Report on Meeting with IIUM President

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

On 27th April 2010, SRC had made a meeting with the IIUM President's, Tan Sri Sidek Hasan that at 12 pm. The meeting started with the introduction speech by the President. He welcomed us to Putrajaya. Amongst the main aims of the meeting was to update to the IIUM President with the recent development happening in IIUM for him to keep informed the real overview about the students’ condition in campus. Besides that, the meeting also aimed to build a good relationship between The President and the students’ leaders as well as all IIUM students in general.

In his speech, Tan Sri mentioned that, as for now, IIUM succeeds in producing well rounded individuals especially those from Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws which currently is acknowledged to produce best law students in the country. In addition, IIUM graduates are better compared to others because we are using English and Arabic language as medium of instructions as well as in the learning process. Another unique characteristic of IIUM is that we have the largest chunk of the foreign students currently which add more colour to the institution.

Furthermore, IIUM also is well known to produce good debaters in Arabic, English and Malay languages .Finally, he stressed that, the students of IIUM need to be more creative in their live in order for them to be recognized as excellence graduates who are well equipped with the knowledge and soft skills. Before ending his speech, Tan Sri advised the students to contribute more to the country and prevent themselves from doing wrongful act.

After the honorable President finished his speech, he opened the floor for the members of the meeting to rise up any issue, question, or problem. The session started by Vice President 2 of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC). He firstly thanked the honourable President for his concern towards the students’ problem since the issues and problems mentioned by the students’ leaders during the previous meeting have been well tackled.

After that, other students’ leader raised their own questions and suggestions. The details are as follow:


1st Question:

Sister Zatil Arifah (Vice President 3 of SRC) complained about wild dogs and monkeys and mentioned that it is a serious matter because this endangered the safety of the students.

Answer:

Prof. Nik Ahmad Kamal (Deputy Rector Student Affairs) said that Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (MPS) has decided to come regularly and he also advised students to stop giving the animals any food. He added that we cannot simply shoot the animals because they belong to MPS and PERHILITAN but IIUM has already collaborated with orang asli to catch the dogs.

Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan (IIUM President) asked his assistant to call MPS (Majlis Perbandaran Selayang) and Jabatan Perhilitan to tackle the problem quickly.


2nd Question:

Chairperson of Academic Secretariat asked about the possibility to include the co-curriculum credit into CGPA.

He also asked Tan Sri’s point of view about Research University (RU).

Then he question on the reason why the students have to pay RM500 if they graduate early than scheduled before.

Answer:

Prof. Nik Ahmad Kamal explained that there are two types of co-curriculum activity. One is credited and another one is non-credited. He agreed for all co-curriculum activity to be credited into CGPA. However, the problem is the total credit required for graduation will increase. He will bring this matter to the Senate and agreed that 6 credits should be given to uniform bodies.

Prof. Dato' Sri Dr. Syed Arabi Idid (Rector) said that there are certain qualifications to be a RU and IIUM is already qualified.

Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan added that, we can be RU but the main important is about the quality of the IIUM students.

Bro. Amir Zahiruddin Kamal Pasha (SRC’s Advisor) in answering the early graduate matter said it is because of the agreement with the PTPTN and it acts as compensation to them.


3rd Question:

Bro. Zulqarnain from Cultural Unit inquired Tan Sri’s point of view on the World Gamelan Festival. He also mentioning that there is no training room for Gamelan team.

Answer:

Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan stressed out that good graduates are those equipped with good academic result as well as skills in culture activity. So, he encouraged the students to engage more actively in cultural and co-curriculum activity.

Prof. Dato' Sri Dr. Syed Arabi Idid really encouraged the students to join this cultural activity and he also agreed that this activity need space and their own room.