UTAR News / Awards

With the aim to discuss the international collaboration activities during the Covid-19 period and to take collaboration between universities to the next level, an international forum titled “COVID-19: Current & future trends of international collaboration” was organised by UTAR Division of Community and International Networking (DCInterNet) via Zoom on 18 November 2020.

The international forum aimed to link all the economies in South East Asia, India, Pakistan and Africa. The forum saw 80 participants including guest speakers who came from 29 partner universities. All attendees were given the opportunity to discuss and propose any virtual collaboration activities during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Invited to grace the opening ceremony was UTAR Vice President for Internationalisation and Academic Development Ir Prof Dr Yow Ho Kwang.

In his opening speech, Prof Yow expressed his thanks to all the attendees and said, “The mobility programme for students was seriously affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, we made a call to invite our university’s partners from ASEAN economies, Pakistan, Kenya, Indian, Taiwan and China to explore more possibilities on virtual international collaboration. I truly believe that we can learn from each other on virtual mode as the new norm of the collaboration. We also hope to maintain this momentum even after the pandemic is over. This is the main reason why we are organising this international collaboration forum today.”

The forum continued with two sharing sessions by the invited speakers.

Moderated by DCInternet staff Goh Kang Ling, the first session saw four guest speakers, namely Mae Fah Luang University Vice President Assoc Prof Nantana Gajaseni from Thailand, BINUS University BINUS Global Program and Collaboration Coordinator Rokoyah from Indonesia, Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST) Directorate of Quality Assurance and Career Services Director Dr Eunice Nkatha Marete from Kenya and Iqra University Faculty of Engineering Department of Software Engineering Head Dr Mansoor Ebrahim from Pakistan. Present on behalf of UTAR (Malaysia) was DCInternet Director Assoc Prof Dr Lai Soon Onn.

The theme for the first session was ‘The current situation of international collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic’. It covered topics such as student and staff mobility, research collaboration and staff professional development.

According to Rokoyah, BINUS University provides multi-channel learning on websites to their local and international students. The learning activities which take place virtually consist of video conference, discussion forum and video-based learning. “Apart from attending online courses, the students do their assignments using the online resources and E-book provided on the website, namely BINUSMAYA, Greatnusa.com and BINUSTV,” Rokoyah explained.

On the other hand, Dr Eunice who represented the MUST University told the attendees that they have been working with other universities on a new programme which allows lecturers from other universities to co-supervise their master’s students. “UTAR is one of our partner universities who have joined this programme. All these interactions are done virtually via online platforms,” she said.

While explaining the challenges encountered by Iqra University, Dr Mansoor said that they had to cancel most of the ongoing collaborative programmes with various international universities. These programmes include the split degree programme, credit transfer option, summer internship programme, short attachment of faculty members and students with partner institutions, joint research, joint supervision, faculty exchange programme, joint conference organisation as well as other physical and virtual resources sharing. He said, “Even after the COVID-19 pandemic, we estimate that many students will give up joining the collaborative programmes due to their financial problem.”

Dr Lai explained several programmes and activities organised by UTAR since the pandemic outbreak. Among the programmes and activities conducted were virtual exchange programme, virtual internship programme, virtual study tour, cyber class, virtual forum, virtual seminar, virtual workshop and training as well as online meetings for institutional collaboration.

A pre-recorded video of short speech delivered by Mae Fah Luang University Vice President Assoc Prof Nantana was played during the forum towards the end of the first sharing session.

The second sharing session was a round table discussion themed ‘Post Covid-19 new international collaboration model and possible collaboration’. It was moderated by BINUS University BINUS Global Program & Collaboration Coordinator Lidya Sin. The speakers were Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College (China) School of Entrepreneurship Education Lecturer Zhou Hairong, Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College (China) School of Civil Engineering Teaching Assistant Liu Yifan, Xianyang Normal University (China) International Exchange and Cooperation Office Section Chief of International Students Administration Office Gong Chenxi, SRM Group of Institutions (India) International Relations Director Dr Abraham Benjamin Samuel, Davao Del Norte State College (Philippines) Department of Communication and Media Studies Executive Assistant Daniel Fritz Silvallana, Mae Fah Luang University (Thailand) Global Relations Division Administrative Officer Warunee Kaewbunruang, Universitas Surabaya (UBAYA) (Indonesia) International Office Staff Fensi Arintia Ekaputri, Iqra University (Pakistan) Faculty of Engineering, Sciences and Technology Associate Dean Dr Syed Hasan Adil, Institute of Technology Sepuluh Nopember (Indonesia) ITS Global Engagement Director-cum-Industrial and Engineering System Department senior lecturer Assoc Prof Dr Maria Anityasari, BINUS University (Indonesia) BINUS Global Program and Collaboration Coordinator Sanugroho and London School of Public Relations (Indonesia) International Relations and Partnership Office Director Dr Candy Hernandez.

The speakers proposed various interesting collaboration programmes and wished to see participants from ASEAN and Asia economies take part in the programmes. Among the key programmes proposed were “Online course: E-commerce Operation Practice” by Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College; “2021 Online Chinese Study Programme” by Xianyang Normal University; “Cultural Language Program” by Davao Del Norte State College; “Integrated Marketing Competition” by Davao Del Norte State College and UTAR; “Virtual Mobility Programme: Teen Ideas 2020” by Institute of Technology Sepuluh Nopember and Universiti Malaysia Perlis; “Online Lecture Exchange” by BINUS University; “MFU Visiting Scholars Programme” and “MFU Students Mobility Programme” by Mae Fah Luang University.

The forum ended with a closing speech and presentation of UTAR’s collaboration proposal by Dr Lai. The attendees were then invited to join the existing collaboration programmes that were ongoing in UTAR. Dr Lai said, “I hope this forum would assist the International office among the universities. We are happy to be the linkage to link all the universities. UTAR serves as the main organiser for the forum and we will share a contact list to all the attendees so that all of you will be able to keep contact with each other for possible collaboration.”