WEDNESDAY, 24 MAY - United States (US) Ambassador to Malaysia, Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir officiated at the launch of the American Corner Sabah at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) library today.

According to Kamala, with the new opening, the people of Sabah would have additional opportunities to join programmes, and participate in dialogues, focused on topics of mutual interest, such as environmental conservation, science and technology, education, and culture. 

“The American Corner is one example of the US Embassy’s investment in the people of Sabah. 

“The Embassy will work together with UMS to offer engaging and informative programmes at the American Corner,” she said in her speech.

She added, the Embassy intends to send US Government officials, Foreign Service Officers, and other American citizens to the American Corner Sabah. 

“The Embassy also plans to work together with UMS to offer programmes at the Corner led by talented Sabahans to offer hands-on experience with the latest technology and to share information about environmental conservation, entrepreneurship, higher education, civil society, and other important topics,” Kamala said.

Following the launch of the American Corner, Ambassador Lakhdhir delivered a talk on “US - Malaysia Bilateral Relations” to undergraduate students and faculty at the university. 

Also present were the Dean of the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition who represented UMS Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Dr. Mohd Harun Abdullah; and UMS Head of Librarian, Dg. Rukiah Ag. Amit.

The new American Corner joins a network of nine American Corners currently operating in eight states; Perak, Penang (Seberang Jaya and George Town), Kedah, Kelantan, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Johor, and Sarawak.

TUESDAY, 23 MAY – The Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Heritage (FKSW), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) recently held an Academic Retreat to discuss and improve the syllabi of all their 10 programmes offered to meet with the fast developing world of education.

The retreat was also in line with the introduction made by the Higher Education Section of the Ministry of Education Malaysia, in the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2015-2025 (PPPM 2015-2025) that outlined the 10 shifts in strengthening the education system.

According to a statement issued, the retreat was held after a series of audits performed under the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) in strengthening quality and value of the faculty’s graduates to meet employers’ demands.

The retreat was also held in preparation for the MQA audits in July 2017.

The statement added that audit checks under ISO and SIRIM would be done between three and five years on all programmes offered by FKSW to streamline all curriculum as well as academic welfare towards achieving excellence for the faculty and at the same time the university itself.

FKSW took a positive step in ensuring that UMS would be able to compete at international level by making sure that all programmes and courses offered are constantly upgraded and improved. - FL

TUESDAY, 23 MEI - Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) continues to move forward with various achievements in academics and co-curricular activities.

Recently, Lt. Colonel (PA) Associate Professor Dr. Norazah Mohd Suki, an associate professor of UMS from the Labuan Faculty of International Finance won three international awards through her outstanding publications including writing in high-impact journals.

Associate Professor Dr. Norazah’s research article entitled 'Green product purchase intention: impact of green brands, attitude, and knowledge' published in British Food Journal was selected by the journal’s editorial team as a Highly Commended Paper in the 2017 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence.

She is the sole Malaysian lecturer won the award along with some other lecturers from leading universities.

The criteria used to judge the 2017 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence Awards are based on six areas: internationality, diversity, support for scholarly research, encouragement of applied research (impact), commitment to high quality scholarship; and a desire to ensure reader, author and customer experience is the best it can be.

The empirical results of her study addresses the gap in the prevailing body of literature in reference to the impact of green brand positioning and consumer attitude towards green brands, as well as the effect of green brand knowledge on green product purchase intention.

Her study found that green brand knowledge does not moderate the relationship between green brand positioning and green product purchase intention, thus providing insight into this subject matter, which has not been clearly examined in previous studies.

Furthermore, Associate Professor Dr. Norazah also brought honour to the university when her convincing presentation at 2nd Advances in Social Sciences Research International Conference, Bandung Indonesia which was held on 5-6 May 2017 entitled “Examining Students’ Satisfaction in Campus-Voting: A Correlation Analysis” was adjudged the Best Paper Presenter Award.

During her presentation to all international audiences, she deliberated that students’ satisfaction in campus e-voting highly associated by students’ perceived knowledge of which voters with higher perceived knowledge be likely to develop positive satisfaction in campus e-voting.

When they were knowledgeable about the party they voted for in campus, they were aware of the aspirations of the nominated candidate to uphold students’ rights, needs, and demand from the university management.

Additionally, a research collaboration of Associate Professor Dr. Norazah along with two other researchers, namely Dr. Norbayah Mohd Suki, and Azlina Bujang entitled “Structural Relationships between Disruptive Attribute Localization and Personalization on Women Consumers' Attitude to Practice Mobile Retailing” has won Best Paper Award at International Conference on Business and Social Science, which was held on 28 February - 1 March 2017, Melaka.

The Structural Equation Modeling approach was used to assess the association between variables in the hypothesis by using Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS).

Their study supports the development of a theoretical model in evaluating factors that significantly impact particularly, women consumer’s acceptance towards mobile retailing, in Malaysia.

The results from this study are valuable in designing marketing strategies, and these gender viewpoints in the acceptance of emergence technology are to some degree were overlooked in developing countries.

This research works was materialized with the financial support of the research project KPT Research Acculturation Grant Scheme (RAGS) Grant Scheme with project code RAG0073-SS-2015.

Grateful for all the encouragement and motivation especially from UMS Vice-Chancellor, Professor Datuk Dr. Mohd Harun Abdullah, Dr. Norazah was also determined to continue to be active in conducting research and contributes to writing in high-impact journals as her contribution to society and the country.

"Achievements and acceptance of such awards were not the main goal, but I believe this is the bonus given by Allah SWT to those who are diligent and committed to their work," she added.

“I am very grateful for this recognition and it will for sure be a morale booster for me to continue achieving excellence and contribute to this university,” said Associate Professor Dr. Norazah who is known to be serious but friendly.

MONDAY, 22 MAY - A campaign, “Say it in English”, to promote the use of English at University Malaysia Sabah was launched at Pusat Penataran Ilmu dan Bahasa (PPIB) recently.

The campaign, an initiative of the Student Representative Council, aims to make Tuesdays English speaking days all over the campus, for both students and academic staff. As part of the campaign, an English Club with activities, games, singing and movies in English has been running at PPIB throughout the current semester.

A “Wonder Wall” has also been installed at PPIB, where students can post creative messages in English, and a space has been made for the English “word of the week”.

The dean of PPIB, Associate Professor Dr. Jualang Azlan Gansau, officiating at the opening ceremony, noted the need to support the Ministry of Higher Education in its efforts to upgrade English ability in Malaysia.

Remarking on the campaign, he said “It is a great initiative, and it is my wish that UMS students use this platform to improve their English.” 

During his speech, the dean, whose mother tongue is Dusun, noted his own struggles to master English as a student, and urged students to strive to communicate in English despite the fact that they might not have perfect grammatical accuracy.

Support for the campaign was evident from both students and academic staff.

Deputy Dean, Mohd. Azri Ibraham commented that “we have to use our English in order to improve it.”

An English lecturer, Ms. Loh Yoke Len, echoed these thoughts, saying “students need this campaign to encourage them to use English as a medium of communication.”

John Mark Storey, the head of English, marked the occasion as “a wonderful opportunity to promote the speaking of English around the UMS campus, both inside and outside the classroom.”

Visitors from other faculties also offered their praises for the initiative.

Associate Professor Rachel Mansia, an engineering lecturer, said “I applaud the effort and I think it is the first time since UMS started that we have had such a programme.”

The English Club, popular among international students, has been successful in encouraging English use in a fun way.

A regular participant Abubakar Juma Bakari, of Tanzania, said the “Say it in English” campaign “is a good thing for our local friends” and hopes that “they will be awakened to speak English.”

Source: Pusat Penataran Ilmu dan Bahasa