KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) has launched the sale of vehicle registration numbers using the prefix UMS 1 to 9999.

Its Vice Chancellor, Professor Datuk ChM Ts Dr Taufiq Yap Yun Hin, said the use of the UMS prefix as the vehicle registration number was one of the government’s initiatives to strengthen the university’s income-generating activities.

He said the sale can also directly increase the research and development (R&D) funds of UMS.

“The prefix number UMS 1 up to UMS 9999 with the offer price of ‘affordable’ and ‘definitely owned’ will definitely attract the public to get it.

“It can be used as a collection of pride and identity, especially among UMS residents and alumni,” he said during the launching of the UMS Vehicle Registration Number Sales and the UMS Publication Fee Payment System recently.

Taufiq said UMS has always strived to increase its excellence, visibility and contribution to all its stakeholders, and always strives to improve and enhance its position on the world stage.

“Quality publications will not only be a reference for researchers and the community around the world, but also an important criterion in various types of world rankings such as Times Higher Education (THE), QS Ranking, MyRA, SETARA and several others.

“To further boost our efforts in increasing the number of impact publications, UMS has introduced its Publication Fee Financing System since 2020, although it was done manually at that time,” he said.

In 2021 UMS created history when the university achieved the number of Scopus indexed publications of 1,178 by breaking the record of the number of publications ever obtained since its inception.

Taufiq added that UMS had recently received praise in the MyRA audit for the increase in the number of citations in the publication which was very encouraging.

“Insya-Allah (God willing), we hope that such a positive increase will position UMS as a five-star MyRA university for 2021,” he said.