’ Dr. See Ching Mey; AUSMJ President, Khairull Azmi Ishak; and principal officers of USM and UTM.

He added that USM alumni approach in working with UTM in organising this programme is a good example whereby all participating parties were involved to benefit a larger community.

“When we unite, the existing strengths will be much stronger and it will also indirectly provide a medium for us to interact with each other in order to strengthen our performance and in transforming the world of higher education,” he said.

In the meantime, Omar said that the steps undertaken by AUSMJ is deemed to support the blue ocean strategy, particularly in forging collaborations with other parties and successfully organising a programme at a minimal cost, but produces an impressive output.

“We have successfully accomplished an effort outside the usual norm, which in turn will strengthen the collaboration of two or more universities. This will further strengthen the accomplishment of our success in the projects that are carried out.

“For example, today (yesterday) we were able to see how the existing cooperation is able to help the school to make the school environment more vibrant and at the same time, the students are inspired to excel in their studies,” he said.

He added that the number of USM alumni has now reached 130,000 and the university will continue to build networks that can support graduates from within and outside the country to continue support the University through a variety of mechanisms, including contributing their expertise and ideas. - Text/Photo: Marziana Mohamed Alias/Translation: Sharifah Darweena Syed Ahmad Amir Feisal