Change of Captain

Prof. Ir. Dr. Ahmad Faizal Mohd. Zain finished his term as Dean of the Centre on July 31, 2008. He was at the helm of the Centre since 2003. He was the first Dean of the Centre for Graduate Studies at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia when Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn was reincorporated as a university in 2007. He now heads the Wireless and Radio Science Centre (WARAS).

He is replaced by Prof. Sr. Dr. Maziah Ismail who was Dean of the Faculty of Technology Management.

The deputy dean, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maizam Alias swopped places with Prof. Dr. Wan Mohd Rashid Wan Ahmad who was the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Technical Education.

Awards and Competition Winners 2008

The results of the award recipients and winners of the poster and thesis competitions can be found in the download section. Congratulations to all recipients and winners.

Thank you everyone

The Centre would like to thank everyone who has taken part and contributed materially or in kind. Also to our sponsors. We would like to thank all the speakers who delivered their talks. To avoid doing injustice to those whom we do not mention, it is best that we do not mention any names lest we miss someone.

The 4th Graduate Month was definitely a success. The month was filled with talks, theses writing and proof reading activities, student poster and faculty/centre booth competitions, and various other events.

One snag though. Unfortunately, the Supervision Workshop was cancelled at the eleventh hour due to unforseen circumstances. Apart from that glitch, everything went well.

Oh yes, we also had a last minute change in the guest of honour and managed to pull off a good closing ceremony and dinner with the presence of Y.Bhg. Prof. Datuk Dr. Mohd. Noh bin Dalimin. He was sporting enough to even sing two songs during the dinner. Thank you Datuk Mohd. Noh.

We look forward to putting a good show next year and welcome all comments to improve the event.

Closing Ceremony and Graduate Awards Night

Y.Bhg. Prof. Datuk Dr. Mohd. Noh bin Dalimin was the guest of honour during the memorable event. The event started off with a doa' followed by the welcoming address by the Chairperson of the Graduate Month 2008, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maizam Alias.

The guests were treated to a sumptious dinner of laksa johor and corn rice.

Mr. Baithan and the university's combo entertained the guests with renditions of evergreen and new songs. Datuk Dr. Mohd. Noh wooed the guests with his "Getaran Jiwa" and "Biar Bulan Bicara". He was backed by the dean of the Centre on the saxophone.

The winners for the night were the graduate students and their supervisers for whom the event was held. They went away with prizes and awards. The awards and prizes were given away by the guest of honour.

Datuk Mohd. Noh, a Parit Raja local, gave a speech and officially closed the Month. He was very impressed with the efforts put in by the Centre and all the staff and students who lent a hand to make the Graduate Month a success.

Datuk Mohd. Noh visits the Graduate Exhibition

Y.Bhg. Prof. Dr. Mohd. Noh bin Dalimin visited the Graduate Exhibition on July 25, 2008 at 3:30pm. He visited all the booths and chatted with personnel from the faculties and centres that exhibited during the program.

He also spent time going over the posters. Some of the posters caught his attention as being neat and easy on the eye. There were posters that were "out of league." Overall, he was happy that the students spent time making the posters.

Publishing in UTHM's Journal

Prof. Mohd. Imran Ghazali gave a presentation on the rudiments of publishing in the University's Journals on July 24, 2008. He was assisted by Dr. Yusri Yusof.

His passion for publishing in journals can be seen in his seriousness in putting the message across to the audience.

Interested readers can download the presentation at the usual section in this blog.

Update on Graduate Night 2008

The guest of honour, Y. Bhg. Dato' Mohd Nadzmi bin Mohd Salleh, will not be able to make it to the function tonight because of a national function. He has apologised for the cancellation.

However, in his place, the former Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Y.Bhg. Prof. Dr. Mohd. Noh bin Dalimin, was willing to accept our invitation at the eleventh hour.

We are very grateful to him for giving his time to officiate the closing ceremony and giving away the awards.

Be Healthier, Be Happier

The guest speaker for this talk is none other than Associate Prof. Dr. Mohamed Elshayeb. His talk is based on the healing power of water, food, and exercise.

The key to being healthy is to have a healthy stomach, body, and mind. The work presented was based on studies made in the USA and Canada.

The immune system of the body will be very much affected by emotions and psychological state of the mind. Fear, anger, grief, depression, and hate, among others will reduce the body's immune system making it susceptible to various diseases.

The revealing talk inspired a lot a questions and discussions. Interested readers can get a copy of the presentation at the download section.

Weight Management and Body Transformation

Enhanced metabolism; that is the key to managing your weight. As part of the Graduate Month activities, Prof. Ahmad Faizal, the dean of the Centre for Graduate Studies, gave the talk on July 24, 2008.

Managing your weight requires disciplined nutrition and a physically active lifestyle. Attendees were treated to many demonstration on ways to reduce body fat. Losing weight may lose muscles. The idea here is to increase muscles and lose body fat.

The feat is achievable as demonstrated by his own personal experience.

Interested readers can get a copy of the presentation at the download section.

Talk on supervision

Dr. Christopher Hill, Director of the Graduate School, University of Nottingham Malaysia gave a talk on supervision on July 23, 2008. The talk was very illuminating where he describes the various roles and expectations of both the supervisers and students. The presentation was also well attended.

Judging from the questions and discussions, the attendees were very enthusiastic about wanting to supervise graduate students.


To encourage active listening, the Centre gave out gifts to those who asked participated actively during the talk. If you did not attend, then you have missed a very good opportunity. Nonetheless, the a copy of the presentation will be posted soon. Be on the lookout for it.

Poster Exhibition

The posters are up. As posted earlier, 40 posters were submitted by students. This is an overwhelming response, so much so that there were not enough poster boards to put the poster.

The posters will be evaluated by a panel of judges. Among the criteria are creativity, design, and attractiveness. There would be three main categories; Ph.D., Masters by research, and Masters by coursework.

Winners will receive their prizes during the Graduate Awards Night on Friday, 25 July, at 8:30pm. Good luck to all the students who submitted.

Graduate Awards Night 2008 and Official Closure

For the first time, graduate students will be having their own awards. The awards will be based on their performance reports. This is done to enhance proper evaluation and commitment of the students to complete their studies with flying colours.

Y. Bhg. Dato' Mohd Nadzmi bin Mohd Salleh, a member of the Board of Directors of the University, has graciously agreed to officiate the event and present the awards. He is the executive chairman of Nadicorp Holdings Sdn. Bhd. and was the Malaysian Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® award recipient for 2003. He currently serves as the president of Badminton Association of Malaysia.

Graduate Month Activities, July 21 to 25

The month is into its final week. An exhibition will be held from July 21 to 25. All faculties and centres will exhibit their graduate activities. A poster competition will be held simultaneously. More than 40 posters were submitted, this year. This is a 100% increase from last year.

Various talks that will be held are as follows:

July 21: "Scholarship and Funding Opportunities" by the Centre for Research and Innovation.

July 23: "The Al-Falah Education Loan" by Bank Rakyat, Batu Pahat Branch, in the morning.

July 23: "Graduate Supervision" by Dr. Christopher Hill of the University of Nottingham Malaysia, in the evening.

July 24: "Journal Writing" by Prof. Mohd. Imran Ghazali and Dr. Yusri Yusof, Publications Centre, in the morning.

July 24: "Weight Management and Body Transformation" by Prof. Ir. Dr. Ahmad Faizal Mohd. Zain, Centre for Graduate Studies, in the evening.

July 25: "Be Healthier Be Happier" by Associate Professor Dr. Mohamed Elshayeb, Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, in the morning.

July 25: "Sponsorship and Financial Opportunities" by a representative of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, in the evening.

All activities will take place at the Examination Hall, F2 Building. Everyone is cordially invited. Hampers and prizes are available for quiz winners.

Students vis-a-vis supervisers

I found this place which discusses relationships between students and their supervisers. Should be interesting reading.

Eight students recipients of MOSTI's scholarship

The Centre would like to congratulate the eight students who finally managed to receive the MOSTI's scholarship.

MOSTI has revised the scholarship policies and all students who are interested should check with the Ministry's website for further details.

Supervision Workshop is postponed ad infinitum

We are sorry to inform prospective participants and guests that the workshop is cancelled due to unforseen circumstances.

Please contact the deputy dean or assistant registrar of the Centre for further information if you have any enquiries.

Come one, come all

Supervision Workshop

The Supervisor Workshop will be held from July 11 to 13, 2008, at the Naza Hotel Melaka. Participants can check-in the hotel anytime after 3.00pm. The Workshop starts at 8.30pm after dinner.

Directions to the workshop

After the toll at Air Keroh, follow the main road heading towards Pusat Bandar Melaka and head towards Melaka Sentral/Tesco area. At the Melaka Sentral/Tesco junction drive through the traffic lights and turn left at the next light into Jalan Tun Perak. Do not turn left into Jalan Panglima Awang, at the Melaka Sentral/Tesco junction, as Jalan Tun Ali is a one-way street. Take left into Jalan Tun Ali and the hotel is just after the junction. Parking is at the rear.

This map is interactive. You can zoom in/out as you please to see more detail.

View Larger Map

Supervision Workshop at Universiti Malaysia Pahang

The Centre was invited to co-organise and facilitate the supervision workshop of Universiti Malaysia Pahang. The workshop was held from June 13-15, 2008 at the Summerset Resort, Kuala Rompin, Pahang.



Presentations were given by the Dean, Deputy Dean, and guest lecturer, Dr. Shamsuddin Baharin. There were about 25 participants from the UMP. It was officiated by the new Dean of UMP's Graduate Centre.



Two presentations were also given by UMP's professors Dr. Idris and Dr. Abdullah.

Graduate Month 2008

This year marks the fourth Graduate Month which begins on 30th June, 2008 to 25th July, 2008. Many activities have been slotted for the month. As usual, there will be the exhibition booths where all faculties will promote their research and graduate students activities. The month will be filled with the theses competition, poster competition.

There will be theses workshops, supervision workshops and several talks slotted in.

This year will debut the international cultural gala and the graduate awards night. The month will be tentatively officiated by a board member of the University.

Be part of the month, come and participate.