By Puteri Balkish
Retired Prof. Dr. Mohd. Yusof Hussain who was the founder of IIUM’s Department of Communication, made a special appearance at the Department’s Aidil Fitri function last month which coincided with the 27th anniversary celebration of its founding this year.
Dating back to 1983, Prof. Dr. Mohd. Yusof began his services in IIUM under Tan Sri Prof. Dr. Muhammad M. Abdul Rauf who was the first rector, and the Department of Communication was yet to be established at that point.
In a special interview with IIUMToday, Prof. Dr. Mohd. Yusof recalled that the Department of Communication was established in 1990 after the then rector of IIUM, Dato’ Dr. Abdul Hamid Abu Sulayman, decided to set up the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences. Other departments that were set up under the Kulliyyah included the Department of Political Science and the Department of Psychology.
Being one of the earliest lecturers of the Department, he taught in IIUM for 22 years, starting with undergraduate students and postgraduates afterwards as more lecturers joined the university. Prof. Dr. Mohd. Yusof started off as a part-timer, as he was the Head of Department of Communication at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia or Agriculture University Malaysia (now Universiti Putra Malaysia) at that point.
IIUM offered him a job as a full-timer a few months later after his retirement from previous university at 50.
“Initially, specialisations were not available and the Department began with journalism subjects and so, I proposed for Communication Theory, Research Methods, Foundation of Communication in Quran and Sunnah to be taught, later with specialised courses like Organisational Communication, Public Relations and Print Media – three specialisations in total,” said Prof. Dr. Mohd. Yusof.
To be an outstanding student, Prof. Dr. Mohd. Yusof urged students to attend classes regularly, and give their full attention.
He advised, “Interact with lecturers, ask if there’s a problem understanding a subject, read extensively – especially the Quran and Sunnah, read the latest books by communication scholars worldwide, magazines and journals and take part in every activity that may brush up different skills you have.”
When asked to comment on the Department, he highlighted the fact that IIUM’s Department of Communication should continue instilling Islamic principles in the subjects as that is the niche that this university possesses.***