UTAR scholarship recipients of January 2023 intake and future scholarship recipients are required to participate and engage in charitable community services or university community events. This is part of UTAR’s initiative to instil the value of charitable spirit, compassion as well as spirit of giving back to society.

With the fulfilment of community and university services mandated for UTAR scholarship recipients, UTAR established MyUTAR Community and Voluntary Engagement System to facilitate the registration and monitoring process of community and university events. To answer the uncertainties pertaining to the system, UTAR Department of Student Affairs(DSA) and Department of Scholarships and Financial Aid (DSFA) organised a webinar titled “Briefing Session on MyUTAR Community and Voluntary Engagement System” on 22 February 2023 via Microsoft Teams.

The main objective of the webinar was to brief the UTAR scholarship recipients of January 2023 intake and nominated administrators of MyUTAR Community and Voluntary Engagement System about the procedures and details of the recently-released system.

DSFA Head of Department Tan Wear Sim gave a concise explanation on the new system. The scholarship recipients are required to commit varying hours to community or university services every trimester depending on the amount of scholarship funds received. The different amounts of time required for the fulfilment of conditions are listed below:

Available community and university events are listed in the system for the scholarship recipients’ review.  Moreover, the details of the event and contact information of the event organiser are available in the system for the scholarship recipients should they develop interest in the events. The same applies to the nominated administrators of each department, division and faculty. The administrators would be able to register the information about the events they would like to add in the system as well, potentially easing the process of recruiting helpers for many events to come.

The system is accessible via UTAR Web2’s Student Portal. Upon registration, scholarship recipients will need to wait for approval from the event organiser. Should the event organiser approve the request to help, the event organiser will reach out to the scholarship recipients to brief and further the process. Other than that, the events can be organised on the campuses or outside the campuses. For off-campus events, scholarship recipients are required to contact DSFA to discuss and get approval to officially register the information in the system. Scholarship recipients are advised to register for events that are conveniently accessible to them to reduce complications in their study schedule.

“Other than allowing scholarship recipients to relieve stress, build self-confidence, build foreign networks, and accumulate work experiences before starting their own careers, they are also eligible to receive UTAR Soft Skills Development Certificate (USSDC) with the accumulated USSDC points as well as the benefits included in UTAR Community Engagement and Voluntary Service (CARE) Programme,” shared Tan when elucidating the benefits of participating in community and university events.

For any further enquiries regarding MyUTAR Community and Voluntary Engagement System, kindly contact DSA, Sungai Long Campus Ms Wong Jian Fen (wongjf@utar.edu.my) or DSA, Kampar Campus Mr Ou Lik Ee (oule@utar.edu.my).