On 5 January 2020, UTAR officially welcomed its first batch of freshmen for the year 2020 at both Kampar and Sungai Long Campuses. The orientation aimed to facilitate the registration of new students into the new environment and to provide them with an ideal platform for a smooth transition into university life.

Many fun and interesting activities were organised by the Department of Student Affairs (DSA), Student Representatives Council (SRC) and Registration, Campus Tour and Mass Call (RCM) Committee to help the new students meet UTAR President, their seniors, faculty members, senior university officials and other freshmen during the orientation.

Activities organised during the orientation were ice-breaking and tele-match activities, peer mentoring programme, fire extinguisher demonstration, group games, campus hunt and talent time performed by the freshmen. The freshmen were also involved in an induction programme which included Campus Adjustment Talks, Campus Tour around UTAR, New Village Tour and also City Tour surrounding the Campus to help the students familiarise themselves with the surroundings and visit some significant places.

During the meet-up session with SRC members, SRC Kampar Chairperson and Sungai Long Chairperson Representatives 2019/2020 briefed and explained to the freshmen about the roles and functions of SRC, how SRC can help them to solve their enquiries if they have any problems and how to look for them through the Facebook page if they could not find them on campus or in person.  They also shared with the freshmen the information they can obtain from the Facebook page and the events that SRC has organised so far.

The freshmen were also exposed to the university’s rules and regulation and the facilities and services available for the students. They were taught to explore the world by participating in activities like student exchange programme, internship programme, study tour and the buddy programme. Besides, they also learnt the method of gaining certificates for certain schemes such as UTAR Undergraduate Research Scheme (URS) Certificate and also how to apply for financial aids such as PTPTN and scholarships.

On top of it, a new briefing was given to the freshmen on the use of eWANG. eWANG is a mobile application and P2P (Peer-to-Peer) is one of its features. It allows eWANG user to transfer money to another eWANG user by just using their mobile number. On top of that, students may also make their payment instantly for UTAR Bus Ticket Fees, Gym Fees, Parcel Collection Fees & Library Fine by using eWang.

Last but not least, activities such as promotion and recruitment from clubs and societies, blood donation campaign aimed to contribute to the society by saving lives, and awareness campaign await the new students to participate as well. Students may also stay tuned for the upcoming green campaign and gotong royong, namely “Go Green- For a better tomorrow”.

Participating in the orientation programme for the tenth time, Organising Chairperson of Orientation Keeanuseelan Gunaselan said, “I have always enjoyed participating in the orientation programme. In my opinion, the orientation is very important for the freshmen. This is the time where they meet new friends and it is also the only time where they can enjoy playing around freely because after that they will be occupied with tests and assignments. I planned the programme for this occasion carefully based on my previous experience; I had to make sure that the progress of the orientation goes smoothly. So, I created a new system, where I introduced a new team to each of the department. Now, they can solely dedicate themselves to their respective department without the need to multi-task. Being the Chairperson of this orientation programme, I had to learn to manage my time well, so that it will not affect my studies. Overall, participating in the orientation was fun as we get to plan and do things together.”

Ayaka Koh Ling Hua, a new student from Puchong, who is going to pursue Foundation in Science said, “I had so much fun joining the orientation because I made plenty of new friends and I had the opportunity to get to know my seniors. Also, now I understand better about the facilities and services provided by UTAR after the briefing sessions. I chose UTAR because my brother pursued his foundation here. Moreover, my friends recommended me to study at UTAR because of its rankings. Overall, the orientation was great. I learnt a lot and managed to build good networks with a bunch of friends through the games.  I wish I could graduate with flying colours and meet a lot of new friends in the future.”