Selangor Journal
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Vice-Chancellor Datuk Prof Mohd Roslan Sulaiman (left) visiting one of the exhibits at the Vice-Chancellor’s Narrative 2023 event in Dewan Besar, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Arts and Cultural Centre on the UPM campus in Serdang, on February 15, 2023. — Picture by BERNAMA

Seven aspirations outlined in UPM Vice-Chancellor’s Narrative 2023

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has outlined seven aspirations through the Vice-Chancellor’s Narrative 2023 in an effort to drive UPM’s excellence in the field of agriculture and national food security.

These efforts are to strengthen contributions in agriculture and food security; aligning research and networking towards social innovation; promoting student empowerment; streamlining green strategies and good governance; intensifying campus digitalisation; seeking income generation and uniting alumni strength.

UPM vice-chancellor Datuk Prof Mohd Roslan Sulaiman said in line with the university’s ‘niche’ and thrust areas, UPM will continue to drive excellence in the fields of agriculture and food security to help the government to deal with the country’s food crisis.

“Together with technological development and integration of digital systems, UPM wants to continue to lead high-tech agriculture or smart agriculture. We believe that in order to further strengthen UPM’s capabilitIes in agriculture and food security, a cross-discipline approach is very important.

“Agriculture is no longer only about planting, animal husbandry or fishing, but it also involves other fields and clusters of knowledge such as science, mathematics, marketing, business, humanity and so on,” he said at the Vice-Chancellor’s Narrative 2023 event at Dewan Besar, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz, Shah Arts & Cultural Centre, UPM today.

At the same time, Mohd Roslan said UPM will continue to play an important role in the development of the national food security with the production of commercial products resulting from UPM’s research such as Padi UPutra, FS FEED, TROPICARP- Red Mahseer Feed Formulation and Modification of Starch (Sago Prebiotic).

“The agriculture awareness and food security efforts were also successfully implemented by the UPM Bintulu Campus through the Rice Transformation Project which is AgriHub@Gedong to increase rice productivity from two tonnes per hectare to 10 tonnes per hectare.

“This project with a research fund of RM3 million is expected to help Sarawak become a food producer with the help of UPM researchers’ results,” he added.

Mohd Roslan said the Vice-Chancellor’s Narrative this time was a continuation of the two previous narratives that emphasised the importance of UPM as a Tower of Knowledge by giving appreciation to the concept of al-Falah, which is success in this world and in the hereafter.

“Based on UPM’s Strategic Plan 2021-2025, this narrative plans various efforts through five main goals to ensure that UPM fulfilled its vision and mission without fail.

“The narrative this time also draws from the vision and policy framework of Malaysia Madani that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim introduced and at the same time, it also takes lessons from the New Year Message 2023 themed Higher Education: Hope and Future, which was delivered by the Higher Education Minister,” he said.

This year, UPM was targeting 90.5 per cent marketability of graduates with eight per cent of graduates entering the business field.

“While a total of 130 student entrepreneurs are targeted to register their businesses with the Companies Commission of Malaysia because we found that UPM students are very bright and interested in entering the business field.

“In 2022, the marketability rate of UPM graduates recorded an increase of 95.4 per cent compared to 93.5 per cent in 2021 with a total of 2,273 graduates or 70.1 per cent having found employment according to their field of study,” Mohd Roslan added.

— Bernama

 

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