KUALA LUMPUR: The Higher Education Ministry has taken bold steps to introduce new initiatives in its effort to groom students to meet the demands of Industry 4.0.
Its minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said the ministry was never afraid to challenge the existing student assessment system and introducing new initiatives for the purpose.
"For example, the introduction of the integrated cumulative grade point average (iCGPA), alongside the existing academic-driven CGPA system.
"We believe that the students should not be evaluated solely on academic performance, but also through their participation in co-curricular, social and voluntary activities.
“This iCGPA is the first and only in the world.
"Besides that, we also have introduced other initiatives such as the 2u2i Programme (where students learn for two years at a university and work two years to gain experience in an industry) and the CEO@Faculty Programme (chief executive officers come on campus to share their knowledge, experience and best practices).
"All these initiatives, in many ways, have begun to address the challenges and critical needs of Industry 4.0," he told a press conference after the opening of the Malaysia Higher Education Forum (MyHEF) 2017: Redesigning Education for Industry 4.0 here today.
Present were Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching and and the ministry's secretary general Tan Sri Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur.
He said in light of the continuous global competition, it is imperative for the country's tertiary education system to be able to produce holistic, entrepreneurial, innovative and balanced graduates.
Meanwhile on the MyHEF, Idris said the two-day forum was held to further explore the impact of Industry 4.0 to local and global job markets as well as get more insight into the needs of the future graduates, community and industry.
"We will be sharing various ongoing efforts initiated by the ministry in redesigning the country's higher education.
"This forum also will feature prominent speakers in their area of expertise," he said.
Among the speakers are Tencent Holdings senior vice president Lau Sengyee, Alibaba Group vice president Brian Wong and the World Bank senior education economist Dilip Parajuli.