Unitar should be re-engineered as a niche university – Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 – Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Unitar), the private institution of higher learning which was set up in 1997, should be re-engineered as a niche university, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said today.

Apart from playing its role as a boutique university which focused on small intakes of students, he said that the university should also be re-engineered to fulfil the country’s needs.

“We have no intention of turning Unitar into a mass university but to let it remain as a ‘boutique’ university, giving emphasis to a small number of students, reflecting the university’s quest for quality,” he said when opening Unitar’s Razak Campus at Capital Square, Jalan Munshi Abdullah here.

Najib said Unitar, which offers 40 first degree and post-graduate courses, including in the field of business administration and information technology, should also cater for the country’s human capital development.

“When Unitar board of directors discuss the university’s re-engineering process, they should look into its niche area,” he said.

The prime minister said that Unitar should also forge networking with various institutions either locally or internationally to further enhance its quality and status. In doing so, Najib said the university should choose the best partners.

“This should be the philosophy of Unitar’s re-engineering. I hope that we will do everything possible to achieve higher quality,” he said.

Earlier, Najib witnessed the exchange of documents related to new collaborative agreements between Unitar and UEM Group Berhad, Kumpulan Karangkraf Sdn Bhd and Amanah Raya Berhad.

Unitar recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with UEM in which the university’s Centre for Executive Education would receive an endowment of RM10 million from UEM to be used for the UEM Warriors program.

Following this, one of the university’s lecture halls will be renamed the “UEM Lecture Hall.”

Under the MoA with Karangkraf, Unitar will offer a RM1 million scholarship annually to selected students chosen at Karangkraf’s discretion, to pursue courses at the university. In return, the publishing company will offer Unitar RM1 million worth of advertisement in its publications per annum.

The MoA with Amanah Raya Berhad is for a collaboration in programme development, executive development and research grants in Islamic wealth management.

Unitar, named after Najib’s father and Malaysia’s second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, is the first private university in the country and took its first intake of 162 students in September 1998.

The university was launched by Najib, who was then the Education Minister, on Dec 21, 1998. – Bernama