UTAR and the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) on 8 December 2022 at A401 Meeting Room, Dong Zong.

According to the agreement, UTAR will offer 15 scholarships to Chinese Independent School (CIS) graduates who wish to serve as a CIS teacher under the CIS Teacher Training Project Programme (《华文独中师资培育专案计划》), initiated by Dong Zong. Eligible students who are admitted under the programme will be able to receive a full scholarship to pursue their undergraduate programme at UTAR. According to the contract, they must teach in any of the CIS for about three to four years upon graduating.

Signing the agreement were UTAR President Ir Prof Dato’ Dr Ewe Hong Tat and Dong Zong Chairman Tan Tai Kim. The signing was witnessed by UTAR Vice President for Student Development and Alumni Relations Prof Dr Choong Chee Keong and Dong Zong Deputy Chairman Tan Yew Sing. Also present were Dong Zong Vice Chairman Yang Yin Chong and Low Kin Yak, Treasurer Yeong Oon San, Assistant Secretary General Yeoh Chai Kok, UTAR Division of Programme Promotion Director Alex Lee Choy Fong, and representatives from Dong Zong and UTAR.

Tan expressed his appreciation to UTAR and said, “Dong Zong is very grateful to UTAR for assisting CIS in cultivating teachers and reserving talents, and showing great support towards the CIS Teacher Training Project Programme. The collaboration between Dong Zong and UTAR will actively cultivate teachers with undergraduate qualifications for CIS, especially in the fields of information technology, multimedia, science and engineering. Most importantly, this initiative has special and far-reaching significance for the establishment of a base of professional teachers for CIS.”

“Dong Zong strongly encourages UEC students or Chinese students who are interested in engaging in CIS education to seize the opportunity to enrol in UTAR’s degree programmes,” he added.

Prof Dato’ Ewe revealed, “UTAR is honoured to be one of the institutions to participate in Dong Zong’s CIS Teacher Training Project Programme. We hope to do our best to support this meaningful initiative as UTAR has always adhered to the bedrock principle of ‘by the people, for the people’ since our establishment. In the past, UTAR had provided the ‘UTAR-UEC Scholarship’ to a number of excellent CIS students, and today the CIS Teacher Training Project Programme scholarship has been sublimated to a far-reaching level. This not only allows students to pursue their tertiary studies without any worries, but also reserves professional teachers for CIS.”

CIS Teacher Training Project Programme (《华文独中师资培育专案计划》) was launched by Dong Zong in 2015. Currently, the participating universities include 10 overseas universities and three local universities (UTAR, HELP University and Southern University College).