<p><font color="#33711E"><strong>Day 2 – Plenary Session II: Possibilities for Development</strong></font></p>
Queen's Park 1, 10:30 - 12:30
Community Service Programmes at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Sharifah Hapsah Shahabudin
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
It is very often said that a core function of a university is to create new knowledge through research and to disseminate knowledge by imparting it through student learning, presentations at conferences, and publications in journals. Universities are generally effective in undertaking such activities, and are therefore able to meet the needs of their stakeholders, including the students, academic faculty and administrators. Another function of universities, service to the community, is often cited but appears to be less well-organized at the university level. In recent years, calls for greater involvement of other stakeholders such as the community and private sector in the activities of the university have spurred universities to change the way they interact with their constituents, including with interest groups in the community. This paper discusses the rationale for university-community partnerships and describes the way Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has reorganized itself to ensure that both the community and university benefit from UKM's interactions with and service to the community. This paper also provides examples of some university-community partnership initiatives.
Download the paper (pdf, 360kb) and presentation (pdf, 2.3mb)