Wednesday, September 3, 2008

USM granted Apex University

Have you ever heard about Apex University? Personally, I just heard when my supervisor mentioned about it last week. Then I started looking here and there to have some ideas on what Apex university is. Many people have predicted that UM will be the one - Apex University, which has the potential to be world-class university. And today, what a big surprise, USM has been announced as the Apex University.

Congratulation to USM for the great achievement, and of course I'm proud being one of the USM students. It also indicates that I've chosen the right university (among local universities) to pursue my study.

And as an alumni, as well as a staff of IIUM, I wish that IIUM will do better, and improve the performance, so that we can compete with other great universities in the future, insya Allah. For the sake of improvement, nothing's wrong to imitate the good things practiced by others.

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The Star: USM granted Apex University

PUTRAJAYA: Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has been granted apex status and hundreds of millions of ringgit in additional funding to transform it into Malaysia's first world-class university.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said that both quantitative and qualitative criteria were used to select USM under the accelerated programme for excellence (apex).

"The selection committee evaluated each university's state of readiness, transformation plan and preparedness for change.

"After a thorough evaluation, the committee decided that only one university truly met all the criteria, namely USM,'' said Khaled Wednesday in a press conference at his ministry. The Cabinet agreed to the decision at its meeting on Aug 27.

The university given apex status is one that has the greatest potential among Malaysian universities to be world-class, and as such, would be given additional assistance to compete with top-ranked global institutions, added Khaled.

With apex status, USM will be expected to move up the World University Rankings with a target of top 200 in five years' time and top 100, if not top 50, by 2020, he said.

Read more at The Star.


Bernama: USM Is Malaysia's Apex University

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 3 (Bernama) -- Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was Tuesday chosen for the Accelerated Programme for Excellence (Apex), beating three other universities, including the country's oldest, the University of Malaya (UM).

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said USM was selected based on the university's transformation plan and its preparedness to make changes to its proposal paper.

"The selection for the Apex programme is not only based on past achievements and excellence, but more on the planning for the future and whether the university is able to achieve a world-class status within the stipulated period of five years," he said when announcing USM's selection for the programme.

During the five-year period, USM must be able to put itself among the world's Top 100 universities and among the Top 50 by 2020, he said.

He was confident that USM would be able to achieve a world-class standard.

"Let's see how USM fares and then we will decide whether to choose another for the programme," he added.

Mohamed Khaled said USM's selection for the programme did not mean that other universities were sidelined.

On the other hand, this should spur them to further improve their position, he said when asked why UM was not selected.

Nine public universities nationwide had submitted their application for the programme but only four -- USM, UM, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- were shortlisted.

USM's winning proposal paper is titled "Transforming Higher Education for a Sustainable Tomorrow".

The Apex university programme is proposed in the National Higher Education Strategic Plan where universities will be divided into three groups namely Apex University, Elite University and Competitive University.

An Apex university is a university of excellence used as a yardstick in higher education worldwide.

Under the programme, the Apex university was promised autonomy in finance, service scheme, management, student intake, study fees and determining the top leadership.

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Wassalam.

6 comments:

ibnul'araby said...

Akhirnya..huhu.. Kak Ita mesti gembira kan..? Nk kena email dia cepat2 nih.. congratulate and mintak Research proposal skali.. Huhu.. tak antor2 lagi dier menda alah tu.. huhu

ibnul'araby said...

Akhirnya..huhu.. Kak Ita mesti gembira kan..? Nk kena email dia cepat2 nih.. congratulate and mintak Research proposal skali.. Huhu.. tak antor2 lagi dier menda alah tu.. huhu

Illi Puad said...

Congrates to USM..and Nazri as well..hebat tu blajo kt Apex Uni..yeah, hope IIUM can follow USM's footstep also..

ha Tun Muiz, ape tunggu lagi..peluang baik ni.hehe ^_^

ibnul'araby said...

Hehe.. Dr Illi.. Tak lama dah.. InsyaAllah.. Nk gi UK tak mampu.. USM je lah.. Dekat skit ngan family.. huhu..
Nyway.. wishing u Selamat Berpuasa.. Dengar kata nk balik Mesia.. Jadik ke?

mr fotografer said...

Hmm..tq. tp Klu setakat nama je gah, tp hasilnya takde, tak berguna jgk. Yg penting, produktiviti & hasilnya mesti setimpal, so that our uni can compete with much better uni worldwide, not just 'jaguh kampung'..huhu. Let's work hard after this towards the excellence of our uni:-)

Ye, saya menantikan kedatangan YB Tun Abd. Muiz sbg salah seorang pelajar Apex Uni ni..hehe;o))

Illi Puad said...

ala tun muiz, kalo dh dpt blajo kt Apex uni ni, xgi UK pn xpe..lbh kurang je. hehe...

kepulangan ku ke Malaysia..hmm..perancangan mmg ade, tp subject to change..Allahu'a'lam..kite tgk bile illi muncul kt mesia tu..kui3...