UiTM goes for Mandarin, Arabic
UiTM goes for Mandarin, Arabic
0 Comments | New Straits Times, Jan 6, 2010 | by Mazlinda Mahmood
SHAH ALAM: Newly-appointed Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Vice- Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Sahol Hamid Bakar plans to make Arabic and Mandarin languages compulsory for all UiTM students.
He said he wanted students from the university to not only take up the two languages, but also be able to read, write and converse well in both of them.
The multi-language mastery is only a part of his overall strategy to turn UiTM into one of the best world-class universities.
Sahol said the students should embrace this and other changes that were aimed at making them more marketable and attractive to future employers.
He said this when asked about his vision and mission for the largest public university in the country during his first meeting with reporters as UiTM vice-chancellor yesterday,
He added that he had presented a strategic plan to the university’s executive committee and it met with a positive response.
Sahol has been appointed UiTM vice-chancellor for two years effective Jan 1, replacing Tan Sri Prof Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah, whose term expired on Dec 31.
A civil engineering graduate from UiTM, Sahol has been in the university for the past 30 years and was a deputy vice-chancellor (academic) before he was transferred to the Higher Education Ministry in 2008.
Under his strategic plan, Sahol said he hoped to introduce multi- disciplinary programmes to fulfil industry needs and enable UiTM graduates to compete with their peers from other universities and private colleges.
“Multi-disciplinary graduates will be more attractive to employers and will one day become employers themselves.
“For example, accounting students could do law, or engineering students could do architecture.
“If we can produce accountants who are also well-versed in law, of course UiTM’s ranking would be better than other universities.”
Towards achieving the university’s 200,000-student target by 2015, Sahol said he would propose to the Higher Education Ministry to give autonomy to UiTM branches nationwide and to upgrade them to university colleges.
He said UiTM would also hire more lecturers with at least five years’ experience in the industry and non-experienced lecturers would besent out to gain industry experience and conduct research.