15 Management and Professional Talent Enhancement Special Programme graduands receive MBA

PAYA BESAR, 5 November 2022 - Working and pursuing master’s study simultaneously is not an obstacle for 15 Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) staff to complete the Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme on a part-time basis which was first offered specially for UMP staff.

The UMP 17th Convocation Ceremony saw 15 pilot MBA programme students receive their master’s degrees from the UMP Pro-Chancellor, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri (Dr.) Abi Musa Asa’ari Mohamed Nor on the first day of the convocation ceremony.

Also present were the Chairman of the UMP Board of Directors, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman and UMP Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato’ Ts. Dr. Yuserrie Zainuddin.

According to Professor Dato’ Ts. Dr. Yuserrie, the programme under the Faculty of Industrial Management (FPI) provides a systematic talent development plan for the staff to improve knowledge in management and skills in university administration.

“UMP introduces this Management and Professional (Administration) Talent Enhancement Special Programme for the staff to improve management knowledge.

“The execution of human capital development and talent management aligns with the importance of higher education human resource development and world scholarship towards consolidating high performance job delivery in the future.

“In addition, the programme can focus on leadership skills, customer satisfaction, intelligence in operation and soft skills with a new approach,” he said.

Meanwhile, the FPI MBA Head of Programme, Dr. Suhaidah Hussain said, during the study, the students gave a high commitment to completing assignments for each course and successfully exhibited competence improvement as managers through course assessments such as case studies, presentations and final projects.

“In addition, they managed to propose improvements in their respective departments through project courses at the end of the semester.

“The final project of UMP MBA students can be applied in their respective departments, thus helping to improve the quality of departmental services within the university,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Director of the University Health Centre (PKU), Dr. Khairul Salleh Abdul Basit, who enrolled in the programme said, most of the night was allocated to studying and reading case studies in each course such as Strategic Management, Operation Management and Supply Chain Management.

Likewise, the Chief Executive of Yayasan UMP, Mohd Jamil Mohd Ja’afar said that even though the daily work schedule is packed with various programmes, togetherness and enthusiasm in assisting other friends helped him in his study.

Nor Ilma Mustafa Kamal from the Centre for Strategic Academic Collaboration (PKSA) said that the experience of continuing study in the three phases of the COVID-19 pandemic pre-, during and post-pandemic was very challenging.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic started, there were too many uncertainties, apart from having to be confined at home and all classes were conducted online including exams.

“This situation also affected my mental health, let alone working at the same time and I was pregnant with a second child.

“After the movement restriction was lifted in the third phase, it was time to complete the MBA project; to obtain the study sample was challenging due to time limitation and unfamiliar project title to reach the sample target,” she said.

But now, she said all efforts were worth it with the help of coursemates, faculty lecturers and families, all of which could be overcome and graduated according to the stipulated time.

By: Mimi Rabita Abdul Wahit, Corporate Communications Division, Chancellery Department

Translation by: Dr. Rozaimi Abu Samah, Engineering College/Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology