JOHOR BARU: UTM has come a long way since its inception as the Treacher Technical School in 1904. On March 14, 1972 it was proclaimed as Institut Teknologi Kebangsaan (ITK), garnering university status and was officially declared as Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 1975.
Since then, UTM has been recognised nationwide as a technological-based institution focusing on producing technocrats in support of the nation's New Economic Policy (NEP).
This year marks its 50th anniversary, and UTM remains committed to continuing its excellence in engineering and technology research and education.
To date, UTM has approximately more than 200,000 alumni globally that are highly sought after in their respective fields.
In reflection of this, UTM Vice-Chancellor, Prof Datuk Ts Dr Ahmad Fauzi Ismail highlighted that "our graduate employability is at 91.5 per cent in 2020, and among the highest for a Malaysian public university as published by the Higher Education Ministry".
Moving with the times, UTM has ventured into research and innovation in addition to teaching as it aspires to become a leading technology and engineering-based institution globally.
According to Ahmad Fauzi, UTM was awarded the Research University status in 2010, which became the starting point for the university to empower its academics into becoming experts in their respective fields.
UTM academics are among the highest in the nation to be listed in the Stanford University List of Top two per cent Scientists Worldwide and recipients of the prestigious Merdeka Award, namely Datuk Seri Ir Dr Zaini Ujang, Prof Dr Halimaton Hamdan and Prof Datuk Ts Dr Ahmad Fauzi Ismail.
UTM produces leaders
UTM has also produced national leaders who have assumed prominent roles in the government and private sectors. They include Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong; Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa and Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani, along with eminent technocrats such as KLIA Consultancy Services Sdn Bhd president and chief executive officer Tan Sri (Dr) Ir. Jamilus Md Hussin.
"We are a leading national institution in engineering and technology that produces technocrats and technopreneurs and many of UTM's Vice-Chancellors had an engineering background," said Ahmad Fauzi.
UTM post 50 years: Towards global eminence
The need for UTM to stay relevant and distinctive in delivering innovative learning experiences and research is critical especially to realise its vision to become a premier university, providing world class education and research. To achieve this, Ahmad Fauzi asserted that UTM has proactively developed the enVision UTM 2025 Strategic Plan and introduced the 5 Big Things.
He further elaborated that UTM's commitment has always been to produce talents and inputs on research and innovation activities that are impactful to both society and industry.
"Hence, our aim is to strengthen the Research, Development, Commercialisation and Innovation ecosystem in UTM because with a strong ecosystem, I believe we can produce not only the talents we need but the research outcomes that the nation and world needs," said Ahmad Fauzi.
On talents, the UTM Centre for Student Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (UTM XCITE) produces students with entrepreneurial mindsets through Hackathons, Makers@UTM and Startup Accelerators, MTDC Business Challenge and Wealth Creation Lab. These students go on to become technopreneurs, establishing start-ups and becoming job creators.
For the society, UTM has provided solutions to address problems in the community through the Prospering Lives initiative, with 510 projects within five years and 586 industry collaboration projects and 267 commercialised innovation research projects worth RM2.17million.
Building alliances, advancing partnerships
Partnerships with the industry, government sector, community and nonprofits is pivotal for UTM to achieve its desired impact. Hence, the UTM AIMS4STAR strategic platform (Consortium of Academia, Industry, Society for Synergetic Transformation) will be leveraged upon in support of its education and research activities.
"We have more than 2,000 industry partners and 342 institutions collaborating with us on various programmes, either academic, research or services," added Ahmad Fauzi.
Its partnerships with notable GLCs and multinational companies such as Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), MMC Corporation Berhad, UMW Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Johor Port and Sime Darby Berhad are strong indications that the ideas of UTM academics are received positively.
Additionally, UTM has established industry inbound-outbound satellite and community living labs to encourage synergy between academia, industry and the community.
At the backdrop of nation building, UTM is involved in various policies and blueprints at national level.
"We also have experts contributing to policy-making such as the Malaysia AI Roadmap, the Occupational Safety and Health Master Plan 2025, MOSTI Strategic Plan 2021-2025 and the Johor State Investment Plan 2020-2030."
As a proud alumni of UTM, Ahmad Fauzi urged alumni to play an active role with their alma mater by sharing their experiences to elevate UTM's reputation as a globally recognised university in science and technology.
"Tell the world about UTM's learning ecosystem, job opportunities or what you have learned at the university. As alumni members, only you truly know these experiences," said Ahmad Fauzi."