UTAR USR Community Project Series I: Making a positive contribution to the community

Guided by our vision to be a global university of educational excellence, UTAR is highly reputed as one of the fastest growing private higher education institutions in the country with phenomenal growth in all aspects of its development since its inception. The University’s social responsibility projects and initiatives cover a diverse spectrum of activities, rooted in its core values and reflected in its voluntary services in support of the people and the community. Activities range from research, R&D projects, consultation, training, conferences, talks and seminars, to voluntary community services in New Villages and rural areas, health campaigns, gotong-royong, free health services, awareness programmes, financial aid and scholarships, leadership and youth camps, and teaching and learning support.

From top management to academics, support staff and students, service to the community and even the industry is part and parcel of the University education. To date, all community-related projects that were organised by UTAR involved a total of 144,230 UTAR students, 17,662 staff and 838,069 public members from all around Malaysia. From working with the underprivileged in villages and cleaning up homes to collaborations with industry companies to improve products and services and conduct research; these activities are conducted throughout the year, providing enriching experiences for both the givers and receivers.

Focusing on helping different ethnic and age groups, UTAR has reached out to various communities in need across the country by organising meaningful projects such as UTAR New Village Community Project, Orang Asli Community Project, Langkawi Project, community service to NGOs, Kuok Foundation — Kopisan project, Collaboration with Yayasan Sukarelawan Siswa and many more.

The UTAR New Village Community Project consists of several programmes such as New Village Survey, New Village Collaborative Project, and New Village Tour and Community Project. Besides encouraging entrepreneurship among the villagers, these programmes aimed to introduce the new village community to the public and increase UTAR students’ social awareness and responsibility. So far, UTAR has helped a large number of new villages such as Kampung Bagan Hailam, Kampung Paya Lang, Kampung Bukit Godam, Kampung Baru Bukit Pilah and Kampung Dato Lee Kim Sai to improve their socioeconomic status and introduce them to thepublic. Recently, UTAR even gained recognition for its achievement in promoting and establishing several new villages’ small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), namely Kampung Baru Bukit Tinggi for its ginger; Kampung Cina, Setiawan for its Mee Shua (noodle) and others through the adoption of digital marketing and e-commerce.

UTAR’s Orang Asli project, on the other hand, aimed to instil empathy among the students and promote cultural exchange with the Orang Asli community. This project is conducted annually with the involvement of UTAR students, who usually acts as the facilitators. To give an example, the Department of Soft Skills Competency organised a three-day project called the “Art and Craft Project” on 28 October 2017, 4 November 2017 and 11 November 2017. A number of students from the Faculty of Creative Industries were involved in the project which served as a part of their MPU-U4 unit assessment. The students were required to teach and guide the community in developing their business, particularly the handicraft business through online platforms. These activities provided an opportunity for the students to share their knowledge with other communities in Malaysia.

Apart from that, UTAR also organised the Langkawi Project, an educational awareness Community Outreach Programme, which was carried out by the Community Service Society of UTAR and external collaborators to uplift the standard of education in the rural areas. This project aimed to develop awareness and ignite the passion for reading among children. Every year, UTAR students would organise mini-camps for school children and include a lot of interactive activities for the school children and their parents. Moreover, UTAR students have helped many schools to enhance their learning environment through mural paintings.

UTAR also offered free Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) consultations for schools and rural communities. The programme involved 12 staff and 31 TCM students. It benefitted a total of 318 general public. They also offered acupuncture treatment based on the patients’ state of health for free, under the lecturers’ supervision.

Not only focusing on the local community, UTAR has also collaborated with other government foundations to reach out to more communities from other states and countries. For example, UTAR collaborated with Yayasan Sukarelawan Siswa (YSS), a volunteerism entity owned by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) to encourage, educate and guide the students of higher learning institutions to promote world peace and inculcate the spirit of camaraderie through community engagement within and outside the country. In 2016, two UTAR students were offered to join YSS-ASEAN Green Summer Volunteer Campaign 2016 Vietnam and YSS-ASEAN to Tawau, Sabah upon their successful interview with the foundation. The project acted as an eye-opener for the students to explore and understand the communities who are in need around them and has brought a positive change into their lives.

UTAR also partners with government, schools and other service providers to improve educational outcomes for children and create and support long-term change in communities entrenched in disadvantage. For example, UTAR collaborated with the Malaysian Association of Practising Opticians and Optopreneur College for the “Gift of Eyesight” project where free eye checkups and free spectacles were given to rural primary school students in Perak, Selangor, Pahang, Kedah, Penang and Negeri Sembilan. UTAR is grateful to have received generous sponsorships from organisations such as ECM Libra Foundation, Kuok Foundation, Brunsfield Corporation Sdn Bhd, MOHE, Silverlake Sprints Sdn Bhd, Unique Diamond Sdn Bhd, TOMEI Gold & Jewellery Manufacturing Sdn Bhd, Loka Travel Sdn Bhd, Optopreneur College, Little Rain Children Trust, and personal donors, namely Mark Chang, the CEO of JcbNext.com and Academician Dato’ Ir Lee Yee Cheong, the Malaysian Chairman, Governing Council of UNESCO (ISTIC) for its community projects.

Recently, UTAR was awarded the Sin Chew Business Excellence Award (SCBEA) 2017 in the CSR Excellence Award category due to its tremendous social responsibility projects and initiatives that covered a wide range of activities and projects. UTAR has always adopted good governance to ensure sustainability, practised responsible management and engaged in corporate social responsibility and has always believed that this approach is essential for long-term sustainability, lifelong learning and value creation for its staff, students and the community.

Besides focusing on community development, UTAR also works hard to conserve the environment by introducing green technology. In the next issue, UTAR’s contribution to the environmental conservation and green technology will be discussed.