FAM Postgraduate Colloquium

Prof Martin delivering his keynote speech

The Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) organised the Postgraduate Colloquium 2018 at Sungai Long Campus on 21 July 2018. Present at the colloquium were Massey University Head of School of Economics and Finance Prof Dr Martin Young, FAM Dean Dr Sia Bee Chuan, Head of MBA Programmes Dr Pok Wei Fong, Head of PhD and MPhil Programmes Dr Cham Tat Huei, Dr Lim Chee Seong and Boardroom.com Sdn Bhd Manager S. Vimalraj.

Dr Sia welcomed the guests and participants, “The idea of a colloquium is to meet and discuss about the existing knowledge. I hope this colloquium will be rewarding to the postgraduate students as they share their work and knowledge with each other. I think today’s topic is very relevant and current to the fourth industrial revolution.”

Prof Martin presented his talk titled “Valuing Hard to Value Assets: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies”. In his talk, he spoke about the concepts of assets and value, the difference between financial and physical assets, cryptocurrencies, the legality of cryptocurrencies, trading cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, critics of cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies and the demands of cryptocurrencies and cross-border settlements.

He said, “Once the speculative demand for cryptocurrencies has faded their demand as a means of carrying out anonymous transactions is likely to be very limited unless backed by a currency or a basket of currencies. Blockchain technology has real advantages for audit and authenticity purposes but this technology will keep developing and the current technology may soon be redundant.”    

Prof Martin who is also the external examiner for Corporate Governance programme said, “It’s very important that we are adaptable towards the change but it is also important that students today have a very good ground in the theory of how things actually work because, with so many changes in the industry, students who are going into the workforce need to have a strong theoretical background to react appropriately to the changes.”

Dr Lim during the Q&A session

Dr Lim presented his research talk titled “Exploring Research opportunity in Fintech Industry” which touch on the ideas of Fintech and its wave of financial innovation. He said, “Fintech is taking the services from conventional banks to the new mobile and internet world. Fintech could offer us digital wallets and mobile payments, Insuretech, Marketplace Lending (P2P) platforms for business, robot investment advisors and venture financing.” “We could also consider some areas of research opportunity such as mobile wallet perception and adoptions, competition and challenges of players, comparative study of artificial intelligence in investment and unit trust, robot advisory, applied econometrics modelling as well as the regulatory of cryptocurrencies and Fintech products,” added Dr Lim. 

Vimalraj sharing his experience to the participants

In his sharing session, S. Vimalraj spoke about the definition of company secretary and its regulation as well as his experience of being a company secretary. He said, “Some of the duties of a company secretary are advising the Board of Directors on the provisions of CA 2016, leading the Board to greater corporate governance, liaising with the regulators, facilitating the preparation of Board meetings and the minutes and preparing papers relating to Company’s affairs.” He added, “There is a high demand for this job in the market as it is a high profile job with great career prospects, remuneration package. Being competent in the job is important as it is a challenging job.”

T. S. Poobalan (left) and Lee (right) presenting their research study

“Obtaining a PhD is one of my childhood dreams and I believe that there is no age limit or time limit to achieve what you have in mind. You just got to do it and give your best because learning never stops, you continue to learn as you grow. In my opinion, a colloquium serves a place for me to attain feedbacks on my research for further improvements,” said T.S. Poobalan who is currently undergoing his PhD study.

Master of Philosophy student Lee Yan Yin said, “It is helpful not only for the research but also to acquire new knowledge from the session. From the colloquium, we gained a better idea of certain aspects and also the researcher’s progress. Such event should be open to the undergraduates as well so they could have a better understanding on research and decision making to pursue postgrad studies.”

At the colloquium, chairing the parallel sessions were Dr Low Mei Peng, Dr Cham, Dr Ng Kar Yee, Dr Hen Kai Wah and Prof Dr Cheng Ming Yu over 22 students from MPhil and PhD programmes. “Colloquium is a great avenue for research students to share their scholarly works with their peers and the academic staff as well as for the students to exchange knowledge and learn from each other. This is a good avenue to promote research opportunities to the staff and students of FAM. FAM will continue to host such meaningful event in the future,” said Colloquium Chairperson Dr Cham.

Co-organiser Dr Pok said, “This initiative on organising a colloquium allows MBA students to have more exposure on research. Aside from that, the students could also use this opportunity for networking purpose and to get idea on what they can research on for their research project as required in their programme”. 

 From left: Dr Pok, Dr Lim, Prof Martin, Dr Sia, Vimalraj and Dr Cham
 

Second from left: Dr Cham, Vimalraj, Dr Sia, Prof Martin, Dr Lim and Dr Pok with the participants