by Nur Khairah Alegria Suner
KUALA LUMPUR: Solidarity is important for a better future of the university, said International Islam University Malaysia (IIUM) Rector, Professor Dr. Zaleha Kamaruddin.
“This university doesn’t belong to one person, it belongs to the Ummah. Therefore, we must know where IIUM is heading.” she said, at the Rector’s Sharing Moment session held here yesterday.
She said that after her appointment as the 5th Rector, she was briefed by the Dean of Corporate Strategy and Quality regarding the corporate plan for IIUM until 2020. Though the plan is not fully written yet, one of the plans was to train new leaders to be comprehensive and to be able to adapt to all situation.
“Time has changed, generation and challenges are also different now” she said. The involvement of the student nowadays with the new media encouraged her to experience the ‘Facebook’. Prior to that, she expressed her hopes for the future leader to do the same.
They set up a ‘Facebook’ account and were astounded by the increase number of friends week by week. She said that it is the way the youth communicate and they have to go along with it in order to be able to reach to the youngsters.
Professor Dr. Zaleha shared some of her experiences working here in IIUM which is when she was challenged by Professor Abd Hamid Abu Sulayman, the 2nd rector of IIUM, to further her studies abroad. The reason was for the sake of exposure she said.
“I came back as a better person” she said. Despite her resistance in the beginning, she went for it and she owe him her deepest gratitude afterwards for forcing her to study abroad, she added.
During the event, Professor Abd Hamid talked about the situation of the world now in relation with the worldview of Islam. He said that Islam is for everyone and it is not specific to only one or two nation. The irony and the current situation today is that the others do not think the same way particularly the westerns, he added.
Professor Syed Arabi Idid also expressed his gratitude for having such event and hoped for it to be continuous for the sake of IIUM’s future.
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