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Consider Views of Youth, Policymakers Urged
Consider Views of Youth, Policymakers Urged
theSun
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PETALING JAYA: Universiti Malaya (UM) has stopped taking part in the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva since 2004. However, its vice-chancellor Datuk Rafiah Salim said the decision was not made because it was a waste of money but rather, the university wanted its promotion activities to be focused on the region only, to get the best mileage for our money. Last year, for example, UM took part in the Seoul International Invention Fair (SIIF), an exhibition similar to the Geneva-based exhibition. The university submitted 11 research projects for the event and all won medals five gold, four silver and two bronze. Rafiah said it was indeed a waste of money if participation in such exhibitions was merely to win medals, but in UMs case, it was part of the universitys promotion exercise. Our purpose is to promote our university, our scientists and our works or inventions to the international arena. The idea is to get
the industry to know us, she said. We are relatively small and comparatively unknown to the world, unlike Harvard, Oxford or Yale. So we have to promote ourselves to let the world know we exist. Then only we can become a global player. Otherwise, we will remain as jaguh kampung (village champion), she told theSun when asked to comment on Ayer Hitam member of parliament Dr Wee Ka Siongs statement on Monday. Wee had said Malaysian universities were spending millions to participate in such profit-making exhibitions only to collect awards whose academic merits were questionable. The same issue had been raised by Tony Pua, the economic adviser to DAP secretary-general, in his blog Education in Malaysia since 2005. Rafiah said it was not a problem as long as the universities were fully aware of the actual objective of their participation for promotion. The award is secondary. If they want to give, we take, but we dont go there for the awards. She said all promotional efforts entailed some kind of investment.