THURSDAY, 27 OCTOBER – In shaping a holistic, balanced and equipped with entrepreneurial skills in line with the National Education Policy, graduates must have the relevant know-how, manners and mindset, commendable behaviour and the determination to improve themselves to enable them to contribute towards the harmony and progress of their family, community, country and global communities.
The six main or domain attributes namely; ethics and spirituality, leadership skills, national identity, language skills, thinking skills, and knowledge have been identified to be instilled in each graduate.
The development of students and graduates attributes of these six domain could be achieved through the implementation of the Integrated CGPA, in short iCGPA (integrated Cumulative Grade Point Average) Rubric.
This module is a new mechanism under the Ministry of Higher Education to ensure graduates of public universities meet the criteria needed by employers.
As prescribed in the CGPA Integrated Learning Outcome Assessment Rubric Handbook published by the Ministry of Higher Education, the integrated CGPA (iCGPA) was to spur constructive practices to ensure curriculum development, implementation of curriculum and the evaluation process of courses and programme are with quality.
The integrated CGPA (iCGPA) is a system or mechanism, assessment and reporting on students’ integrated improvement and development in terms of conduct (ethics and values), declarative and functional knowledge including technical skills in the field of discipline they are in. The iCGPA report would illustrate the students’ attribute achievements for the six aspirations outlined in the PPPM (PT), which also contained the eight domains of learning outcomes of the Malaysian Qualifications Framework. This mechanism intended to help stakeholders plan and determine the precise pace of improvement.
Therefore, the iCGPA report would exhibit the holistic achievements of students and their accomplishments for each programme during their study period (source: Ministry of Higher Education, 2016).
In line with the Ministry of Higher Education in improving the employability of Public University graduates, the Faculty of Business, Economics and Accounting (FPEP) UMS recently held the iCGPA Workshop under the supervision of Dr. Mohd Ruslim Mohamed, Director of the Centre for Academic Innovation and Competitiveness (CAIC) Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP). The one-day workshop was held on 26 October at the MBA Conference Room, FPEP.
Dean of the Faculty, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Raman Noordin explained that the workshop was held in preparation for the implementation of iCGPA through selective programmes offered in future.
According to Dr. Raman, the Accounting programme was suggested to be the pioneer for the implementation of this module among its final year students. Besides the workshop, a number of initiatives were also implemented under the Academic Section headed by Dr. Zaiton Osman, Deputy Dean of Academic, FPEP, to improve the understanding and readiness of its lecturers.
At the workshop, Dr. Mohd Ruslim also stressed on the importance of having a support system from among university administrators and academicians. This was to ensure the ease in monitoring the iCGPA system.
With the support from relevant departments, lecturers would not be burdened with administrative tasks. In fact, Dr Mohd Ruslim added, the new system would be able to ease the monitoring of student attendance and so on.
This would increase lecturers’ concentration on teaching and research. FPEP would work together with the Department of Information and Communication Technology (JTMK) UMS and the Academic Services Division (BPA)to ensure the synchronicity of the current system with the future implementation of the iCGPA.
By Jakaria Dasan, FPEP
THURSDAY, 27 OCTOBER – The opportunity to conduct field work in agriculture was the driving force for former student of Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture (FPL), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Ahmad Shafiq Ahmad Sabirin to venture into it in a wider field after graduation.
WEDNESDAY, 26 OCTOBER – Cooperation between Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and a research centre in China, Heilongjiang Academy of Science (HAS) has resulted in the production of two products namely Black Garlic and Black Fungus.
TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER – Alumni Centre, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) recently organised a meet and greet session with UMS alumni in Kuching, Sarawak.
MONDAY, 24 OCTOBER – Staff and students of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)grieve the passing of a former member of UMS Board of Directors who was also a prominent figure of the national security team, Tan Sri (Dr.) Henry Chin Poy-Wu.
