The 8th INGRAW SETS A NEW RECORD FOR ISDEV

The participants of the 8th INGRAW 2013

The 8th ISDEV International Graduate Workshop 2013 (INGRAW2013) saw 113 papers presented. The 2-day workshop which began on 30 October 2013 had successfully gathered the most number of presenters compared to previous workshops. As in previous years, the 8th INGRAW was jointly organized by the Centre for Islamic Development Management Studies (ISDEV), School of Social Sciences with the Institute of Postgraduate Studies (IPS).

Murni (right) an ISDEV student presenting on Islamic Relationship Marketing

The presenters comprising of postgraduate students from ISDEV and other universities, among them, from Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), and Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) assembled at the University Conference Hall (DPU) to share their postgraduate research all of which were related to Islam.

The opportunity for these postgraduate students to present their research papers proved the readiness of students to openly discuss their research and ideas in return for feedback, comments, debates and even criticism on how best they could improve their research endeavors and theses writing. For some presenters the opportunity to present their research before a reviewer and an audience had definitely helped them to inject some level of confidence and perhaps erase some fear of public speaking within themselves.

Dr Azrin Adnan of UniSZA (centre) the appointed Resource Person
for this concurrent session

Dr Shaik Abdullah of PJJ (centre) as the Resource Person attentively listens
to a presenter's presentation

The 8th INGRAW started with a keynote Address by ISDEV Director, Professor Muhammad Syukri Salleh on ' Ways of Graduate Studies '. In his address, Prof. Syukri posed three questions and hoped that students were able to reflect and critically assess their intentions, their institutions of learning's expectations and the bases used to fulfil those expectations in pursuing their postgraduate studies. He hoped that students aspire to be imbued with the characteristics of the 'Oceanic Intellectual' as is expected of them by most of the postgraduate institutions of today.

Dr Warjio (right) presenting his books to Prof Syukri (left) at the launch

Immediately following the Keynote Address was the launch of two books by ISDEV member, Dr. Warjio and an introduction to the 12 books written by ISDEV lecturers and students published by Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka. These books are scheduled to be officially launched early next year during the Perutusan Naib Chanselor 2014 of USM.

A crowd puller - The ISDEV Book Sale booth