Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) is an entrepreneurial university and the only university in Malaysia that has an entrepreneurial core. To ensure that UMK can thrive as an Entrepreneurial University, strategies are needed to ensure that UMK undergraduate students have excellent academic quality and knowledge in different fields together with high interest in entrepreneurship. Students with such characteristics are very important to succeed the university as a leading entrepreneurial university in the country.
Since the field of entrepreneurship is a field that requires time and effort as well as a specific curriculum, students who will succeed the entreprenurial university agenda should be exposed as early as possible. The upgrade of the Science Preparatory Department, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (JPSU) to the Centre for Foundation Studies, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK-AsCent) is a strategic action to ensure that the national entrepreneurship agenda can be implemented excellently by UMK. With the establishment of UMK-AsCent, the issues of quantity and quality of undergraduate students will be able to be addressed by offering foundation programmes for SPM graduates at UMK. The success of JPSU in branding UMK Science Foundation programme as the most popular programme among all foundation programmes offered by public universities in Malaysia has justified the upgrade as a new centre at UMK starting 11 April 2023.
UMK-AsCent aims to provide sufficient number of students for all undergraduate programmes at UMK via the feeder concept. The establishment of the UMK-AsCent also aims to ensure that the students admitted to the undergraduate programmes at UMK are among those who are of high quality in terms of academic achievement with added value of entrepreneurial knowledge. This will further help them to be emotionally and mentally prepared to pursue their undergraduate studies at UMK.
The successful upgrade of JPSU to UMK-AsCent shows a pro-active effort by UMK in ensuring the excellence of entrepreneurship education in Malaysia. This is because the quantity and quality of students admitted to the undergraduate programmes by far have limited UMK from realising the entrepreneurial university agenda in all study fields offered. This in turn will limit the university's ability to succeed in the entrepreneurial agenda effectively and brilliantly. It is not appropriate if the national entrepreneurship agenda cannot be achieved effectively due to the same issues. Therefore, the foundation programmes offered by UMK-AsCent for SPM graduates focusing on quality entrepreneurship education is expected to curb this issue. With sufficient number and high quality of students, it will definitely easier for UMK to realise the entrepreneurship agenda brilliantly at the national and international levels in the future.
Thank you.
DR. HJH. MARINAH BINTI MUHAMMAD
Director of UMK-AsCent
Centre for Foundation Studies
Universiti Malaysia Kelantan