UiTM Sarawak to introduce more courses next year

Written by
Monday, 13 September 2010 11:34 -

KUCHING: Universiti Institut Teknologi Malaysia (UiTM) Sarawak which will get its autonomous
university status next year hopes to introduce more programmme and courses to cater to the
needs and requirements of the state.

This was disclosed by its director, Professor Dr Jamil Hamali during a Raya open house in his
residence at Siol Kandis in Petra Jaya here yesterday.

He also said that the main UiTM Campus in Shah Alam has 250 programmes and 23 faculties
and the Sarawak campus was just a miniature of the Shah Alam campus.

“We have programme and courses ranging from accounting, business, banking, computers,
engineering, sciences, arts and designs and etc. We also have a wide range of courses hence
there is no need for local students to go to Shah Alam.

“That is why we are trying to bring in some of the programmes from Shah Alam to Sarawak, and
with the new autonomous university status, we are going to start with programmes that are not
even available in Shah Alam,” he said.

Jamil added: “It is going to be tailor-made towards our requirements.

For example, the herbal pharmacy programme which is going to kick off next year will capitalise
on our halal hub and also our rich flora and fauna”.

According to him, UiTM Sarawak is one of the four UiTM campuses that have been identified for
the autonomous status. The other three are UiTM campuses in Terengganu, Perlis and Perak.

“As we have reached a certain standard, we can operate our own convocation and operate our
own new programmes,” he said, adding that next year is going to be a very challenging year for
UiTM Sarawak.

“We will stand alone and decide on our own budget and we have to look into new programmes
to cater to the requirements of the state,” he said.

Jamil also said that UiTM Sarawak was one of the six UiTM campuses throughout the country
that had been earmarked to start building new facilities based on the Private Financial Initiative
(PFI). He said the project on a 800-acre of land given by the state government was going to
start after this Raya.

“So within the next two years, we are going to have new facilities to cater for 4,000 students of
the new programmes that we are going to have,” he said, adding that the new facilities will
include classrooms, science labs, engineering labs and offices.

He said some of land will also be allocated for integrated farming.

Jamil said UiTM Sarawak was also looking into courses that are required by Sarawak Corridor
of Renewable Energy (SCORE).

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UiTM Sarawak to introduce more courses next year

Written by
Monday, 13 September 2010 11:34 -

“For UiTM Mukah Campus, for example, we are looking into something like marine based
fishing, farming and may be a bit of deepsea fishing,” he said.

He said the UiTM Campus in Mukah which at the moment is catering for about 300 students will
be expanded.

“We have a piece of land also given by the state government which we have fenced up. At the
moment we are just waiting for the next PFI to start the campus’ expansion project,” he said.

At present UiTM Sarawak Campus has about 5,000 students and about 10 percent of them are
from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.

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