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Published by CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS UNIT MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY ccu@mmu.edu.my All rights reserved MMU@2011 Behind the Scenes ADVISORY PANEL Prof. Dato’ Dr. Muhamad Rasat b. Muhamad Datin Sri Sharifah Aamenah bt. Sheikh Al Junid COORDINATORS Shamsuddin b. Jamaluddin Mahathir b. Malek EDITORIAL ADVISOR Abdul Lazi b. Nordin contents 2 4 2012 Presidential Address and Transformation Plan MMU CAREER FAIR 2012 5 3 Interview with VP (R&D) MMU’s Helping Hand Via The Star Education Fund 2012 In the Face of Adversity This is not an economic journal, but here are some numbers that could prove very relevant to us in MMU quite soon. On 15th February, it was reported that Moody’s Analytics announced that Malaysia’s economic growth is expected to grow at 4.2%, less than the 5.1% actual growth Bank Negara Malaysia reported for 2011. These numbers seem to be in general agreement with a report from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) released last November, outlining economic growth for six Southeast Asian economies; Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. The gist of that report relevant here is that the actual average GDP growth during the 2003 – 2007 period is lower than the projected average growth for the 2012 – 2016 period. This is true for Malaysia alone (6.0% actual, 5.3% projected) as well as for a six-country average (6.1% actual, 5.6% projected). The jury is still out on this one, but it seems that the general opinion is that, as exports slow down, our economy will become increasingly dependent on local economic consumption. It is almost certain that people will be earning less money and keeping an ever tighter hold on their wallets. What does this mean for MMU? As our President, Prof. Dato’ Dr. Muhamad Rasat Muhamad, pointed out in his 2012 Presidential Address (see next page), if our revenue continues as it is, in 2015 MMU can expect to spend more than it earns. Nobody needs to be an accountant to know that that’s not good news. LEAD EDITOR Hefni Izzat Abdul Rahim EDITORS Sy. Nurleyana Wafa Darian Henry Megat Adzwan Shah b. Shamsul Anwar Nur Rabikha Zainudin DESIGN AND PHOTOGRAPHY Razeelan Saaidan Kadri SPECIAL THANKS: Prof. Tou Teck Yong, MMU Board of Directors, MMU Management Committee, Knowledge Garden and Commemorative Bench Programme Team, Yayasan Universiti Multimedia, Office of Strategy Management, Jefri Tukiman and all contributors. 10 11 8 6 LAW MOOT COMPETITION 2011/2012 Happenings COMMEMORATIVE BENCH PROGRAMME Student Exchange Programmes 12 9 7 Obituary MRSM INTAKE Immersing Students on Dry Land Visits MMU Journal Publications The 15th Chinese New Year Extravaganza 13 Teh Tarik with President 14 Energy Saving Campaign While Prof. Rasat will announce the detailed plans in March on how to overcome this challenge, it doesn’t look like a revision in tuition fees can be delayed for much longer. MMU’s Founding President, Professor Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Ghauth Jasmon, in an interview with the Lead Editor last year, considered such a hike to be “inevitable if MMU wants to remain relevant.” But, given the economic outlook described above, a hike – which would have to be substantial if it were to be more than a short-term fix – could hardly come at a worse time. Tertiary education in Malaysia might be recession-proof, but when the crunch comes, ringgit-sense might cause some of our prospective students to look elsewhere. Regardless of what strategies the President announces, one thing is for sure. From this point onward, there is even greater need to show respect and care to each other, to display uncompromising integrity at all times, become customer centric, and boost our innovativeness. Only by doing all this could we hope to attract the best students regardless of their financial situation, regardless of the country’s economy. We must become their number one choice to further their education. This challenge sounds daunting, but it comes with the package of being the first private university in Malaysia. We paved the way for Malaysian private higher education in 1996, and we are still doing it now in 2012. As long as we stand united behind the President, success is always within reach. And, who knows. Stranger things have happened. In his 1991 book Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name, David A. Aaker gave an example of a manufacturer that found it very hard to break into the market, until it raised the price of its product to be higher than all of its competitors; customers quickly welcomed it as the superior product, and the brand that once was difficult to sell outsold its rivals. This might happen with MMU, or it might not. What is sure is that there is always hope. We just have to give ourselves the chance. Lead Editor 1
Prof. Dato’ Dr. Muhamad Rasat Muhamad President of MMU 2012 Presidential Address and Transformation Plan On 12 January 2012 in Cyberjaya, our President Prof. Dato’ Dr. Muhamad Rasat Muhamad, gave the MMU Presidential for 2012. The theme of the address was “to make MMU the industry-preferred university with global recognition.” The address was divided into three parts – MMU’s achievements so far, the issues and challenges that stand in our way, and our plan for 2012. In terms of achievement, Prof. Rasat lists our Excellent SETARA rating; our graduate employability of 91% after six months of graduation; our improvement of achieving 3 stars on the Malaysian Research University Assessment (MyRA) score; our being conferred the Brand Excellence Award 2011; our biggest student intake ever in 2011, registering 5166 students both under and postgraduate; as well as our revenue in 2011 continues to be higher than our expenditure. MMU also just missed being listed in the Top 200 Asian Universities. However, our score of 27.00 assures us that we are still the top private university in Malaysia. Equally reassuring is the fact that for the 2000 – 2009 period, MOSTI’s Malaysian Science and Technology Indicators 2010 found us to be the best Malaysian private university in terms of number of citations. On the issues and challenges, Prof. Rasat began by describing the kind of competition we are facing today. In a comparison with UTP, UNITEN, UTAR and UTM, despite our strengths, in 2010 the thing we did best in comparison was achieving the lowest OPEX per student. Also, our research output could be a lot higher, and our presence in ISI publica- “2012 Transformation Plan – MMU 2.0”. The plan will be launched in March 2012 “ tions is declining. Our average intakes are quite high, but our average number of graduates is lower; this gap could be caused by the quality of student intake, our own internal processes, the quality of teaching delivery, and even the personal commitments of students. Most notable, however, is that in 2015 our revenue will cross with our Operational Expenditure. If this does happen, MMU will no longer be financially self-sustaining. MMU became financially self-sustaining within the fourth year of its life, and this has becoming something of a point of pride. To avoid the fallout that comes with incurring a loss, Prof. Rasat announced that MMU will be adopting an action plan dubbed “2012 Transformation Plan – MMU 2.0”. The plan will be launched in March 2012. The plan will involve five MMU elements – academic, research and development, human resource, finance and facility, system and process. Prof. Rasat concedes that the transformation process will be challenging, requiring many things, including an upgrade of staff mindset. Everyone, including all members of management and both academic and non-academic staff, will have to show respect and care, uncompromising integrity, customer centricity and innovativeness in everything that we do. Prof. Rasat concluded by stating MMU’s aim of becoming a Top 100 University in Asia that is globally recognized for our quality students and staff, innovative academic programmes and R&D, as well as our highly profitable academic and commercial revenue streams. 2
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