KUCHING – The recent awarding of the self-accreditation status by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) to Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus is proof that the high quality of education the university offers is internationally recognised.
Professor Helmut Lueckenhausen, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Swinburne Sarawak, said this after receiving the award recently. Lueckenhausen was this week presented with the award by Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, Minister of Higher Education, at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.
“With the support of the Sarawak government and the government of Malaysia, Swinburne Sarawak is now recognized as one of the eight universities in Malaysia that have the program and operational quality mechanisms in place to provide quality degrees that are recognized not only by the international community but by all the key authorities within Malaysia – JPA (Public Services Department) and MQA (Malaysian Qualifications Agency),” Lueckenhausen said.
The award also means that the deployment of Swinburne Sarawak as a foreign branch campus university in Kuching has been proven to be successful, he said, and that it is worth investing more intellectual property and continuing to invest income derived from student fees into more, highly qualified, staff and a greater number of undergraduate, Masters and doctoral/PhD degree programs and in further research and development.
Lueckenhausen said the campus will now add more undergraduate degrees, more masters and doctoral/PhD programs and continue to grow its human and physical resources to continue its trajectory of becoming a world-class university of choice in Sarawak and the region.
“Countries sending their students to Swinburne Sarawak can now be assured that all government instrumentalities in Malaysia recognize the high quality of Swinburne programs,” he added.
Saying that “the lever is now on full speed ahead to grow the capacity of Swinburne Sarawak,” he added that Swinburne’s mission is to deliver undifferentiated programs so that all graduates, from the Sarawak campus as well as from other Swinburne campus and/or program in any part of the world, graduate with the same degree, understanding and knowledge, skills, opportunity to have their qualification recognized internationally, and the capacity to find high quality employment.
Lueckenhausen said that although Swinburne Sarawak is registered as a private university in Malaysia unlike many private colleges, it has not been set up to make profit.
“The partners in the Swinburne Sarawak endeavour – the government of Sarawak and Swinburne Melbourne, an Australian public university and therefore a not-for-profit institution – have undertaken this project as a continuation of their public service and in pursuit of their key performance indicators,” he said.
On a personal note Lueckenhausen said, “Being awarded self-accrediting status means that my work, as is the work of all of my associates at Swinburne Sarawak, is succeeding. We are all doing it right, we are all doing it well, we are succeeding on every important level.”
He also thanked and congratulated the MQA. “This organization (MQA), born out of its predecessor LAN, has the carriage of managing the thrust of Malaysian government policy for the development of its higher education sector into a world-class regional hub. The quality of the process so far and the collaborative, positive attitude of MQA staff and the audit panels is a great complement to them and gives us at Swinburne increased confidence in the future of tertiary education in Malaysia,” he said.
The awarding of self-accrediting status, Lueckenhausen said, requires increasing number of staff with doctoral qualifications, solid data supporting the high employability of graduates, growing levels of research and development, the active involvement of all stakeholders and high quality systems throughout the organization.
He said that in the 10 years since Swinburne Sarawak first began operations in Kuching the staff has grown to more than 260. “Creating the portfolio required as part of the MQA submission, dealing directly with our counterparts at MQA, managing the logistics and information exchange for the audit, required a team of highly skilled, highly dedicated Swinburne staff. To them I extend my congratulations and heartfelt thanks – they make my work here worthwhile,” he said.
Swinburne Sarawak was one of eight universities in the country to be granted self-accreditation status following an audit by the MQA, carried out based on the Code of Practice in Institutional Audit which comprised requirements and guidelines with regard to quality at the respective institutions.