USM PENANG, 18 March 2022 - A Commonwealth Postgraduate Students’ Forum was held online, to look at issues affecting Doctoral education during pandemic times.

The forum entitled “Doctoral Education in Pandemic Era” was held on 17 March 2022, 8.00 am through the Cisco Webex Online Platform.

The forum is a collaborative effort of the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Facility (CTEF) and Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA), National Higher Education Research Institute (IPPTN) and Malaysian Society for Higher Education Policy and Research Development (PenDaPat).

According to the Director of CTEF, Associate Professor Ts. Dr. Wan Fatma Zuharah Wan Musthapa, the forum aims to engage participants, especially postgraduate students from developing countries of the Commonwealth in Malaysia in sharing their lived realities, experiences and knowledge on the current and emerging issues relating to the governance and organisational structures of doctoral education.

“It intends to share information on different models and values of doctoral programmes in higher education and hopes to influence the higher education policies relating to the graduation structure, practice and postgraduate training in Malaysia and beyond,” she said.

The forum began with a delivery of the opening remarks by the Undersecretary International Relations Divisions, MoHE - Datin Noorazah Omar. This was followed by presentations from the panels and students.

Among those who presented were the MQA consultant – Dr. Hj. Hazman Shah Abdullah; USM academician, Dr. Thien Lei Mee; and students from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), University of Nottingham Malaysia and USM. The forum open discussion was then chaired by the IPPTN and Advisor of PenDaPat, Honorary Professor Dato’ Dr. Morshidi Sirat.

The forum later ended with closing remarks delivered by Wan Fatma.