USM Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said that very soon USM will help in developing the curriculum and carry out staff training to enable three sacukties to be established in AIU.
“AIU and USM have a similar mission, that is, we both wish to provide an opportunity to the underprivileged and those in the bottom billions to gain access to higher education. As a ‘premier’ university, it is our responsibility to help set up this new university. Thus, USM is prepared to offer whatever help is required,” he said after signing the Memorandum of Understanding with AIU.
At the same function, Dato’ Dr. Sharom Ahmat, member of the Board of Governors of AIU said that AIU is expected to begin operating in November 2010 with an initial intake of 100 students from 30 countries. The courses offered will be from the Faculty of Business/Management, Information Technology and Social Sciences.
He added that AIU is targeting an intake of 3000 students within five years, of whom 70 percent would be international students.
“The students must come from a socio-economically disadvantaged background. AIU will give full support to these students to enable them to obtain a degree. More importantly, we want these graduates to champion humanitarian and universal rights,” he said.
According to Dato’ Sharom, AIU is looking for qualified personnel to fill the positions for the top management of the new university.
Prior to this, Prof. Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Health Action International Asia Pacific (HAIAP), making USM the new head office for HAIAP, which was previously based in Sri Lanka.
Established 25 years ago in Geneva, Switzerland, HAIAP champions issues related to public health and medicines.
HAIAP was represented by Dr. Ken Harvey, the Chairman of the HAIAP Governing Council.
Also present at the function were Dato’ Anwar Fazal, one of the founding members of HAIAP and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohamed Azmi Ahmad Hassali who represented the Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
