SHAH ALAM: Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) has initiated a five-year strategic plan to turn itself into a globally renowned university and produce marketable graduates by 2025.
The university’s board of directors chairman, Datuk Seri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir, said times had changed and therefore, it was important to have a better understanding on the future demand.
He said students had diversified interests and talents, which would need to be properly guided.
“Providing knowledge alone is not sufficient. As a university, our roles go beyond, requiring us to be there for our graduates so that they can explore their options, conduct research in the chosen fields and link them up with programmes for international exposure,” he said at the launch of UiTM 2025 Strategic Plan here yesterday.
The launch was aired live to all 26 UiTM campuses. Also present was UiTM vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Mohd Azraai Kassim.
Students with diversified skills, humanising values and global exposures would be highly sought after in the digital and technological era, Zainal added.
The university plans to tie up with more startup companies and international exchange programmes through their alumni.
He stressed the need for everyone in UiTM to understand the philosophy behind the university’s establishment of 64 years.
“Having produced more than 800,000 graduates in science, technology, humanities and entrepreneurship, the university is constantly pushing our students to excel to shape them as leaders at national, industry and global levels,” he said, adding that UiTM’s new direction was aligned with the guiding principles of Shared Prosperity Vision 2030.
“What we have done in the past may not be enough to prepare them for the future job market,” he said, adding that the university would review its education curriculum to stay relevant.
He admitted that the new strategic plan would not be easy to execute, but it was necessary so that future graduates would be matched correctly based on their strengths and knowledge.
“The plan is also to prepare our graduates to be more versatile, marketable and capable when they finish their studies. For instance, Technical and Vocational Education and Training will likely be one of the key fields to churn out skilled graduates.”
Azraai said UiTM would have three key themes in the first thrust: enhancing Education 5.0@UiTM, producing holistic and entrepreneurial graduates, and optimising accessibility.
“To meet the global excellence objective, or the second thrust, UiTM hopes to build translational research, development, innovation and commercialisation links outside the country.
“Third would be establishing smart partnerships with the industry, community and alumni,” he said, adding that the final thrust would be strengthening talent excellence, attaining agile governance, creating a smart campus and improving sustainable funding.
With the collective effort and support of its 17,346 academic and administrative staff, the 121 performance indicators outlined in the strategic plan, including provisions for academic development, student affairs, facility improvements, funding and governance, will benefit more than 180,000 students.