| Universiti Putra Malaysia

487 participants join International Webinar

By: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siti Suriawati Isa and Noor Habibah Daud

 

SERDANG, Nov 2 – The Co-Curriculum and Student Development Centre (PKPP), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), has taken innovative efforts in student development, especially to produce students with financial literacy by organising an online International Programme.

 

The programme received an excellent response with 487 participants representing various universities and agencies from 23 countries around the world through the Zoom application, while 37 participants watched it live via the PKPP UPM Facebook page.

Among international participants who joined the event were from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Ghana, India, Jordan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Uzbekistan.

The encouraging response proves that financial education, which is the focus of the international webinar, is sought by the global community, especially when the world is dealing with the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

With an aim to produce students with sound financial management education before graduating, PKPP invited Mekanik Wang, better known as Abang Abu as the keynote speaker.

He was selected based on his expertise in the field of financial management as well as the various recognitions he has received internationally such as the Financial Education Instructor by the National Financial Educators Council and the Most Innovative Financial Educator and Speaker of South East Asia 2018.

The international webinar also involved UPM students as student commentators, while the event moderator was the Deputy Director of PKPP, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siti Suriawati Isa.

Director of PKPP, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nur Izura Udzir, said the programme is a new approach and provides early exposure to information and knowledge on financial leadership to university students so that the youth could understand and maintain good financial management continuously.  

“This programme also aims to shape great personalities and provides a big impact to the country’s development by producing a money literate society whilst still at the educational institution, before becoming a graduate who will face the real world soon,” she said. 

The year of 2020 has been extremely challenging impacting the world both short- and long-term as the whole world was caught by this unexpected pandemic, as emphasised by Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom, earlier this year.

In this regard, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nur Izura said educational institutions need to enhance further the readiness to empower learning and teaching in ensuring the ecosystem for students is always taken care of and remains harmonious. 

She said the various aspects in the holistic care of student welfare need to be scrutinised and re-evaluated due to new norms that should be followed by society.

In the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic lies some positivity where various new creative and innovative solutions had emerged. This international webinar is an example of international events being conducted despite having almost all international borders closed.

Among others, the purpose of the webinar was to fortify the marketability of graduates in the workforce and help graduates think positive as they face various challenges throughout their studies at the university. 

They were also exposed to more effective financial management methods. Students who are interested in the field of entrepreneurship were urged to practise 4Q by the second speaker, Muhamad Daniel, who is also a third-year student at the Faculty of Agriculture, UPM. The 4Q includes: 1. Intelligence quotient, 2. Emotional quotient, 3. Spiritual quotient and 4. Physical quotient.

4Q is important to determine the success of an individual because they are key characteristics in improving the quality of an individual.

PKPP UPM is among the earliest co-curriculum and student development centres in public universities in Malaysia to host an international webinar. - UPM

 

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