KUCHINGL: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) may become the first higher education institution in the country to fully apply the integrated cumulative grade point average (iCGPA) assessment in all its faculties.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said unlike Unimas, there were other public universities that adopted iCGPA at selected faculties since the assessment system was introduced about two years ago.
“I am not so sure with other (public) universities but I am proud of the achievement made by Unimas in fully implementing the iCGPA on all of its students.
“However, I can assure Unimas will produce graduates with holistic and balance skills in academic, communications and entrepreneurship in the next four years following the full implementation of iCGPA.
“If UNIMAS is the first university in the country that has fully implemented iCGPA, it means that the university is the first higher education institution to have embraced such assessment system.
“This is because, Malaysia is the first country in the world that introduced the iCGPA assessment system,” he told reporters after opening Unimas Silver Jubilee Conference Wednesday.
Earlier in July, Idris was reported stating that the iCGPA aims to produce graduates who not only excel in their fields of study (academically), but are also equipped with the necessary soft skills (such as English proficiency), knowledge (of the world at large, the sciences and arts), values (ethics, patriotism, and spirituality), leadership abilities (including the love of volunteerism), and the ability to think critically (accepting diverse views, innovation and problem solving).
Also present at the conference were the ministry’s director-general Datin Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir, Unimas chairman Datuk Dr Hatta Solhi and the university’s vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi.
Idris also announced that Unimas is the first university in the country to use digital identification for all of its staffs and students enrolled for the new semester since October this year.
“I am fascinated to witness how Unimas managed to capitalises the Quick Response Code (QR Code) to store information of university students.
“And I was informed that the university only took about a month to come out with such facility,” he said, adding that Universiti Malaysia Perlis and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia will also introduced the same system in November and December, respectively.
Kadim said every staff and students at the university will be given a unique QR Code for as their staff and student identification in the campus.
“The staff and students only need to flash the QR Code from their smartphone for attendance.
“The university is mulling to extend the use of the facility for trading in the campus. We are currently in talks with traders and merchant restaurant to expand the use of the digital identification,” he said.