UniMAP to Host Entrepreneurship Summer Camp (ESP), 2016

Guanzhao, China, 8 November – Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) will be hosting the Entrepreneurship Summer Camp which is scheduled to be held next year in order to expose university students to an entrepreneurial environment at an international level.

UniMAP Vice Chancellor Brig. Jen. Datuk Prof Emeritus Dr. Kamarudin Hussin said that the programme is a result of a discussion that took place in conjunction with the 14^th Asian University Presidents Forum (AUPF) 2015 hosted by the Guangdong University of Foreign Languages (GDUFS).

He explained that besides UniMAP the programme will adopt the concept of the Asia Summer Program (ASP) and will involve the participation of 100 students from Daffodil International University Bangladesh, Universitas Ubudiah Indonesia, Wenzao Ursuline University of Foreign Languages Taiwan and Mahasarakham University Thailand.

“While ASP focuses on language, cultural and arts modules, ESP will concentrate on entrepreneurial aspects in order to produce entrepreneurial-minded human capital.

“With the establishment of the ESP, we hope students will be able to greatly expand their business network and then apply the entrepreneurial knowledge in their life after graduation,” he said.

AUPF 2015 which ran for four days and ended today, saw the participation of 33 Asian universities intended to create a mechanism where university presidents would be able to exchange information and management experiences.

AUPF was introduced in 1999 between universities in China and Thailand before later expanding to include universities in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Japan, the Philippines, Mongolia, Lithuania, Vietnam and Korea.

The UniMAP delegation included Assistant Vice Chancellor (Corporate Communication) Datin Prof. Dr. Zuraidah Mohd. Zin, Dean of the School of Computer and Communication Engineering Prof. Dr. R. Badlishah Ahmad and the Centre For International Languages Director Prof. Dr. Harshita Aini Haroon.

Dr. Kamarudin added that the ESP programme is part of UniMAP's initiative to nourish the university's culture of entrepreneurship especially after winning the second place (institution category) last week at the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) Entrepreneurial Awards (MEA).

“Entrepreneurship is an important element in fulfilling the national industrial needs as well as expanding global networks. Thus this platform should be used as well as possible to widen the communication network of Malaysian students with other countries,” he said.

Dr. Kamarudin said that, in the meantime, in conjunction with AUPF, UniMAP has taken the opportunity to sign strategic collaborations that focuses mainly on academic and research fields with three universities, namely Southern University Bangladesh, Wenzao Ursuline University of Foreign Languages Taiwan and Pan Pacific University North Philippines.

Besides that, the UniMAP delegation held various official and unofficial talks with Daffodil University Bangladesh, Mahasarakham University Thailand, dan Universitas Potensi Utama Medan, Indonesia.

“UniMAP also accepted the offer of collaboration with Chaoshan Vocational & Technical College, China whereby the offer would be studied before an official agreement is made in the near future.

These collaborations are in line with UniMAP internationalisation agenda in its effort to be among the top 500 universities in the world by 2020,” said Dr. Kamarudin.