At the recent Times Higher Education Asia Universities Summit hosted at Sunway University, institutions of higher learning discussed strategies for adapting to new challenges while prioritising top-quality teaching research and student development.
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00:00Sunway University hosted the prestigious Times Higher Education, THE, Asia University Summit at its campus recently.
00:08Over 600 delegates from more than 40 countries gathered at Sunway City, Kuala Lumpur to discuss topics facing the higher education industry
00:16and to network for greater transnational cooperation.
00:20Sunway University President Professor Sibrandes Popema, who was delighted that Malaysia was invited to organize the event for the first time in the history of THE,
00:29said he looked forward to the conversations with the university presidents and vice chancellors who make up most of the foreign guests.
00:37We said yes for a couple of reasons.
00:39Most important is that Malaysia wants to become an education hub in Southeast Asia.
00:44And for that, being exposed to the world, having all of these people that are here now coming to Sunway and therefore coming to Malaysia is very important.
00:56So it's not so much about the ranking, it's more about the exposure to the world.
01:01It's about being able to have conversations with presidents.
01:05There's many presidents, vice chancellors here from other universities in Asia.
01:09So that's really the most important part of this summit.
01:13The three-day summit was officially launched by Higher Education Minister Datuk Sri Dr. Zambri Abdul Kader,
01:20alongside Sunway Group Founder and Chairman Tan Sri Sir Geoffrey Chia,
01:24Sunway Education Group CEO Datuk Elizabeth Lee, Popema,
01:28as well as THE Chief Global Affairs Officer Phil Beatty and THE Asia-Pacific President Simon Delayna.
01:36In his speech, Dr. Zambri says the summit is aptly titled,
01:40Bridging Frontiers, Changing the Landscape of Education in Asia,
01:44as it reflects the growing appetite for international students to seek meaningful educational opportunities
01:50that will enable them to learn, work and develop intellectually and professionally.
01:55Many of you here today who are in position to steer your ship forward,
02:03we need to embrace competition by building bridges and break down silos and dividing walls.
02:14We need to collaborate.
02:17Even some of the educationists, thinkers, they are proposing now,
02:22this is not a time for universities to compete among themselves.
02:27That is the new term that comes into being.
02:31That is the term, multiversity.
02:34There is no more university.
02:36The university is only functioning to look after one,
02:40but a multi-university where all of you can work together across the globe.
02:46As part of the organizing committee, together with officials from THE,
02:50Sunway University Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Education Professor Chai Lei Ching
02:54says the summit intends to highlight, recognize and reimagine the evolving landscape of education.
03:01We thought it's good to go deeper, deep diving into transnational partnerships.
03:07Not just universities with universities, locally, internationally,
03:12but also bridging the frontier, partnerships with the industry.
03:16How do we do that?
03:17And also with the community.
03:19This is the future of education that we are looking into.
03:22Universities need to transform and how to transform
03:25is actually one of the main key topics that we are discussing in these three days.
03:30Among the key topics discussed at the summit
03:33were crossing borders where universities will seek for partners to collaborate in transnational education.
03:38Developing industry-ready graduates who are taught not only knowledge and skills,
03:42but also values and mindsets.
03:44And interacting with the local communities where the universities are located.
03:48Here at Sunway University, as our example,
03:50we'll be hearing many examples of other universities.
03:53But here, our students will be working in Desamentari,
03:57which is right next to here, a housing project.
04:00And our students in their second year will be going there
04:04and working on all sorts of projects that they will design.
04:08We've started in January, so they've already done things about bullying with the kids.
04:13They've done things about hygiene.
04:16They've been working with small companies.
04:18You know, how to make their shop more attractive.
04:20In the next semester, probably we'll be working on better Wi-Fi access.
04:24So it's all things that have to do with making life better in that area.
04:29We've been giving school uniforms and shoes to 1,100 of the poorest kids there,
04:36so they could go to school equal to other kids.
04:39So my happiest day will be when one day, because this is a very long-term thing,
04:44when one day, some of these kids will come to Sunway University and study here.
04:49That'll be the happiest day.