MONDAY, 5 JUNE – A social biogeography exhibition was recently held at the Social Science Foyer, Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Heritage (FKSW), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) organised by the Final Year students of 2016/2017 HA18 Geography Programme.

The theme of the exhibition was “Human and the Biosphere System”.

According to a statement issued, the objectives of the programme were to inform the masses on the importance of biosphere in relations to human, and to explain the social issues in the management of biosphere system.

The exhibition involved all 37 students under the Social Biogeography Course under the guidance of Dr. Jurry Foo Michael, a lecturer in the Geography programme, who was also the adviser.

The statement added that the event was also held as a platform to improve effective communication and knowledge-sharing skills by the students involved. - FL

WEDNESDAY, 24 MAY - United States (US) Ambassador to Malaysia, Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir officiated at the launch of the American Corner Sabah at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) library today.

According to Kamala, with the new opening, the people of Sabah would have additional opportunities to join programmes, and participate in dialogues, focused on topics of mutual interest, such as environmental conservation, science and technology, education, and culture. 

“The American Corner is one example of the US Embassy’s investment in the people of Sabah. 

“The Embassy will work together with UMS to offer engaging and informative programmes at the American Corner,” she said in her speech.

She added, the Embassy intends to send US Government officials, Foreign Service Officers, and other American citizens to the American Corner Sabah. 

“The Embassy also plans to work together with UMS to offer programmes at the Corner led by talented Sabahans to offer hands-on experience with the latest technology and to share information about environmental conservation, entrepreneurship, higher education, civil society, and other important topics,” Kamala said.

Following the launch of the American Corner, Ambassador Lakhdhir delivered a talk on “US - Malaysia Bilateral Relations” to undergraduate students and faculty at the university. 

Also present were the Dean of the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition who represented UMS Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Dr. Mohd Harun Abdullah; and UMS Head of Librarian, Dg. Rukiah Ag. Amit.

The new American Corner joins a network of nine American Corners currently operating in eight states; Perak, Penang (Seberang Jaya and George Town), Kedah, Kelantan, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Johor, and Sarawak.

TUESDAY, 23 MAY – The Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Heritage (FKSW), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) recently held an Academic Retreat to discuss and improve the syllabi of all their 10 programmes offered to meet with the fast developing world of education.

The retreat was also in line with the introduction made by the Higher Education Section of the Ministry of Education Malaysia, in the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2015-2025 (PPPM 2015-2025) that outlined the 10 shifts in strengthening the education system.

According to a statement issued, the retreat was held after a series of audits performed under the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) in strengthening quality and value of the faculty’s graduates to meet employers’ demands.

The retreat was also held in preparation for the MQA audits in July 2017.

The statement added that audit checks under ISO and SIRIM would be done between three and five years on all programmes offered by FKSW to streamline all curriculum as well as academic welfare towards achieving excellence for the faculty and at the same time the university itself.

FKSW took a positive step in ensuring that UMS would be able to compete at international level by making sure that all programmes and courses offered are constantly upgraded and improved. - FL

TUESDAY, 23 MEI - Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) continues to move forward with various achievements in academics and co-curricular activities.

Recently, Lt. Colonel (PA) Associate Professor Dr. Norazah Mohd Suki, an associate professor of UMS from the Labuan Faculty of International Finance won three international awards through her outstanding publications including writing in high-impact journals.

Associate Professor Dr. Norazah’s research article entitled 'Green product purchase intention: impact of green brands, attitude, and knowledge' published in British Food Journal was selected by the journal’s editorial team as a Highly Commended Paper in the 2017 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence.

She is the sole Malaysian lecturer won the award along with some other lecturers from leading universities.

The criteria used to judge the 2017 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence Awards are based on six areas: internationality, diversity, support for scholarly research, encouragement of applied research (impact), commitment to high quality scholarship; and a desire to ensure reader, author and customer experience is the best it can be.

The empirical results of her study addresses the gap in the prevailing body of literature in reference to the impact of green brand positioning and consumer attitude towards green brands, as well as the effect of green brand knowledge on green product purchase intention.

Her study found that green brand knowledge does not moderate the relationship between green brand positioning and green product purchase intention, thus providing insight into this subject matter, which has not been clearly examined in previous studies.

Furthermore, Associate Professor Dr. Norazah also brought honour to the university when her convincing presentation at 2nd Advances in Social Sciences Research International Conference, Bandung Indonesia which was held on 5-6 May 2017 entitled “Examining Students’ Satisfaction in Campus-Voting: A Correlation Analysis” was adjudged the Best Paper Presenter Award.

During her presentation to all international audiences, she deliberated that students’ satisfaction in campus e-voting highly associated by students’ perceived knowledge of which voters with higher perceived knowledge be likely to develop positive satisfaction in campus e-voting.

When they were knowledgeable about the party they voted for in campus, they were aware of the aspirations of the nominated candidate to uphold students’ rights, needs, and demand from the university management.

Additionally, a research collaboration of Associate Professor Dr. Norazah along with two other researchers, namely Dr. Norbayah Mohd Suki, and Azlina Bujang entitled “Structural Relationships between Disruptive Attribute Localization and Personalization on Women Consumers' Attitude to Practice Mobile Retailing” has won Best Paper Award at International Conference on Business and Social Science, which was held on 28 February - 1 March 2017, Melaka.

The Structural Equation Modeling approach was used to assess the association between variables in the hypothesis by using Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS).

Their study supports the development of a theoretical model in evaluating factors that significantly impact particularly, women consumer’s acceptance towards mobile retailing, in Malaysia.

The results from this study are valuable in designing marketing strategies, and these gender viewpoints in the acceptance of emergence technology are to some degree were overlooked in developing countries.

This research works was materialized with the financial support of the research project KPT Research Acculturation Grant Scheme (RAGS) Grant Scheme with project code RAG0073-SS-2015.

Grateful for all the encouragement and motivation especially from UMS Vice-Chancellor, Professor Datuk Dr. Mohd Harun Abdullah, Dr. Norazah was also determined to continue to be active in conducting research and contributes to writing in high-impact journals as her contribution to society and the country.

"Achievements and acceptance of such awards were not the main goal, but I believe this is the bonus given by Allah SWT to those who are diligent and committed to their work," she added.

“I am very grateful for this recognition and it will for sure be a morale booster for me to continue achieving excellence and contribute to this university,” said Associate Professor Dr. Norazah who is known to be serious but friendly.