As part of its internationalization initiative, Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) sealed another affiliation with Hochschule Wismar University of Applied Sciences: Technology, Business and Design, Federal Republic of Germany (HS Wismar) to further strengthened their academic cooperation.

The collaboration was sealed in a Memorandum of Agreement Signing Ceremony held on 4 April 2011 in UniKL City Campus, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia witnessed by H.E. Dr. Guenter Gruber, Ambassador, Federal Republic of Germany to Malaysia. The MoU  will address specifically on the establishment on a cooperative PhD programme between UniKL and Wismar University. The main objective of the program is to enable suitably qualified academics from Wismar University and UniKL to jointly supervise PhD students. The PhD degree conferred by UniKL will be recognised in Germany based on the involvement of qualified German academic, which is hoped to give UniKL’s PhD programme additional prestige and advantage.

Y.B. Datuk Dr. Adham Baba, Chairman of UniKL emphasized that UniKL is proud to have Hochschule Wismar University as one of its collaborative partners due to Hochschule’s competencies and professional experiences dedicated to the development of the education. He further added that “the MoU marks another milestone in our cooperation which witness seven Environmental Engineering students from Hochschule Wismar University successfully completing and publishing their ‘Diplomarbeit’ under the supervision of UniKL staff for the past two (2) years to conduct research for their ‘Diplomarbeit’. This has resulted to the publication of numerous papers covering a wide range of research topics”.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Grünwald, Rector of Hochschule Wismar University responded that his university is impressed with UniKL hands on programmes and its vision to become the premier entrepreneurial technical university in the country by 2020 which is similar with HS Wismar’s objectives. He stressed that “it is very important for universities to have young scientists to carry out research works for the universities to be internationally recognized. All universities too shoulder the responsibility to contribute not only to their country but also to the region and the world at large”. He admitted that having UniKL on board as an academic partner will enable both HS Wismar and UniKL to deliver this responsibility successfully.

“The existence of UniKL is very critical as Malaysia places very high emphasis on applied science education. This has always been highlighted in all discussions I attended with Malaysia’s Premier and UniKL is certainly standing at the forefront in training and enhancing human capital needs of Malaysia”, claimed H.E. Dr. Guenter Gruber. He added that “this is probably due to the fact that hands on education has proven to bring immediate results”.

Also present during the signing ceremony were Prof. Datuk Dr. Abdul Hakim Juri, President / Chief Executive Officer of UniKL, Mr. Andreaf Lang, Head of Cultural Department, Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany, Prof. Dato’ Dr. Mohamad Azemi Mohd Noor, Deputy President (Academic & Technology), UniKL, Prof. Dr. Azanam Shah Hashim, Dean, UniKL MICET and Dr. Jamel Othman, Director, UniKL International Office.

For more information on HS Wismar University, please visit www.hs-wismar.de.