By: Azman Zakaria

SERDANG, Feb 11: Universiti Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan Sulaiman, has outlined 11 aspirations in the Vice-Chancellor's Narrative 2022 and urged all UPM staff and students to embrace and work towards achieving the aspirations. He also expressed his hope that everyone should face 2022 and the challenges with a bolder spirit and courage.

The aspirations are to lead in agriculture and become a development reference centre, to produce students as good citizens, to become a smart campus, to uphold research for the nation, to lead university mission for the community, to promote UPM globally, to maintain UPM's reputation as the most sustainable university, to care immensely and appreciate service, to intensify campus well-being initiatives, to sustain university funding, and to engage alumni for university sustainability.

According to him, this year's Vice-Chancellor's Narrative is an extension of last year's narrative which called upon UPM community to echo the call of al-Falah from the tower of knowledge and that it needs to be put into action and implemented this year.

"I am urging UPM community—staff and students to ‘take the steps together towards al-Falah’. Let us together roll up our sleeves to fulfill the hopes of the community that we bear on our shoulders," he said during his speech at the Vice-Chancellor's Narrative 2022 ceremony here.

He said this year, UPM will focus on the programmes planned by the Centres of Responsibility (CORs) that support the achievement of the targets set in the UPM Strategic Plan 2021-2025, in particular, the high-tech agriculture, smart campus digitisation, and programmes that contribute to the sustainability of the established institution.

Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan said the aspiration to lead in agriculture and become a development reference centre is part of the implementation of agricultural mechanisation and application of smart approach to agricultural technology with the use of drones for agricultural inputs (pesticides, fertilizers or seeds), as well as the development of mobile application for paddy management with the use of Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) map.

Through the aspiration to produce students as good citizens, UPM will strive to strengthen political literacy among students through various methods and approaches such as by emphasising the formation of common values ​​based on the core values ​​of the university when practising political freedom among students.

The aspiration to realise a smart campus aims to strengthen the digitisation of the campus since it is the best support system for UPM to grow as an organisation. Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan also launched the Putra®Staf Smart Mobile Apps application developed by the Information and Communication Development Centre (iDEC).

The aspiration to uphold research for the nation, among others, will introduce entrepreneurial attributes among UPM researchers to allow them to focus fully on in managing the start-ups registered as these provide a source of income/revenues for the university. This is also an effort to strengthen commercialisation and innovation in UPM.

The aspiration to lead university mission for the community is to further strengthen the industry and community network, including discussions on the establishment of the University Industry Advisory Council. The council is responsible for helping UPM produce holistic graduates who can meet market demand strategically, provide funds through knowledge endowment, research equipment, and research grants, as well as strategic cooperation for the transfer of UPM's expertise.

The aspiration to promote UPM globally, among others, will strengthen the management of MoU/MoA and is a direct response to the agenda of Smart Campus Initialising and Digitisation agenda through the University's MoU/MoA e-System Management to ease the MoU/MoA/Agreement approval application process made by COR as well as to monitor the approval process by the Secretariat and collection of data on activities carried out with MoU/MoA partners.

The aspiration to maintain UPM's reputation as the most sustainable university requires continuous efforts on sustainability. UPM will soon have a photovoltaic (PV) solar system with a capacity of 16.18 MWp that would help save RM114 million of the university's electricity bills for 25 years.

The aspiration to care immensely and appreciate service strengthens works on humanitarian missions, including the establishment of UPM staff Volunteer Committee or Putra Bakti Volunteers which will add value to the university and staff in serving the community and in increasing UPM's visibility as one of the leading universities in volunteerism.

The aspiration to intensify the campus well-being initiatives emphasises the well-being of UPM community, which includes a conducive work environment. CORs are required to provide space for leisure and sports activities to inculcate a healthy and active lifestyle. In conjunction with this, the leisure cycling programme around the campus area for UPM community with the Vice-Chancellor will be held every Wednesday evening beginning March 2022.

The aspiration to sustain university funding aims to strengthen the sustainability of UPM through strategic and high-impact funding efforts. UPM will start the Medical City project, which covers an area of ​​86 acres on the border of UPM, as a significant medical development. The 37-year project with an estimated revenue of 75 million will be fully owned by UPM after the expiration of contract period.

Finally, the aspiration to engage alumni for university sustainability nurtures the willingness to serve and philanthropic nature of the alumni so that they would contribute back to the university by providing scholarships funding and financial assistance to students. - UPM

Date of Input: 15/02/2022 | Updated: 21/02/2022 | hairul_nizam