UniKL ‘travels’ to France, Turkey to explore university-industry partnership

More potential collaboration between Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) as well as other universities and industry players from abroad is expected to be established through the Malaysian university’s official visit to France and Turkey, recently. 

Represented by Dr. Mohd Hafizi Shamsudin and Prof. Ts. Dr. Jamel Othman, the deans of  UniKL Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology (UniKL MIAT) and UniKL Malaysia France Institute (UniKL MFI) respectively, the 12-day visit starting from 7 February 2022 involved several discussions with the aerospace industry players and Pre France Programme universities. 

In Turkey, they undertook a visit to Turkish Aerospace Incorporation (TAI)’s aircraft manufacturing facility, whereby among matters discussed are short and long term potential collaboration projects including Aircraft Design Training Programme and Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Aircraft Design & Manufacturing at UniKL MIAT, Sepang. 

The visit continued with a short briefing by the Chief Engineer of Hurjet Aircraft – the first light combat aircraft of TAI, Nuri Arda Gungor; and a discussion with the Rector of Yildrim Beyazit University, Prof Dr Ibrahim Aydinli regarding potential collaborations on student exchange, among others. 

For the record, Yildrim Beyazit University is a public university and closely linked university with TAI which is located in Ankara.

In addition to that, the UniKL delegations held discussions and official visits at a few other universities in Turkey, namely: Ostim Teknik University, Ankara Social Sciences University, and Istanbul Technical University (ITU).

At ITU – the oldest technical university in Turkey, established in 1773, they had a discussion with the Rector of ITU, Prof Dr Ismail Koyuncu as well as the Dean of Aeronautics and Astronautics faculty, among others, to look into potential collaborations on student exchange, training programmes, staff exchange and research.

ITU notably has a strong Aerospace Department in terms of programme and research.

Meanwhile, in France, they held a courtesy visit to the General Director and Marketing Director of Campus France Mdme Béatrice Khaiat, Olivier Chiche Portiche.

Campus France is the official French Government agency established with the aim of promoting French higher education abroad. UniKL MFI has been working with Campus France since 2002 in the implementation of the Pre France Programme.

Additionally, the visit continued with a meeting with Pre France PF18 and PF19 students at IUT Toulouse for a roundtable discussion about the current academic activities and the impact of Covid-19.

This was done following a meeting with Nathalie LESAUZE, Head of the Department of Genie Chimie et Genie des Procedes, Eric Frakenberg and Maria-Julia DINIS.

On top of the courtesy visit, they also had a meeting with BRICKS, an aerospace association which is formerly known as Institute Aero Spatial (IAS), located in Toulouse Aerospace Valley.

During the visit, both parties discussed potential short courses and training programmes that could be offered to Malaysia Aerospace counterparts through the UniKL-BRICKS partnership.

The official visit concluded at Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile (ENAC) – one of the top aerospace universities in France, which led to fruitful discussions with the ENAC Vice President, Nicolas CAZALIS, on opportunities for tailor-made training programmes.

Besides being known for offering quality Higher Technical and Vocational Education and Training (HTVET) education offerings in Malaysia, UniKL provides world-class infrastructures and state of the art facilities in its teaching and learning.

UniKL MIAT, for instance, has live workshops and hangars with highly trained and multi-skilled teaching personnel and a comprehensive training institute complying with international technical standards and industry requirements. 

UniKL MFI, meanwhile, inspires to produce future engineering technologists with French essence.