By: Azman Zakaria
Photo by: Sabri Omar & Saleha Haron
SERDANG, Dec 3: Deputy Higher Education Minister, Senator Dato' Dr. Ahmad Masrizal Muhammad, launched the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Strategic Plan 2021-2025 today, which he said was also a catalyst for the direction and aspirations of the country's higher education sector.
He said that among the success factors of the country's higher education sector is the level of readiness and strategic planning by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) towards excellence.
Therefore, he said the ministry always supports the efforts of HEIs, especially public universities in planning the future of their respective institutions with structured planning through evidence or evidence-based policies.
"As one of the research universities and a university of international repute, the UPM Strategic Plan is a very important document that can determine the direction of university excellence for at least the next five years," he said when launching the UPM Strategic Plan 2021-2025, here. The launching ceremony was themed 'The Evolution of UPM's 50 Years of Excellence.'
Also present were the Divisional Secretary, Planning and Policy Research Division, Ministry of Higher Education, Dato 'Shaharuddin Abu Sohot, and UPM Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan Sulaiman.
The five goals of the Strategic Plan are to produce graduates who are resilient to the challenges ahead, create research and innovation hubs that generate value based on sustainable ecosystems, sustain industrial and community network ecosystems, strengthen agriculture and food security resilience, and strengthen institutional governance, financial sustainability and green sustainability practices.
Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Masrizal said the goals of the Strategic Plan would clearly support UPM to achieve the aspirations and goals of its establishment as a respected Tower of Knowledge.
He said he supported UPM's efforts through the Strategic Plan to continue to dominate the agricultural agenda in line with UPM's thrusts and niches.
"Therefore, it is highly appropriate that the direction of agriculture, especially high -tech agriculture, is raised as one of the main goals in UPM's Strategic Plan so that the university can play a more strategic role to drive and strengthen agriculture and the country's food security," he said.
He said the Strategic Plan also continued to support the ministry's intention to strengthen the digitisation aspect, which was translated through the objective of building a smart campus and digitisation.
He said various initiatives had been implemented by UPM, such as Smart Putra®Future Classroom and Smart Putra®VDI Lab, becoming the first HEI to implement Digital ID through Putra®VID, one server one student facility known as Smart Putra®One Server, and high-speed Internet facility through the Smart Putra®Premium initiative.
“This is a big shift that gives new challenges to all of us, especially in the context of HEI. We need to be vigilant and ready to make changes in line with digital transformation to remain competitive,” he said.
He said the Strategic Plan also focused on efforts to improve the marketability of graduates who not only meet national needs but also be able to put Malaysia's name on the world map in providing knowledgeable and highly skilled people.
Therefore, he wanted the UPM community to appreciate and implement this strategic plan in high family and belonging spirit.
At the ceremony, Dato' Dr. Ahmad Masrizal and Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan also received a frame each, containing the centre page of the newsletter, Tribun Putra, a special edition of UPM's 50th Anniversary Celebration (1971-2021), presented by the Director of UPM's Centre for Strategy and Corporate Relations (PSPK), Prof. Dr. Azmawani Abd Rahman. - UPM
