PROF. SYUKRI IN BRUNEI: EXCITING OUTCOMES AWAIT

ISDEV Director, Professor Dr. Muhammad Syukri Salleh has completed his tasks as Adjunct Professor at Fakulti Bahasa Arab dan Tamadun Islam (FBATI), Universiti Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA), Brunei Darussalam recently. He went and stay there for almost a month starting from 1 until 26 February 2016 and expressed his gratified satisfaction as he was able to complete all the assigned tasks within the stipulated time.

Prof. Syukri at his office at FBATI, UNISSA.

According to Prof. Syukri, the main purpose he was there this time was in part to fulfil his assigned responsibilities as an External Assessor to the History and Civilisation of Islamic programme offered by FBATI at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This programme is said to be less well received among students as the programme is fully taught in Arabic while most students were not able to grasp the Arabic language well. The lack of lecturers who are well versed in this language has further aggravated this challenge faced by FBATI.

Attending a meeting as External Assessor at FBATI, UNISSA.

As the External Assessor to FBATI, Prof. Syukri was assigned to tackle this main challenge. He took the initiatives to hold a meeting with each and every academic staff personally as well as held a discussion in a group. Various discussions and meetings were conducted throughout his tenure there. Finally, stemming from the results collated from various meetings and discussions, he suggested that the programme goes through a branding transformation by offering the Islamic Development Management Programme. Should this suggestion gain acceptance from the higher management and authorities, ISDEV is willing to give a helping hand to FBATI in the realisation of this new programme to be offered to students in the future upon obtaining the required approval.

Prof. Syukri and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zakaria conducting an academic writing workshop
for the academicians and students of UNISSA.

In addition, Prof. Syukri also conducted an academic writing workshop for the academicians and students of UNISSA together with Associate Professor Dr. Zakaria Bahari. The purpose of this workshop is to raise the standards of writing among the workforce of FBATI and UNISSA in order to produce quality articles for researches and publications. To keep the interests in writing at bay, definitely such workshops will be held again in the near future.

A group photo at the end of the academic writing workshop. 

Prof. Syukri also attended several meetings that seals further the close-knit cooperation between ISDEV and UNISSA. Among them, there will be a dual-way students' exchange programme through an annual Socio-Academic Laboratory programme at UNISSA (known as MASSA@ UNISSA) as well as at USM (known as MASSA @ USM). These programmes will take place twice a year. For this year, 20 students from UNISSA will participate in MASSA @ USM this coming July 2016.

Prof. Syukri also had the opportunity to examine the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between ISDEV and FBATI that is scheduled to be sealed on 6 April 2016 at the Regional Conference on Hajj Best Practice 2016. It is expected that the MoA will be signed by the Rector of UNISSA and the top management of USM.

Serious discussion on the proposed publication of Encyclopedia of Negara Zikir.

One of the outcomes of the MoA was a research collaboration on Negara Zikir in Brunei Darussalam. Such collaborations are realised through matching grants and publications of the outcomes as well as collaborative research on the proposed publication of Encyclopedia of Negara Zikir Volume 3 - Development. Moreover, what is more interesting as a result of this MoA, is not only the benefits gained by the two institutions but also to the students involved as industrial trainings and community engagement of UNISSA students in Malaysia and USM students in Brunei, were also stated in the MoA.

With the staff of UNISSA who had tremoundously helped Prof. Syukri fulfil his tasks. 

It was clear that not only in meeting the demands of his work as Adjunct Professor at UNISSA alone, but Prof. Syukri had managed to successfully bring positive outcomes that are beneficial to all parties. It is expected that the opportunities provided through a variety of programmes for both students and lecturers of these two institutions, especially ISDEV, could be fully utilised by all members of ISDEV as an avenue to appreciate all the efforts and hard work that had been carried out by ISDEV beloved Director, Professor Dr. Muhammad Syukri Salleh.

Thus to all ISDEV members, do grab the opportunity that has been laid out before you. Explore and create your unique experience and memories that last a lifetime through your proactive involvement in such programme.