UTAR President Prof Chuah retires, Prof Ewe takes over

Prof Chuah

Ir Prof Academician Dato’ Dr Chuah Hean Teik is retiring as President/CEO of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) after more than 11 years with the university. Prof Chuah joined UTAR in March 2008 as the President and Chief Executive Officer and he has since held the position until his retirement.

Prof Chuah has had an illustrious career with UTAR creating many firsts for the university. He is a visionary with a keen foresight whose strategic decisions have elevated UTAR to tremendous heights of achievements that brought the university to the world map.

Under his focused leadership and his commitment to quality teaching and research, UTAR achieved favourable rankings and attained impressive awards from reputable institutions and Malaysian authorities. During his tenure as President, UTAR attained Self-Accreditation Status awarded by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency under the Malaysia Ministry of Education. In addition, for the first time, UTAR was awarded the Sin Chew Education Awards 2018/2019 for Outstanding Educational Institution in the Private Universities/Colleges category. In 2017/2018, UTAR was also awarded the CSR Excellence Award at the Sin Chew Business Excellence Award for its services and projects to the community, an initiative which he fully supports.

UTAR received its Times Higher Education rankings for the first time in 2017 and since then, the university has consistently gotten good rankings while maintaining its position. UTAR is ranked #101 - 150 in the Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings 2019 and#111 in the Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings 2019. UTAR retained its position within the band of #501-600 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and Top 120 in the Times Higher EducationAsia Pacific University Rankings for the last two years in 2018 and 2019. UTAR is also ranked #188 in the QS Asia University Rankings 2019, an improvement from 2018.

Prof Chuah introduced and implemented the UTAR Soft Skills Development Certificate (USSDC) Programme for the students in the university. He has always encouraged entrepreneurship and supported many students in their activities including the set-up of a business incubator on campus. All these have contributed to our graduates enjoying a high employability rate of 95% to 97% within six months of graduation.

It was also during Prof Chuah’s presidency that many staff and students won numerous local and international awards for performances in sports, academia, projects, research and publications. He has indeed created a positive and encouraging environment for top performances among both staff and students that led to many milestone achievements.

Prof Chuah will continue to contribute his services in the fund-raising efforts of the UTAR Kampar Hospital and will continue to provide his advice on the development of UTAR Hospital.

UTAR ChancellorTun Dr Ling Liong Sik, UTAR Education Foundation Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Sak Cheng Lam and UTAR Council Chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Ting Chew Peh expressed their appreciation to Prof Chuah for having served and contributed to UTAR as President for the past 11 years.

Representing BoT and Council, Tan Sri Dato' Dr. Sak Cheng Lum states "as much as we’ve been very reluctant to let him go, we had to accept his decision to retire. His contributions to UTAR have been immense and invaluable with his leadership in guiding the development of UTAR into an esteemed university that benefitted numerous lives and we would like to record that UTAR Education Foundation and Council thank him for the great work that he has done for the university. No words will be able to express our gratitude."

His successor is Ir Prof. Dr Ewe Hong Tat who will assume position as UTAR President/CEO after Prof. Chuah’s retirement.

Prof Ewe graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (1^st Class Honours) in Electrical Engineering from University of Malaya in 1992. He completed his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA in 1994. In 1999, Prof Ewe obtained his Doctor of Philosophy from the Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University.

After working in Universiti Malaya and Multimedia University for 14 years, Prof Ewe joined UTAR as a Professor in September 2008 and was appointed the Dean of the UTAR Faculty of Information and Communication Technology in November 2008, a position he held until May 2010. Since July 2009, Prof Ewe assumed the position of UTAR Vice President (Internationalisation and Academic Development).

He was also the recipient of a number of awards including The Young Scientist Award of URSI (International Union of Radio Science) in 1996, The Outstanding Young Malaysian (TOYM) Award in 2005 for Academic Leadership and Accomplishment, and The Toray Science and Technology Award by Malaysian Toray Science Foundation in 2011.

He is currently a Fellow of Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), Fellow and Secretary General of ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology (AAET), Chair of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Malaysia Chapter, Deputy Chairman of Science, Technology and Innovations Consultative Committee of ACCCIM, Educational Counsellor and Regional Chair (Malaysia) of MIT Educational Council, and he was also a Council Member of Malaysia Qualifications Agency (MQA) from 2013-2018.

In publications, he has published 7 books and book chapters, more than 160 international journal and conference papers, and more than 150 newspaper and magazine column articles. His research interests include microwave remote sensing, satellite image processing, wireless sensor network and intelligent computing. He is also active in consultancy and technopreneur development works and was a consultant/advisor for several listed and start-up companies in Malaysia.

Prof Ewe