KOTA KINABALU: The Community Garden Project is a collaboration between the Faculty of Psychology and Education (FPE) of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) together with five other organisations to improve the psychological well-being of the younger generation.

According to coordinator, Dr. Getrude Cosmas, who is a senior lecturer at FPP, the project is a platform that can expose young people to improve skills and knowledge about gardening activities.

“This Community Garden project is carried out in collaboration with UMS together with the Sabah Community Services Council (MPMS), Sabah Psychosocial Association, Kaiduan Agriculture Training Center (KATC), SK. Kaiduan, Papar and WRS 4x4 Club with funding from MPMS through the 2022 Children’s Social Programme Grant.

“Soft skills such as group work, interpersonal and communication, are also applied to help improve the psychological well-being of SK Kaiduan students, UMS students and other participants,” he said.

It was held in conjunction with the Christmas and New Year celebrations together with colleagues involved in the Community Garden Project at KATC, recently.

Some 73 participants had the opportunity to clean the plant site, sow, fertilise, put soil in polybags and plant various types of vegetables such as cherry tomatoes, mustard, sweet vegetables, white pumpkin, red spinach, sweet potatoes and eggplant.

“Apart from farming, the participants representing various organisations had the opportunity to interact and get to know each other through the activities.

Among the highlights of the event included gardening activity at Taman HIP (Highly Immersive Program) at SK Kaiduan, colouring activity for students (Years 2 to 4) and a story composing activity (Years 5 and 6),” he said.

“This event is a sign of appreciation to all participants, including 34 SK Kaiduan students and five KATC staff.

“A teacher from Mara Junior College of Science (MRSM), Jolifulizan Jais, shared about the opportunities and requirements for admission to MRSM,” he said.

He added that UMS and MRSM had the opportunity to donate gifts in the form of bags and stationery to students.

“It is hoped that this collaboration programme between various agencies will be able to continue in the future with the goal of improving the well-being of students in the interior parts of Sabah,” said Gertrude.

Also present were SK Kaiduan Headmaster Uzair Kee Yahya; Kaiduan Eco-Farm Manager Rebekah Alpeus; and FPP lecturer Dr Patricia Joseph Kimong.

KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) is taking measures to reduce the impact of water shortage in campus here, due to water rationing that is expected to last until 2024.

UMS vice chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Kasim Mansor said that besides constant contact with Sabah Water Department and daily monitoring of water level in the department’s tank there, the university had also provided external water tanks at the college dorm locations.

"UMS at present is also using the lorry tank service from Penampang’s Moyog water treatment plant, with up to 20 deliveries daily or up to 300,000 litre daily for undergraduates’ use at dorms and buildings around the campus," he said in a statement on Monday (Feb 6).

Earlier, Prof Kasim revealed that the Kota Kinabalu campus needed between 3 million litres per day (MLD) to 5 MLD to accommodate needs but was aware that the university was among those affected from water supply rationing from Telibong water treatment plant in Tuaran.

He said that based on meetings with the state Water Department, they were informed that the combined areas where Telibong plant were supplying water required 190 MLD, but the facility could only accommodate 164 MLD.

"The department is also facing water theft or leakages up to 8 MLD, and at the same time, pipe upgrading along Pan Borneo highway are also currently being done.

"According to the information from the department, the water disruption issues are expected to be settled in 2024 for these areas involved, so they have to do rationing in the meantime," he added.

Prof Kasim said UMS had also looked for alternative water sources within campus, where they had built a piping system to get water sourced from the hills that could provide 80,000 litre per day.

"The university will also identify other hill water sources and build new piping to channel water to undergraduates (in dorms).

"For a long-term plan, we are looking at channeling water via 'tube wells'.

"These measures may not be a complete solution, but UMS is committed to do what is necessary to reduce the water rationing impact for the comfort of our undergraduates and staff," he added.

KOTA KINABALU: The intellectuality of academicians in various fields needed to be transformed to produce ideas to solve issues in society.

Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Prof Datuk Dr Kasim Hj Mansor said that the university can no longer stick to the 'status quo' of acting only as a factory producing quality graduates.

"In this era of technology and digitisation, the role of universities has expanded to cover the entire spectrum of community's life.

"Innovation and creativity that produce products and services to improve the life of the community is something that is highly expected," he said when delivering his new years message via online here on Sunday.

He said in order to realise that wish, Kasim announced the new slogan 'UMS Leading Towards Innovative Societies' throughout the year 2023.

"We must put in our minds that we must be aware that all of us are a knowledge institution born and established in Sabah, which is a public university that is created from conscience of the people in the state of Sabah.

"We all are important actors according to the expertise we have in being responsible for developing community's life." he stressed.

He also urged for togetherness in holding hands to hold trust as a university that always approached thy community.

"Whether academics, administrative staff or students, we are able to make the existence of UMS in Sabah more meaningful.

"The success of the university's previous leadership also needs to be maintained and improved," he added

KOTA KINABALU - Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) is making great strides in its quest to become an institution of higher learning with fully sustainable campuses in accordance with its appreciation of the EcoCampus concept.

The UI GreenMetric World University Ranking System is an Asian initiative that was launched worldwide in 2010 to assess the performance of a higher educational institution (HEI) in regard to its appreciation of the sustainability concept. 

In the 2022 UI GreenMetric World University Rankings, from a total entry of 1,050 HEIs worldwide, UMS jumped 14 spots from the previous year at 67th to its new higher position as the 53rd most sustainable university in the world or the top 5% of the most sustainable university in the world. 

Despite being categorized as a comprehensive university by the Malaysian education authority, UMS remains 3rd in Malaysia behind two local prominent research universities namely Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Malaya (UM) with percentage differences of 3% and 1%, respectively. 

In 2021, UMS ranked lower against UPM and UM with a bigger 4% difference. UMS has taken part in the UI GreenMetric initiative since 2014 as an approach to assessing the university’s capabilities to compliment Sabah’s sustainable development agenda. UMS ranking in the UI GreenMetric indicates it is progressing forward at the national level.   

The achievement of being the 53rd most sustainable university in the world is a result of the collective efforts and aspirations from all the faculties and centers at UMS to innovate and revolutionize their products and services to support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) locally and internationally.

Soon to be announced by UMS Vice Chancellor Professor Datuk Dr. Kasim Hj. Mansor, UMS will increase its efforts on sustainability by introducing components of certain faculties and centers as living laboratories in 2023. 

A living laboratory is a formal partnership between a UMS research group, industrial players and communities to resolve a specific socio-economic problem. Ongoing problems such as increasing renewable energy consumption, sustainable waste management and on-campus water security are always the focus at UMS. 

The university will further socialize its outputs through these living laboratories, as exemplified by the Hatchery of the Borneo Marine Research Institute. An initial funding of RM500,000 has already been set aside this year for this purpose. 

UMS intends to put forward the established living laboratories eventually to the Malaysian education authority to obtain recognition as the country’s center of excellence in specific areas of science.