PENANG, 24 April 2015 - The Raja of Perlis, who is also the Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), H.R.H Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Ibni Al-Marhum Tuanku Syed Putra Jamalullail, urged the USM community to continue being fully committed in their work to achieve success in the future.

His Royal Highness also hoped that those in the USM community would aspire to be global leaders in their own respective fields.

“I hope the whole USM community will continue to work together, utilising all available strength to achieve excellence, as only by working together and sharing ideas and mobilising the strength of all, we will be able to compete and face the challenges in the future,” said the Raja of Perlis at the Chancellor’s Dinner Banquet in conjunction with the 51^st USM Convocation ceremony on the 25 and 26 April 2015.

The Raja of Perlis said, now is the time to double the efforts and be fully committed to realise what has been promised earlier on in driving for excellence, by developing the thoughts of the young people with those highly experienced to work together in a strategic manner for the future of USM, bringing forward the well-renowned names and talents to become eminent and prominent.

His Royal Highness also requested for USM to produce leaders of world-calibre who are well-received and respected on the world stage, to facilitate the efforts in reaching out across all boundaries.

“The university has proven its capability in producing highly-respected academics who are amongst the world’s most influential scientific minds, and such efforts should be continued to nurture more such figures to be well-received and respected on the world stage,” said the Raja of Perlis.  

Attending the ceremony were the Raja Perempuan Perlis H.R.H Tuanku Tengku Fauziah binti Al-Marhum Tengku Abdul Rashid. Others who attended included the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Pulau Pinang T.Y.T Tun Dato’ Seri Utama (Dr.) Haji Abdul Rahman Haji Abbas and spouse Toh Puan Dato’ Seri Utama Hajah Majimor Shariff, USM Pro-Chancellor Tan Sri Datuk Mustafa Mansur, Perlis State Legislative Council Speaker Haji Hamdan Bahari and spouse Hasmah Mustafa and the Chairman of the USM Board of Governors Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Zulkefli A. Hassan and spouse Puan Sri Datin Noridah Nachara Hamat.

Meanwhile, also at the ceremony, the USM Vice-Chancellor Professor Dato’ Dr. Omar Osman said, USM is working together with the Education Ministry to ensure the success of the Malaysia Education Development Plan (Higher Education) launched recently by the Prime Minister.

“USM too is proud in delivering quality graduates, for instance the 71% who graduated with CGPA 3.00 – 3.66, compared to only 50% before APEX was implemented, and those with CGPA 3.70 – 4.00 has increased by 5% compared to previously at 1%,” said Omar.

He said, however, USM has to be prepared in facing the challenges of the turbulent future, by adopting measures such as cutting the current cost of producing students by utilising lean management practices, ensuring more scientists are brought forth to be well-received and recognised globally, producing more publications of high quality, cited and referred to, and to gather more alumni members to assist in the expansion and development of the university, to always be relevant and competitive in the future.

“All these require long-term strategic thinking which needs to be planned and initiated in accordance with good governance and accountability, as the university needs to be developed not only based on ideals, but also on realistic actions to fulfill the wishes of the community, society, the country and globally,” said Omar.

He added, USM currently is hard at work to establish smart partnerships with various countries with more than 425 memorandums of understanding inked, developing strength in new fields such as aging science together with RIKEN Institute Japan, collaborations with universities from Korea, People’s Republic of China and Saudi Arabia in academics and internationalisation, developing a research campus at Sains@USM, strengthening relations with the industry as well as other efforts, at the same time gathering the thoughts and ideas from various groups consisting of young individuals to business people and successful corporate figures to look at the scenario of the university, 30 years ahead into the future.

“USM will continue to organise strategic thinking sessions involving various parties and plan various programmes in ensuring the success of PPPM (PT), as well as in facing the current challenges and working together with the industry to realise those efforts,” Omar further added.

High Royal Highness the Chancellor will chair the first session of the USM Convocation ceremony, scheduled to begin at 10 am on 25 April 2015. The President of the Malaysian Press Institute and a renowned figure in the field of journalism, Dato’ Chamil Wariya will be among the graduands to be conferred their Doctorates, as well as 12 of the first group from the Universitas Internasional Batam, Indonesia who will be conferred the USM Doctor in Business Administration (DBA) degrees.

This USM 51^st Convocation ceremony witnessed the conferment of degrees to 1,130 graduands which include 262 being awarded the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D), 505 with a Master’s degree and 363 first degrees.

In total, USM has held convocations for its 22,715 postgraduates and 122,318 undergraduates.

The USM 51^st Convocation ceremony can also be viewed via live streaming for all three sessions. - Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin/Text: Mohamad Abdullah