UTAR Welcomes French Visitors

On 15 October 2008 Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) welcomed two special visitors from the TELECOM Lille1, Lille, France to meet with UTAR's senior officials for a one-day friendly visit.

Visiting UTAR for the first time, for their first time were Prof. Bertrand Bonte, Director of TELECOM Lille1 and Prof. Dean Hipple, Head of International Relations and Professor of Intercultural Communication, TELECOM Lille1.

TELECOM Lille1 is one of the best known engineering schools in France. It is a French government funded institution of higher learning that conducts undergraduate and postgraduate engineering degrees programmes. TELECOM Lille1 has a growing number of agreements with international partners for collaborative activities international agreements for activities such as student internship placements, student exchange, tailor-made training programmes, e-learning development and summer school programmes with other institutions of higher learning across the globe.

Since 2005, TELECOM Lille1 has been sending their second- year telecommunication engineering students to Malaysia for their internship attachments.

"Many of our students like to do their internships in Malaysia," Prof. Hipple expressed, "Those who had their internships done in Malaysia fell in love with the country's beaches and were also able to focus well in conducting their research and scientific learning."

He added, "Attaching our students with internships abroad is a good move because it helps them to learn more about other races and culture, as well as discover themselves and their abilities better. This valuable experience will help to raise graduates who are able to be internationally competent to work in any countries worldwide."

Prof. Bonte said, "Besides looking into the possibilities of sending our students to complete their internship attachments at UTAR's laboratories, TELECOM Lille1 also hopes to team-uppartner with UTAR in other areas such as student and staff exchanges, and research."

The visit to UTAR brought great significance to UTAR and TELECOM Lille 1 as it gave the visitors and UTAR senior officials the opportunity to discuss on the potential collaboration efforts that could be explored in future. During the meeting, the visitors and UTAR senior officials also shared with one another information pertaining to their respective institutions of higher learning.

Apart from that, the visitors were taken on a tour around UTAR's Petaling Jaya Campus and UTAR's Kuala Lumpur Campus.

At the UTAR's Petaling Jaya Campus, the visitors met with Ir. Professor Dato' Dr Chuah Hean Teik, UTAR President.

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Media Contacts:
Ms. Caroline Poh,
Officer Division of Corporate Communications & Institutional Research
pohsl@mail.utar.edu.my
Tel: (03) 7958 2628 Ext.8217
H/P: (012) 512 2853