Special Feature

TowardsWorld-Class
Standards in Higher Education

Prof. Datuk Dr. Ir. Zaini Ujang, the Vice-Chancellor of UTM,
shares how UTM leads the way in the
transformation of Malaysian higher education

Established as Teacher Technical School in 1904 and upgraded to become a Technical College in 1942,
and later promoted to a university in 1974, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has made a name for
itself as the premier institution of higher learning in the field of engineering and technology in Malaysia.
Subscribing to a culture of excellence in all its endeavours and undertakings, UTM has continuously paved
the way towards academic achievement among the staff and students by creating the right ambience
for a vibrant academic culture and intellectual ecosystem at the university. Since taking over as the
Vice-Chancellor of UTM in October 2008, Prof. Datuk Dr. Ir. Zaini Ujang, aged 44 and a distinguished
professor in Environmental Engineering, has been leading efforts to transform the University into a
truly world-class institution of higher education. In the following pages, he shares his vision for UTM
and outlines the plans and aspirations of the university with Technology Business Review.

The vision of UTM

Prof. Zaini explained that UTM aspires to be a world-class university, in line with the long established vision and mission of the university, specifically to be a world-class centre of academic and technological innovation through creativity, and to spearhead the development in human capital and creativity in technological innovation.

In order to achieve the first class university status, he revealed that the University has set its focus on enhancing two pertinent areas of importance to the university, namely research and development (R&D) as well as internationalisation. In relation to the former, the three main areas that UTM has consistently strengthened are results-driven R&D activities, intellectual property (IP) development and how these academic endeavours could contribute to the development, progress and prosperity of the nation.

One prime example which he highlighted to us is UTM’s efforts in the Iskandar Malaysia region, one of the major economic corridors of Malaysia. Being strategically situated in the heart of Iskandar Malaysia in the southern state of Johore has allowed UTM to undertake several initiatives to ensure its expertise is fully utilised towards the creation of a knowledge hub in the region. These include forming partnerships with the Johore State Government and the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) and setting up the Iskandar Malaysia: UTM Research Centre (IMREC) in Danga Bay, as well as creating an RM1m fund to start the operations of the aforementioned research centre.

Furthermore, a special task force has also been set up to identify opportunities in the region for UTM to be involved in such as in education, human capital development, and lifelong learning initiatives, to name a few. Prof. Zaini explained that UTM aims to help develop a pool of knowledge workers and creating a knowledge community in Iskandar Malaysia, and in doing so help companies that are investing in the area to draw expertise from them.

Placing emphasis on research

One other aspect of research that UTM is looking to improve is that of producing high impact publications. Prof. Zaini explained that while the University has excellent teaching academics and is leading in IP development, it is still lagging behind in terms of world class publications. However, this is not peculiar only to UTM alone as most, if not all public universities in the country are facing a similar challenge in terms of publication.

Prof. Zaini cited Harvard – which is regarded as the world’s renowned university, has its research cited more than a million times over a three-year period, while Cambridge – the second ranked university – has 600,000 citations during the same time frame. In comparison, the average Malaysian universities’ indexed publications are only cited 1,000 times. At the same time, one must also be aware of the age difference between an institution like Harvard – which has been around a few hundred years now, while the oldest public university in Malaysia is only slightly more than a century.

In order to enhance R&D and publication efforts amongst academics, the University aims to have each lecturer publish research articles and monographs in their area of expertise. Also to ensure that these publications meet international standards, the University’s admi-nistration has set a KPI (key performance indicator) to ensure all lecturers publish or write in journals with Scopus or ISI status, with an annual average of two publications per lecturer. Furthermore, through the UTM Press, the publishing arm of UTM, the Malaysiana Publication Database is established, which would be a repository of books, journals and other academic papers published in Malaysia; UTM is set to become a centre for knowledge in the region.

Apart from that, the University research efforts have also been restructured to encourage a more vibrant research culture among academics. Already, 11 niche areas of research reflective of UTM expertise have been identified namely sustainability, energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, cybernetics, transportation, materials and manufacturing, frontier sciences, K-economy, and water.

Naturally, along with the efforts to enhance R&D and publication efforts by the lecturers, UTM is also embarking on initiatives to ensure that the quality of its academic staff is of first-class standards. According to Prof. Zaini these include adopting methods such as working with leading academics in Malaysia – both active and retired – to spearhead knowledge growth as well as boosting international collaborative efforts between UTM and foreign Centres of Excellence attached to renowned universities in the world.

A long-standing practice

As mentioned earlier, interna-tionalisation is seen as one of the key factors towards UTM achieving world class status. However, it should be noted though that efforts at internationalisation are nothing new to UTM. It has been engaging in internationalisation initiatives prior to its establishment as a university, despite – admittedly – the lack of a structured framework put into place then. Instead these efforts manifested themselves through initiatives such as seeking expert advice from overseas experts for curriculum development, accreditation exercise and recognition of academic programmes.

By 2001, internationalisation efforts became more focused when UTM set up the Office of International Affairs, thus allowing international initiatives to be more structured and organised. Through this office, several important dialogues, deliberations and agreements were established, most notably with leading universities such as the University of Cambridge, Harvard University, Oxford University, Massachusettes Institute of Technology, University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Imperial College of London, Denmark Technical University, and Lund University, to name a few. At the same time, synergistic alliances were established with Rolls Royce, Infosys Technology, Lotus Engineering, and Wipro Corporation, to mention a few.

Incidentally, internationalisation is also one of the integral thrust areas of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan, which was launched by the then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the 27th of August 2007. This was later consolidated in the Higher Education Transformation Plan released by the Minister of Higher Education in June 2008. Thus, we can see that UTM’s efforts are in tandem with the overall strategy of higher learning in Malaysia to better position the status of Malaysian public universities internationally.

The importance of internationalisation

Through internationalisation, UTM aims to provide opportunities for its intellectual community among staff and students to gain international exposure and experience to help develop skills that would enable them to effectively contribute and participate in a more challenging and competitive global environment. Apart from that, such efforts also help UTM achieve its goal of becoming a world-class university by benchmarking against the best in the international arena. Prof. Zaini explained that while the management team is justifiably proud of the University’s efforts and achievements, it is determined to do more. And in order to accomplish its goals, it has embarked on improving its human capital infrastructure.

Prof. Zaini shared one of the aims is to have 60% of UTM academics with PhDs by 2010, up 20% from the present figure of 40% or comprising 2,000 academics. He is quite confident that the target will be met as around 700 lecturers have signed up for PhD degree programmes, and at the same time the University is aiming to engage 200 international PhD holders.

Engaging international PhD holders is also in line with UTM’s internationalisation efforts, which Prof. Zaini regards as an important catalyst in boosting UTM’s credentials. Other efforts towards this goal include encouraging networkings and creating partnerships with foreign universities, research centres and professional bodies, encouraging UTM lecturers to take up professional courses and sabbaticals in top universities, and establishing co-operation with leading international professors.

At the same time, the University is also looking to improve its student exchange programmes and to increase its intake of international students. According to Prof. Zaini, UTM currently has 3,000 international students and is aiming to increase that number to 5,000. At the same time, he also plans to reposition UTM in such a way that it becomes the university of choice with quality student intake. In other words, enrolment into UTM will be made more competitive and Prof. Zaini hopes to reduce the number of students enrolled in UTM to 20,000, out of which one quarter will be international students.

Furthermore, the University hopes that post-graduates will make up 50% of its students, which will work out to around 10,000 persons. While the target may seem impossible at present, Prof. Zaini is confident that this can be realised in two years’ time when UTM increases its number of PhD holders among its academic staff and post-doctoral research fellows. Furthermore, he also plans to involve these international staff in recruiting more students from their own country or region as part of their commitment in supporting UTM’s internationalisation initiative.

UTM’s drive to attract more international students is very much in tandem with the Government’s aspiration of turning Malaysia into an education hub. Prof. Zaini opined that in order to realise that, public universities such as UTM have to be more proactive to attract more international students. This is because, the quality of academic staff and research facilities at public universities are better than those at private universities. He highlighted, for example, that UTM has 170 full-time tenured professors specialising in engineering and technology, a feature which no other public university or private universities in Malaysia can offer.

He also theorised that having more international students will help create brand awareness for Malaysian education, and that these graduates will help build an intellectual bridge between Malaysia and their home countries. What’s more, they also help create goodwill and many foreign students have left with a good impression of Malaysia, not only as a beautiful and harmonious country, but also an intellectual destination.

To illustrate the fact, Prof. Zaini proudly related an incident when he was in Saudi Arabia and he came across some Saudi nationals, who upon discovering that he was from Malaysia, related their positive experiences as students in Malaysia, and at UTM nonetheless! Clearly, these international students – after graduating and returning to their home countries as UTM alumni – could become the spokesperson and foreign counterparts for UTM companies seeking to do business there.

In order to facilitate the recruitment of more international students, Prof. Zaini revealed that the University is seeking to hire more non-Malaysian non-academic staff. He further stressed that the important task at hand is to ensure that the transformation of the University – which started in January 2009 – proceeds accordingly.

Having said that, he shared that while he is confident that the academic staff of UTM will be able to and have been able to meet these new challenges accordingly, the onus is on the non-academic staff to do the same in support of the university’s aspiration. One of the biggest challenges he has identified is the lack of exposure and experience of these staff in dealing with communications in English language.

While it was possible for them to communicate solely in Malay in the past, a greater influx of international students would require them to develop and enhance their skills in English. At the same time, he also stressed that it is important for them to understand the subtle differences between servicing local undergraduates and post-graduate students and international students from abroad who come from different cultures and diverse backgrounds.

It should be noted that internationalisation of the student body does not only mean attracting international students to study in UTM, but also providing opportunities to local students to enhance their exposure and experience with foreign students from different cultures. All faculties in UTM are thus encouraged to implement student exchange programmes and by 2010, UTM plans to send 5000 students abroad under two signature programmes, namely the UTM Global Outreach and UTM Student Exchange Programmes.

A few examples of UTM‘s Student Exchange projects at work can be seen in initiatives such as the 7th Edition of International Architecture Design Competition, and the Harvard College in Asia Project (HCAP). The programme which facilitates student exchange with Harvard University was participated by students from the Faculty of Built Environment. Apart from that, other exchange programmes have been formed with institutions such as the University of Bologna, Italy; while study tours have been conducted to Brisbane in Australia, and British universities such as Cambridge, Loughborough, Newcastle Upon-Tyne, Birmingham, Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), and Warwick, to name a few.

Creating links with the world

UTM’s internationalisation efforts have also resulted in several Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) between the University and foreign counterparts. For instance, for the last two years alone, more than 50 MoUs were signed with academic institutions – including with highly renowned universities such as Cambridge University, Nottingham University, University of Kent, Kyoto University, Osaka University, and Lund University. And recently, ties have been established with the Universitas Indonesia and Denmark Technical University.

Furthermore, research links have been established with international agencies such as The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Danish Consortium for Environment and Development (DUCED), the British Council, the National Institute of Mathematics and Chemistry, Japan; the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), and the Japan Science and Technology Corporation.

Also the University’s Research Management Centre (RMC) has been setting up a database of international research links, and at the same time has been looking at securing international sources of funding. These sources include bodies such as the Committee for International Cooperation in Higher Education (CICHE), the British Council UK, and the Prime Minister’s Initiative (PMI) 2 – which is an initiative under the office of the British Prime Minister. Apart from these, efforts are already initiated with organisations such as the World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank to enhance access to projects and fundings.

Ultimately, the aim of UTM’s internationalisation efforts is succinctly summed up in the statement released by the UTM Office of International Affairs, which reads, “Internationalisation at UTM is a process of strategically integrating diverse international dimensions into the University’s activities of teaching and learning, research and enterprise (consultancy), and community service so as to create a synergistic and multicultural organization.”

The statement also confirmed that Internationalisation is part of the University’s participation in extending the nation’s role in the wider world and requires commitment from all levels of the University. The University aims to provide an international experience for its community characterized by reciprocal and responsive understanding, global citizenship, and ongoing learning and improvement. The University hopes to achieve its aims by means of strategic alliances and partnerships and staff and students mobility.

Transforming the University

In order for it to achieve world-class status, UTM is currently undergoing a rapid transformation process. Part of this process entails creating an intrinsic set of values that will be reflective of the University’s principles, academic culture, intellectual ecosystem and work culture that it wants to promote. Furthermore, four key strategic thrusts of the university have also been identified which act as the foundations on which the University operates and functions.

The four key thrust areas are – ‘To contribute to human capital development by providing quality education’; ‘to provide leadership and contribution through research and innovation’; ‘to achieve desirable image and branding that fulfils the requirements of stakeholders’; and ‘to contribute to society through community engagement and outreach.’ Furthermore, the University has also identified three levels of transformation namely culture transformation, research and innovation transformation, and teaching and learning transformation.

In terms of Culture Transformation, the aim is to create a conducive environment for intellectual discourse and academic exchange in the University, not just among the staff and students but also neighbouring communities. As such several initiatives have been created to facilitate this initiative such as the “Engaging Knowledge Culture” programme organised by the UTM Council of Professors and UTM’s Sultanah Zanariah Library. Also, on March 26th and 27th this year, the inaugural UTM University Presidents Forum for Global Academic Network was held at UTM Skudai, attended by 21 University Presidents, Rectors and/or their representatives. The aim of the forum is to create and enhance opportunities for cooperation between UTM and international partners in areas of concern related to research collaboration and academic programmes.

As for Research and Innovation Transformation, UTM aims to create a more effective and dynamic research culture in UTM. In order to achieve this, several initiatives have been put into place including the formation of Research Alliances (RA) based on 11 niche areas, as well as attachment of academics to research Centres of Excellence. This aims to stimulate a more vibrant research environment with the RAs focusing on specialized and multi-disciplinary research areas while encouraging a more comprehensive and holistic view towards research. Ultimately, this will help spur efforts to boost publications and citations in high-impact academic journals, as well as supporting postgraduate programmes.

Last but not least, the Teaching and Learning Transformation aims to approach teaching and learning in a more relevant and effective way, with more focus on problem-based and outcome-based learning. Furthermore, UTM also seeks to ensure that the curriculum is industry-relevant and market-driven, while at the same time ensuring quality standards are met in line with the requirements of the Malaysian Qualification Framework, and achieving accreditation from professional bodies in recognition of the quality of its academic programmes.

Branding of UTM

One key aspect of UTM’s transformation is its branding exercise, and one of the forms in which this is manifested is in its physical branding exercise in relation to its logo and typeface as well as new tagline – “Inspiring Creative and Innovative Minds”. The new tagline reflects the goals and aspirations of the University to be recognised not as a degree mill but as an active contributor towards the development of quality human capital with significant role in nation building. It is also reflective of the goal of the Ministry of Higher Education towards inculcating creativity and innovation in students in public institutions of higher learning.

As such, the University hopes that several long held stereotypes and perceptions about UTM students will be set aside. One of which is the tendency to associate UTM with employability. As Prof. Zaini explained, while the University is happy that that UTM graduates have the highest ratio of employability in the country – which is far higher than the national average – it also wants to show that UTM graduates are not merely capable in technical skills and knowledge but also thinkers, entrepreneurs, and technopreneurs with high integrity and values.

One example he highlighted of UTM’s efforts in this respect is the University’s collaboration with the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) - a Government-linked agency which provides funding for Malaysian technology start-ups.

He also revealed that a generous budget is available, with a maximum of RM2.5m for each company, and that recently the MTDC-UTM Symbiosis programme was launched in March, 2009. This programme will pick 10 business plans from students using research initiated in consultation with lecturers to be turned into start-ups. Prof. Zaini hopes that by 2013, UTM can generate around 100 companies per year, as documented in the Transformation Plan and KPIs.

While he may be aiming to create more entrepreneurs among students, Prof. Zaini revealed that he does not want the academics to be too engrossed in the setting up of companies or businesses. He explained this to Technology Business Review by saying that this is to prevent the lecturers from becoming too unfocused on research and lecturing, and carried away in thinking, contemplating and planning. Instead, what UTM wants is for students to be the ones initiating the companies, with the lecturers acting as technical advisors or directors.

He stressed however that this does not mean that lecturers do not have a role to play in these activities. In certain ways, perhaps the UTM lecturers will have a far more significant role to play than merely providing advice in the setting up and running of a company, as it is from their research that these spin-off companies exist.

As for the case of IP development, Prof. Zaini views this as one of the priority areas for the UTM. This is because he believes that the marketing of patents will help develop Malaysia’s knowledge economy which will contribute to the country’s progress. He also revealed that UTM is the leading institution in terms of IP generation among public universities and research agencies in Malaysia, and that since March 25th 2009, around 1,244 IPs have been filed by UTM staff.

Setting the plan

Overall, the plans and visions highlighted are all part and parcel of the strategic plan for UTM, which ultimately – as mentioned above – seeks to transform UTM into a truly world-class university. Of course, many institutions and organisations talk about achieving world-class status. As such, what UTM is doing is identifying the targets and goals for the University academic community to achieve through the KPIs set for each person.

For Prof. Zaini, transformation is a constant process in the strive for continuous improvement, and this is exactly what UTM is undergoing. What is worth highlighting is the fact that through this transformation plan, more staff members are being given a stake in the University’s Transformation initiative, while KPIs ensure that everything is transparent towards achieving a shared mission and purpose. He compared the system now with that of the past, and commented that in retrospect, objectives and KPIs might not have been met in the past because decisions reached at the top were not communicated effectively and not translated into annual performance appraisal of each staff at all levels.

Furthermore, he also revealed that the setting of the KPIs is not his sole decision. Instead, more than 450 academic and non-academic staff participated in deciding the performance standards and expected objectives. Incidentally the system has also changed in that as the Vice-Chancellor, he is not solely responsible for promotions and decision making. Instead, committees representing various sectors of the university oversee such matters through consensus.

Thus, anyone who wishes to be promoted to important posts - such as Head of Department, Dean, Director, Deputy Dean, Professor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and also the Vice-Chancellor – know exactly what is required of them. And what’s more, the targets or KPIs are tangible and measurable rather intangible. In other words, people know where they stand and what is expected of them.

Although the sole responsibility for appointments may not be his any longer, Prof. Zaini explained that as the Vice-Chancellor, he still has a wide scope of other concerns under his purview. These include being responsible for the execution of the National Education Strategic Plan based on 8 items stipulated as his KPI, which include encouraging knowledge and research-oriented programmes, and strengthening the role of UTM in the development of Iskandar Malaysia.

Ultimately the aim is to turn UTM into the top university in Malaysia, and establish it as part of a triumvirate – including Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore - providing quality higher-education to the Iskandar Malaysia region.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has managed to establish itself as the leading engineering and technological university in Malaysia thanks to the efforts of its previous four Vice-Chancellors, to whom its current Vice-Chancellor Prof. Datuk Dr. Ir. Zaini Ujang is very much indebted to namely Tan Sri Ainuddin Wahid, Datuk Dr Muhammad Ridzuan Salleh, Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Zaharuddin Idrus, and Tan Sri Prof Ir Dr Mohd Zulkifli Tan Sri Mohd Ghazali. Having made a name for itself in Malaysia, the aim now is to turn UTM into a University that is comparable with the best in the world and to transform it into a leading centre of research and innovation. It is a mission that is very much a possibility as it already has the basic building block and a strong foundation – a culture of excellence.