FMHS organises workshop to brainstorm 2021-2025 Strategic Plan

The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) organised a strategic planning workshop on 1 and 2 October 2020 at UTAR Sungai Long Campus to brainstorm the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan for the faculty. The strategic plan involves education, community outreach activities, industry network, and R&D direction in the years ahead. The workshop saw the participation of dean, deputy deans, faculty staff and consultants as well as specialists. They gathered to brainstorm and formulate ideas for strategic growth, innovation and enhanced quality education to meet future challenges.

The workshop, led by experts from various field, allowed members of the team to work together to create a clear and concise strategy for five areas identified by the faculty, namely Undergraduate Programmes, Postgraduate Programmes, Basic Medical Science Research, Clinical Research and Clinical Trial, and Community Outreach and Industry Network.

Prof Cheong explaining the importance of strategic planning

FMHS Dean Emeritus Prof Dr Cheong Soon Keng said, “Welcome to the third strategic planning for the medical faculty. We feel this is necessary because it is a competitive industry. We are a not-for-profit medical school and university. In order to continue to grow and flourish, we need new ideas from everyone. The pandemic is destructive but it also presents opportunities which we may not have encountered. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the landscape permanently as we are on 100 per cent online teaching and learning. The UTAR Hospital is under construction in Kampar, and will be ready for the Traditional and Complementary Medicine in a year and in another six months, it will be ready for commission. Thus, we need to think ahead and plan strategically on how we can contribute to the University, Faculty and the Hospital.”

He added, “The past two days of the workshop were fruitful and I would like to thank everyone for your participation, ideas and contribution during this workshop. A lot was discussed and we will see how we can implement it to achieve the goal we have set.”

Prof Lim sharing her thoughts on the strategic approach to achieve effectiveness, growth and impact

Head of Programme for Postgraduate Programmes and Centre for Cancer Research Chairperson Prof Ts Dr Lim Yang Mooi enthused, “This event was successfully organised and was able to achieve the objectives of establishing the third FMHS strategic plan. It was even more meaningful as faculty staff came together to deliberate and decide on the strategic plans. The strategic plan established is now owned by the members of FMHS. Furthermore, this was the first time to involve external consultants to further refine the strategic plan, and outline the strategic priorities to map the university's drive in achieving educational excellence with transformative society impacts.”

She added, “Strategic planning workshop is an important exercise that allows faculty to identify its threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths. This is critically needed to let faculty to know its current status and help faculty to position its future destination. The strategic priorities established during the workshop are useful guides to direct the way forward that the faculty should commit to achieving realistic initiatives and measurable targets. The most important aspect that the faculty can focus to achieve a greater level is to fully engage and support all faculty members with the same strategic mindset to implement the strategic priorities that are owned by all faculty members.”


Ongoing discussion among faculty staff and panel consultants

The highlight of the second-day workshop was the strategic plan presentations which centred on five areas, namely Undergraduate Programmes, Postgraduate Programmes, Basic Medical Science Research, Clinical Research and Clinical Trial, and Community Outreach and Industry Network. The presentations were led by Centre for Research on Non-Communicable Diseases Chairperson Prof Dr John Paul Evangel Judson, Centre for Research on Communicable Diseases Chairperson Prof Dr Ngeow Yun Fong, Centre for Stem Cell Research Chairperson Prof Dr Alan Ong Han Kiat, Prof Lim and FMHS Deputy Dean for Academic Development and Undergraduate Programmes Prof Dr Ng Teck Han.

Prof John Paul discussed the strategic plan for Undergraduate Programmes where he focused on internationalisation education, cyber classroom, online teaching and learning and interprofessional education. Prof Lim, on the other hand, presented six strategic priorities for Postgraduate Programmes which focused on global exposure and networking, diversity of student composition, diversity in teaching, learning and assessment methods, developing taught course postgraduate degree programmes, developing postgraduate degree programme by research and initiating connection with industry partners. Prof Ngeow shared the strategic priorities for Basic Medical Science Research that included effective communication of science to the public and policy, attract talented postgraduate students by increasing the website visibility, hire postdoctoral researcher, form key research clusters, develop a core facility that houses equipment and provides service to prevent damage to expensive instrument, establish a mentor-mentee system for staff, establish and strengthen research with national and international collaborators, establish and strengthen each research centre as an incubator for interested industry partners and provide education, training, knowledge transfer via workshops, conference and etcetera.

Prof Ng discussed the four strategic priorities of Clinical Research and Clinical Trial which included human capacities building in good clinical practice workshop and interdisciplinary networking, improving existing facilities to support clinical research, increasing the visibility of FMHS in clinical research and establishing key research area in digital health device with AI technology, occupational health and fundamental research. Prof Alan presented the strategic priorities on Community Outreach and Industry Network which included establishing a strategic alliance with FMHS alumni through a formal structured database and networking platform, developing fact-finding needs and relevance through online surveys, developing and executing targeted alumni activities, developing a strategic alliance with health care and health-associated industry and partners, organising holistic wellness workshop and training sessions to improve community health and awareness, and organising virtual inbound and outbound activities.

Prof Cheong (third from right) with (from left) Prof Lim, Prof Ng, Prof Ngeow, Prof John Paul and Prof Alan

From left: Prof Datuk Awang, Dato’ Goh, Prof Dato’ Raymond Azman, Prof Cheong, Prof Tan, Prof Lee, Dr Marzuki and Dr Lim during the presentation of token of appreciation ceremony

Prof Ng (left) presented the Clinical Methods Handbook to Prof Cheong

The strategic planning workshop saw an interesting interaction between the presenter, external consultant specialists and participants. It was followed by a Q&A session before it adjourned.


External consultant and specialists giving feedback during the Q&A session

 



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