Pulau Pinang, 15 March 2013 – The Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) School of Management (SoM) launched their newly refurbished Students’ Lounge that was fully sponsored by Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW).

The lounge that cost more than RM100,000 to refurbish was officiated by Mr Michael Izza, Chief Executive Officer of ICAEW today.

Dr Amirul Shah Md Shahbudin from SoM pointed out that the lounge will be used for tutorials, student’s discussions, and also a resource centre for accounting.

Earlier before the launch, Prof Fauziah Md Taib, SoM Dean, said in her opening speech that “The School of Management inked a Memoradum of Agreement between the accountancy firm KPMG and Sunway-TES two years ago to provide a ICAEW pathway for USM’s Bachelor of Accounting degree holders to take the Chartered Accountancy (ACA) programme.”

She then added that the programme was “the first of its kind in public universities” and that USM looks forward to continue its partnership with ICAEW.

However, SoM limits its intake of students for the programme to a hundred as it does not want to “mass produce” students but rather emphasise on meeting the needs of the industry with students of very good integrity and values.

“We are moving away from role-based accounting into principle-based accounting,” said Prof Fauziah, adding that the School also broadens up the students’ scope and are nurtured with the values of sustainability."

Mr Izza commented that ICAEW has also been stressing on the sustainability values and that ICAEW is glad that students are trained to be independent and self-guiding.

Also present were Regional Director of ICAEW of South East Asia, Mr Mark Billington; Executive Director of Sunway College, Mr. Teo Ee Seng; Mr Adrian Lee from KPMG; and Head of ICAEW in Malaysia, Ms Loh Wei Yuan. The representatives from USM were Dr. Adeline Lau Hooi Ping and Dr Chee Hong Kok. Text: Sharifah Darweena Syed Ahmad Amir Feisal/Photo: Yong Check Yoon