USM PENANG, 6 July 2022 – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) via the School of Housing, Building and Planning (HBP) has entered into a partnership with VERITAS Design Group in establishing academic and industry collaborations.

The collaboration was sealed through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony, where USM was represented by its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato’ Dr. Faisal Rafiq Mahamd Adikan, while VERITAS Design Group was represented by its Vice President, Lilian Tay.

The aim of the MoU is to promote, build and grow the education facility’s research, education and training activities which will foster collaboration between professional practice and academics, since real-world learning coupled with classroom theories would be extremely beneficial to students.

Other collaborations also include internship placements, site visits to construction sites and specially-curated design workshops.

This partnership would almost certainly provide an early exposure to possible job prospects, as well as valuable insights into the design and technology trends.

According to Faisal Rafiq, USM is always looking forward to cultivating the spirit of academic and industry collaboration between fellow institutions, with the hope that such partnership will not only greatly benefit both institutions but the community at large as well.

“We hope through this collaboration, we could churn out the next generation of designer architects that are well-equipped to undertake projects of varying scales and complexities and deliver projects in accordance with international quality and standards,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lilian Tay said that the MoU will certainly foster more opportunities for the academia and practice, classroom and workplace, thinking and action on the ground, to deliberate, discuss and work towards new solutions for this post-pandemic increasingly technology-driven world.

“We hope this collaboration between USM and VERITAS will bring closer, research learning and practice on the ground, which we believe will be of mutual benefit to lecturers, students and us, working architects as we look forward to opportunities for real-life application and testing of research findings from leading esteemed learning institutions such as USM,” she said.

Lilian further added by saying that this partnership is part of VERITAS continuous ‘give back to society’ effort, which they think that their 35 years of expertise in the field could assist the next generation of designers and architects as they enter the real world with a bag full of information.

Also present were the Dean, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Associate Professor Ts. Dr. Mohd Rodzi Ismail; Principal, VERITAS Architects Sdn. Bhd., Eric Tham Kong Meng; and principal officers of USM and VERITAS Architects Sdn. Bhd.

Text: Nur Farrah Ezlin Mohd Suhaimi