This article recounts how during COVID-19, the author's fine arts class was forced into an online mode. The old class design, which was based on physical classrooms and physical locations, was now unsuitable for online teaching. With Malaysian education's emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and art dismissed as a minor…

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-racial country, with a multi-religious and multi-cultural people as a result. Despite its diversified nature, Malaysia is a country that constitutionally acknowledges Islam as the official religion, and all affairs pertaining to Islam are at the highest priority. The key concerns that may be raised are: What…

This paper describes how various initiatives to develop SoTL culture can be inspired by the eight steps of Kotter's model of organizational change. The purpose of each step is to provide a set of probing questions for institutional leaders, academic developers, and faculty leaders on their roles to support this enculturation. Mapping Kotter's…

Globally, malnutrition is an issue that has never been overcome, even after a series of efforts by experts, which have never been impressive. The world's malnutrition burden remains unsatisfactory since malnutrition is solely responsible for more illnesses than other reasons. Malnutrition continues to be a significant problem in Malaysia. The most…

This paper shares an innovative methodology to 'co-create' a curriculum with eleven international community development organisations from seven countries to prepare undergraduate students for international work-integrated learning activities. The co-creation process was complex, messy, and always evolving. Here we reflect on and document the…

Demand for elite English private schools overseas is increasing and their numbers have risen rapidly in the first two decades of this century. With little research focussed on this type of international school, Bunnell (2008) discusses their first ten years, and the reasoning behind their initial appearance in Thailand. In this paper I examine…

Qualifications frameworks are tools for describing qualifications of an education or training system by classifying them into levels. Each level provides a clear description of what the holder of a qualification knows, understands and is able to do. They are important tools for making qualifications transparent and comprehensible, within and…

Building on four years of stocktaking and the 2018 Guidelines on Developing Qualifications Frameworks these Guidelines capture an important way forward to accelerate implementation of qualifications frameworks and quality assurance at subject level. The new Guidelines aim to provide a reference document for Member States to operationalize their…

Higher Education (HE) plays an active role in nation building by developing and transforming the human capital holistically. This lifelong endeavour is by no means smooth sailing as HEs have to face many challenges. One prominent challenge is of university ranking, which is highly Westernized and exceedingly quantitative. "Creatical…

In 2014, the Ministry of Education initiated Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) pilot project at public universities in Malaysia. Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) was selected among three public universities to develop the university's own MOOC. This pilot project is one of the initiatives by the Malaysian government to support the ninth shift of…

A standard equation on teaching workload calculation in the previous academic setting only includes the contact hours with students through lecture, tutorial, laboratory and in-person consultation (i.e. one-to-one final year project consultation). This paper discusses teaching workload factors according to the current higher-education setting.…

The workforce of today and tomorrow, particularly graduates are likely to experience more challenges as the availability of permanent jobs are getting sparse. This is partly due to automatisation as well as technological development. However, with automatisation and technological development, new types of occupations have emerged, mainly related…

In a context of rapid economic growth, skills development systems have become increasingly important to countries in Southeast Asia in response to skills gaps generated by changing labour-market conditions. Countries in the region have no alternative but to invest in the development and maintenance of these systems. This paper asserts that in…

This article offers a global overview of the burgeoning field of micro-credentials and their relationship to lifelong learning, employability and new models of digital education. Although there is no globally accepted definition of micro-credentials, the term indicates smaller units of study, which are usually shorter than traditional forms of…

Telecentres in the 21st century may be able to improve standard of living, quality of life, and stability of knowledge for the rural population. The role of telecentres is widely increasing in developing political and management awareness, economic, socio-culture, technology, education and regulation awareness in rural communities. Telecentres in…