Polytechnic Impressed by UniCITI Alam Development

Sungai Chuchuh, 9 January – The success of the Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) UniCITI Alam Campus development has captured the interest of the Polytechnic's Development Department to formulate a similar development concept for their student accommodations.

Datuk Mohlis Jaafar, the Head Director of the Development Department of the Polytechnic stated this here today during the organisation's delegation visit to UniCITI Alam which had been constructed on 19.34 acres of land.

Datuk Mohlis said that he was impressed with the development of the residential college implemented by UniMAP at the campus and hopes the same concept can be realised at 33 Polytechnics nationwide.

“The campus development is also in line with the needs with the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and is suited to be implemented by the Polytechnic to support the increasing number of students.

“Therefore, I hope that when an agreement is reached, UniMAP and the Polytechnic will cooperate to develop residential colleges or dormitories as has been successfully done with UniCITI,” he said during the short UniCITI development briefing.

Also present during the briefing were UniMAP Vice Chancellor Datuk Prof Emeritus Dr Kamarudin Hussin and the Executive Chairman of Proven Holding Berhad and UniMAP Adjunct Professor Datuk Yusof Jusoh.

Earlier, Dr Kamarudin said that UniMAP welcomes the cooperation between UniMAP and the Polytechnic, and is prepared to share its facilities with Polytechnic students to also fulfil the TVET concept in line with the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2015-2025 (Higher Education) (PPPM-PT).

He said that UniMAP employs the public-private sector sharing approach as the main ingredient in developing UniCITI Alam using the Industrialised Building System (IBS) to build a modern campus with the latest amenities to facilitate teaching-learning, research and student development.

480 apartment units measuring 860 square feet had been allocated for student accommodations and could hold 3,840 UniMAP Engineering Technology Learning Programme and Diploma students.

“Besides that it also offers 92 units of shop and office lots to entrepreneurs from the UniMAP community in an effort to generate creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial minds among the UniMAP community, including students,” he said.

During the short function, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Corporate Sustainability Dato' Wira Dr Salleh Din and the Chief Operations Officer of UniMAP Holdings Dr Najmuddin Hassan also gave briefings on UniCITI development to the delegation.

The delegation was brought to visit a model student accommodation at UniCITI, the UniCITI digital hub, the IBS technology model and the UniMAP Sustainable Agrotechnology Centre.

The development of UniCITI began in 2012 and now accommodates not only UniMAP students but also a Private Institution of Higher Learning (IPTS), namely Kolej Universiti Islam Perlis (KUIPs) as well a thriving business sector like restaurants, supermarkets, medical clinics and gymnasiums.