KUALA LUMPUR: The Asia e University (AeU) is planning to increase the number of PhD as well as Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) graduates in the future.
Its vice-chancellor Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Hassan Said said the demand for the PhD and DBA degrees was rising to meet the current competitive market.
He said AeU also received a high demand for graduates in both doctorates from neighbouring countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
“We are looking to double up the number of PhD and DBA graduates from AeU each year. The demand for the degrees (PhD and DBA) is increasing anually, so we would like to produce more. We will try our best.
“We need to comply with the regulations set by the Education Ministry and meet the set ratio for the university in order to produce PhD or DBA graduates.”
He said the university was also looking into employing more supervisors to help monitor the PhD students.
“A PhD student requires one supervisor. In addition, we are also seeking more academic fellow supervisors to assist in supervising the PhD student.
“However, it is not easy to hire a supervisor or a professor,” he said at the university’s 9th Convocation ceremony at the Putra World Trade Centre yesterday.
He also hoped that more courses could be introduced under its five faculties in the future.
Its board of governors chairman, Prof Emeritus Dr Muhammad Awang, said the university was also looking to bring such programmes to be implemented under the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
“We are formulating the co-curriculum and hopefully, we will finalise it in the next couple of months,” he said.
A total of 2,097 graduates received their graduation scrolls at its convocation ceremony yesterday.
They were 1,146 students postgraduate certificates and 951 certificates for various undergraduate programmes.
In addition, 16 obtained PhD in Business Administration (10), Education (4), ICT (one) Finance (one) with four graduands obtained the DBA.
Among the recipients was Masjid Tanah member of parliament Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin.
Mas Ermieyati completed her Master in Business Administration (MBA) and received the graduation scroll at the ceremony.
“I took the course in Sept 2017 together with my fellow friends. There were challenges throughout those years, juggling both my profession as politician and a student. In May last year, I had to postpone my examination. Then, I had to do five exam papers within a short time.
“I was determined to finish the MBA and I am happy I managed to do it. Determination and discipline are very important for any student,” she said.