Anchoring Excellence on Reality

SPEECH BY YBHG TAN SRI MOHD SIDEK HASSAN
PRESIDENT IIUM

AT THE IIUM QUALITY DAY 2011

Bismillahir rahmanir rahim

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh and a very good afternoon.

Honorable Professor Dato’ Sri Dr. Syed Arabi Idid
Rector, International Islamic University Malaysia

Honourable Prof. Dato’ Dr. Md. Tahir Azhar, Deputy Rector (Academic & Planning) IIUM, cum Chairman of IIUM Quality Day 2011

Deputy Rectors and Executive Directors

Deans, Directors, Senate Members and Fellow Graduates

FRAGILITY OF LIFE

Reality is a mysterious yet loaded term. We often proclaim such phrases as “in reality”, “the reality is” or even “this is reality”, even as we struggle with what our very own reality represent. NO matter the logic we select to demonstrating our realities, REALITY ultimately is the world as is whether we each choose to accept, blindside or resist it.

2. What is real and tangible is that as much as we strive to define, design and preserve our unique realities, a small event in one part of the world can quite simply change each of our lives, our lifestyles not least our certainties. On the 17th of December 2010 the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire in protest of the harassment and humiliation that was allegedly inflicted on him by municipal officials became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution. One action in a street we may have never heard of, in a country most of us may have never travelled to, by a man not known to any one of us here today probably NOT ONLY revamped the realities on the streets of Tunisia but it reorganised the lives of many in the Middle East and touched all of us in a form or fashion from the Americas to South East Asia.

3. I set these scenes to put to you how intertwined national destinies are today. Actions and plans can no longer be done in isolation of the world that binds and dictates our singular and somewhat coned realities sometimes. We only need to take a step back from our Blackberry and IPad days to realise how fragile our lives truly are. How in a split second everything can fall like a house of cards. How in a moment everything around us seems like a castle made of sand!

4. Times such as these bring to the fore the founding purpose of IIUM. The University’s creation is founded on the belief that it is through education based on Tawhid and Islamic principles can we each institute dignity in our own lives first and foremost and the lives of those around us.

WHAT EXACTLY IS EXCELLENCE

5. Excellence is a lexicon often bandied about but rarely properly understood. Excellence, I am convinced, needn’t be a function of great inventions and large budgets. It rarely needs to be associated with grandiose outcomes of “pomp and spectacle”. But rather excellence is often and almost always a function of simplicity that borders ease which leaves a marked impact in the life or lives it touch. Overlay this hypothesis onto our teachings, our learnings, our research and development and even in the administration of this Institution and reflect if we have, indeed truly have achieved excellence for the times!

Ladies and Gentlemen

SERVING THE WORLD

6. Since its establishment in 1983, IIUM has made great strides in strengthening its core functions of teaching and learning. Whilst we are recruiting students from diverse backgrounds at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, this alone can no longer be our competitive advantage.

7. When we prepare our graduates for the world that will be, we need to prepare them not for a market of 28 million people in Malaysia, but for one of 6.9 billion people globally. Every job that is created today is not simply a payrole anymore. Its relevance is now dictated by the needs of the 7 billion people that make this world today. When we each try to create new jobs in our own sectors we are no longer competing with each other but we are competing with China, we are competing with India, Indonesia, Russia and Brazil. We are competing with countries all around the world.

8. In such a landscape, whether that be a University or a Public Sector, we need to create an environment of the “best place to be”, the “best place to learn” and “the best place to do business”. This can only be if we create skilled and educated workforce able to understand the realities of the day as is, of the world as an unknown and of changing population as a function of the two above. It can only be if we are able to deliver cutting-edge research and development, meaningful innovation and reliable technology and infrastructure. That’s how any market, not least any country will win the future.

9. Integral in building an excellent institution of higher learning is REALISTIC and not SCHOLASTIC research and development. Our findings and solutions must mean something to those who will use and need it most. There is not much point creating or finding something if only a few selected intellectuals understand its use and know its workings. One of the causes of the 2008 global financial sector meltdown was that only a few selected “financial gizmos” knew the makings of the financial derivatives. So when the product failed the market, only a selected few could undo the damage. In the words of Albert Einstein, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.

RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

10. When we launched the Quality day last year we pledged it under the theme of “Research and Innovation: Our Commitment”. We pledged that we will work to becoming one of the research universities in Malaysia. The decision to attain Research University status is not simply to glorify the name of IIUM but one that will serve a useful purpose to the societies we serve based on the realities they each live in and NOT in our views of their reality. The Quality day was to mean truly meaningful delivery and not simply a date to be recorded yearly where we gather for an occassion and then move on to “business as usual” post the Event. Business as usual in this instance means, doing the same thing and expecting a different result! That cannot be. Can never be!

11. Research and Development has to be at the forefront of the University’s academic progress, supporting its Teaching and Learning processes. This needs to be done without compromising the quality of teaching and learning or sacrificing the unique twin tasks of striving to meet international expectations while fulfilling national and local requirements.

12. I am pleased that IIUM has embarked on a number of initiatives to facilitate the research excellence objective. These include maximising grant utilisation, procuring substantial grants from external sources, increasing the number of university publications in recognised global publications, spurring the number of patents registered as well as the number of research awards and accolades received. These are today being implemented through the strategy of establishing research clusters in the university’s niche areas. Now stand back and ask ourselves: have we attained that?

13. To augment this, IIUM must resolve to becoming a Centre of Research par excellence by championing invention, innovation and technology for the benefit of Malaysia and beyond. This effort support our readiness and capability to becoming Malaysia’s foremost research university.

14. Towards this end, IIUM must aspire to attract more renowned scholars whose participation will be of benefit to the faculty, its students and researchers. We must leverage on our existing strategic partnerships both within and without the Muslim fraternity to secure the services of scholars and researchers who will become an active part of the IIUM quality workforce to form the bulwark of IIUM’s research agenda. This will form the foundation to IIUM’s brand strength as a centre of excellence, as well as ensure our role in supporting Malaysia’s aspiration to becoming an educational hub of global repute.

15. IIUM must also actively pursue partnerships at various levels with other renowned and leading academic, professional and research institutions locally and internationally to collaborate on world-class research projects that will offer both practical solutions to current and future economic and social issues. And, building a body of knowledge in matters both material and spiritual as a long term contribution to humanity.

16. In realising this year’s theme of ‘Achieving Excellence Through Research and Innovation’, I urge you to commit and deliver excellence that matters to the needs of the times. I urge you to anchor your innovation and excellence on human reality as is and not as we perceive it. Only then can our delivery be of consequence and meaningful to the communities we ultimately serve.

17. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all winners for their achievements of quality and innovation in the respective categories.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

18. So much of what we do today is uncertain. So much of what’s around us is nebulous. So much of what we deem strength simply shows us how fragile life really is. In this face of uncertainty, the only certainty lies in why we do what we do! Why we do what we do must always anchor us back to the shores of reality in the face of uncertainty. I am reminded of the creed of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, the largest privately-owned shipyard in the United States prior to its purchase by Northrop Grumman in 2001. The creed, attributed to its founder Collis Potter Huntington (1821 – 1900) reads, “We shall build good ships here. At a profit if we can, at a loss if we must. But always good ships!”

19. Let us here at IIUM commit to building excellent ships always anchored on the reality of the times. On that note I hereby declare the IIUM Quality Day 2011 OFFICIALLY OPEN.

Thank you.

Wassalamua’laiukum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.