SANDAKAN: Sandakan Member of Parliament, Vivian Wong hopes the Higher Education Ministry can increase the number of bachelor’s degree programmes for the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Sandakan Campus.
She said it was an urgent need to offer more undergraduate programmes at UMS Sandakan Campus.
She said that in 2006, UMS established the Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture at the Sandakan Campus located in Sungai Batang and began operating in 2011.
However, so far it only three undergraduate programmes, namely Crop Production, Horticulture and Landscaping and related Live Stock Production (Crop Production, Horticulture and Landscaping and Live Stock Production) were offered.
According to statistics from the Education Ministry (KPM) obtained in 2019, only 398 students were studying at UMS Sandakan Campus, even though it can accommodate 1,000 students at any one time.
“The limited choice of programmes at the Sandakan Campus is indeed difficult to meet the aspirations of students who are eligible to continue their education at university.
“Thus, I would like to propose to the ministry to increase the number of programmes offered at UMS Sandakan Campus by moving the Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, and also the Faculty of Tropical Forestry from the Campus in Kota Kinabalu to the UMS Sandakan Campus,” said Vivian.
Bachelor programmes currently offered by the Faculty of Science and Natural Resources include Environmental Science, Industrial Physics, Geology, Marine Science, Mathematics with Economics, Mathematics with Computer Graphics, Biotechnology, Industrial Chemistry and Aquaculture.
The Bachelor Programmes currently offered by the Faculty of Tropical Forestry were International Tropical Forestry, Nature Parks and Recreation, Forest Plantation and Agroforestry, Wood Technology and Industry and Conservation Biology.
She stated this when delivering a speech under the motion regarding government governance matters in the Special Chamber at the First Meeting, Second Term of the 15th Parliament.
According to Vivian, by transferring the Faculty of Science and Natural Resources and the Faculty of Tropical Forestry that offer 14 additional undergraduate programmes as listed to the UMS Sandakan Campus, would not only overcome the lack of Bachelor’s programmes available at the UMS Sandakan Campus, but also complement the specific sectors in Sandakan to the strategic needs of the state.
For example, the headquarters of the Sabah Forestry Department located in Sandakan had various forest research facilities established in Sepilok, Imbak Canyon, and Deramakot Forest Reserve.
In addition, with the well-known environmental conservation culture in Sandakan through the Sepilok Orang Utan Conservation Centre, the Borneo Honey Bear Conservation Centre, the Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC), the Selingan Turtle Island Park and the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, all of these mentioned programmes perfectly complement what was available and owned by Sandakan especially the environment related to the programmes that could be offered on the campus.
As such, she suggested to the Higher Education Minister consider and realise the proposal to move the UMS Faculty of Science and Natural Resources in Kota Kinabalu to the UMS Sandakan Campus as a strategic step to develop and nurture world-class graduates in the field of science and natural resources for Malaysia.
In the answer of the Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khalid Nordin to Vivian, he said that the UMS residential college at the Sandakan campus was currently able to accommodate 1,000 students at a time.
However, even though the current learning facilities and facilities were being used optimally, they were still not sufficient.
Following the inadequacy of these facilities and learning facilities, UMS submitted a new project application for the construction of the FPL Central Lecture Hall with a total cost of RM55.5 million in the Thirs Rolling Plan, 2023.
Mohamed Khalid explained this application had been certified by the Ministry and was still awaiting approval from the Economy MiniSter.
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